It may be too early to tell, but chances are good that vendors of traditional video conferencing systems will play a significant role in influencing how video is woven into next generation integrated communications platforms.

The bridging of the worlds of online video and traditional video conferencing have been taking shape for literally years as vendors of online video solutions have looked for ways to attach their solutions to video conferencing units. This vision was validated earlier this year when Polycom (News - Alert) acquired online video solutions provider Accordent for $50 million. And the drumbeat for integration continued this week at the Infocomm trade show held this week in Orlando, Florida.

Multiple vendors at the show heralded new ways to link the world of traditional video conferencing with the potential ubiquity made possible by online distribution.

But perhaps no single product announcement at the show captured the new forces driving unified communications better than a series of product updates announced by BurstPoint Networks (News - Alert) – a relatively small provider of online video solutions that is working hard to position its “Video Communications Platform” as a gateway that helps companies manage and distribute video conferencing content in online environments.

In this week’s product update, the company unveiled plans to both offer capabilities for distributing content to mobile devices and for partnering with the Highwinds (News - Alert) content distribution network to offer hosted solutions that can handle the distribution of content to far-flung destinations.

Taken on their own, the product features highlighted by BurstPoint do not necessarily introduce revolutionary thinking into the world of business video. Many vendors, like Qumu and Ignite, already talk aggressively about opportunities for deploying video in mobile environments. Likewise, the idea of using hosted video solutions for distributing business video is a field well-trod by providers of software-as-a service alternatives like Brightcove, Ooyala and Soreneson Media. The partnership between Highwinds and BurstPoint does push the conversation about hosted solutions forward but does not – in itself – fundamentally change the tone of industry discussion about the increasing importance of hosted solutions in the enterprise.

Yet, the BurstPoint introduction is revealing because it helps identify some key areas of product innovation – such as mobile distribution and software-as-a-service adoption – and makes it clear that these offerings can be integrated with existing video conferencing solutions in a straight-forward way.

For those watching the evolution of the business video sector, product announcements like these should make one sit up and take notice. Whether the world of traditional video conferencing is ready or not, vendors of online video solutions are now lining up to develop ways that help traditional video conferencing – characterized by some of the stodgy, lumbering sector of the video communications business – begin to better leverage some of the innovation and vitality of the online video sector.

And that marriage is the one that promises to kick-start the development of the long-discussed unified communications sector in a major way. Combine the immediacy and quality experience of video conferencing with the software development versatility of the online environment, and you have the ingredients for pushing forward a new vision for an integrated, unified communications platform that can give executives a single platform that can support a range of communications options.

Where that will take us still is unclear. What is certain is that the bridges being built between the worlds of video conferencing and online video are setting the stage for a new round of unified communications development that will create more widely accessible venues for engaging networked business communications.

Steve Vonder Haar is Research Director and Founder of Interactive Media Strategies (News - Alert) and is responsible for the firm's coverage of the enterprise Web Communications sector. To read more of his articles, please visit please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell