Author Archives: pbravin

Thoughts for Thanksgiving from Dr. Z…

For some it’s about tradition & delicious food. For others it’s about family & friends. The best part is the connections we make and the memories we build along the way. Here’s a special shout-out to our amazing video interpreters and our staff who work 25/8/366 to ensure the best in video communication and to our video communication users for choosing us to be a part of your lives. Happy Thanksgiving from Dr. Z and us all at ZVRS!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Thanksgiving is Upon Us-Recommended iOS Apps!

Dr. Z is not jumping the gun for Thanksgiving. It is an important holiday where everyone gets together. He is now helping you all prepare for this holiday the high-tech way–using apps! He found a cool website (link) which suggests some apps (not all of them are free.)

The apps are as follows:

Clear+ to make lists
Peapod to go food shopping online (not in all areas)
Butterball Cookbook Plus – Recipes for Thanksgiving & Every Day Occasions (yummy!)
Gluten-Free Recipes by iCookbook™
Thanksgiving Menu Maker from Fine Cooking
KitchenPad™ Timer (so your turkey won’t get burned)
Snapguide (how to guides)
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade® 2013
NFL Mobile
BFAds.net Black Friday (to get a head start on holiday shopping)

Enjoy! Dr. Z does not get a commission nor is responsible for anything that occurs as a result of his recommending such apps (that includes football upsets.)

By the way, for more information on the NEW Z5 MAX, click this link.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Editorial #145: Look–If AT&T and Verizon Can Be Interoperable, Why Can’t The VRS Industry Do It?

Recently, ATT and Verizon announced plans to make their new LTE networks interoperable (link). They are major giants in the industry and see a need for this. The VRS industry, while getting better, is still not 100% interoperable. We continue to see things like poor video connections, black screens, and address books that cannot be ported.

Dr. Z is challenging the VRS industry to move on—we all have to deal with a dominant provider who is causing all this. While they all including the dominant provider have been meeting periodically on SIP interoperability–there are areas within SIP interoperability that do not necessarily cover things like address book portability and video quality. The dominant provider uses proprietary (non-standard) codecs that affect video quality. The FCC is trying to let the VRS industry work among themselves on this–while waiting for the new things such as the Video Technology Access Reference Platform developed by the FCC which will not come into reality for at least a year or two. Until then, we will continue not to be functionally equivalent. This is 2014, not the 19th century. And we continue to be second class citizens because 100% interoperability is still not here yet. Is anyone listening?

When interoperability issues are resolved, we will finally achieve functional equivalence.

By the way, for more information on the NEW Z5 MAX, click this link.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Why Don’t Deaf People Use Twitter? Dr. Z Does and It’s Great!

Dr. Z has been using Twitter for some time–it’s a great resource. But we all know deaf people don’t use it–they use Facebook, iMessage, VRS and other tools to communicate and read.

Dr. Z thinks Twitter is like a visual radio. The problem with Twitter is that it is a bit confusing to use and learn at the beginning.

ZVRS uses Twitter and Facebook to communicate with the public.

Dr. Z will give you tips on Twitter for the next couple months.

As a beginning, you don’t need to set up a Twitter account to use Twitter. To follow CNN on Twitter, simply type twitter.com/CNN. For ESPN SportsCenter, type twitter.com/sportscenter.

In the next couple weeks or so, you can set up a Twitter account to communicate with airlines, department stores. They respond to Twitter better than email.

ZVRS has hardware and software to help you communicate.

For Z5 for your smartphone or desktop, click this Z5 Software/Apps

For more information on the NEW Z5 MAX, click this link.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

NEW Z5 MAX Sizzles! Flying Off the Shelves!!

After months of research and deciding what you, the consumer, wanted the best in video communication, ZVRS put together the Z5 Max–it’s a videophone with a browser!

Before we knew it, the Z5 MAX has turned into a very HOT item, popular with our video communication users. With Firefly, which flashes for incoming calls, it is a complete unit! It also is a touchscreen, so you can tap on the screen to make calls!

Why did we include an Internet browser? Simple, how often in the middle of a call do you go to your computer to get information you need for the call. With Z5 Max, no running around to your computer–the browser is right there. Also, it has a hard-wired connection so your video communication won’t be interrupted by the spikes and valleys of wifi.

Dr. Z has one unit on his desk and he LOVES it!

For more information on the NEW Z5 MAX, click this link.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

NEW Z5 Mobile Number Lookup! What is it? GPS to Make Calls!

What is the Number Lookup feature on the Z5 Mobile App from ZVRS?

No more looking up the phone number using Safari!

Just type the place you want to call in the Number Lookup feature and your device will use GPS to locate the place

Then just click the name on the list and you will be connected!

The slide show below will show you how EASY it is!

For more information on the NEW Z5 Mobile, click this link!

To download the NEW Z5 Mobile, click this link!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

[slider id=’6210′ name=’Number Lookup’ size=’full’]

VRSInteroperabilityNOW! Why Wait? Get NEW Z5 Mobile NOW!

Why wait for videomail in December? You can have it NOW, TODAY with the NEW Z5 Mobile for iOS!

You can get videomail on your mobile phone or your desktop.

There’s more!

You can use the Number Lookup feature. What is it? It is a built in feature of the Z5 Mobile that will give you a list of phone number(s) of a place or area that you type into the search bar. Click the number and you will be connected to a ZVRS interpreter right away!

You can have call alert using a flashing light! That’s the Firefly for you!

For more information on Z5 Mobile, click this link.

For more information on Firefly, click this link.

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Editorial #144: ZVRS, Convo, Purple, CAAG and Global on VRSInteroperabilityNOW!

On September 19, 2014, Sheri Farinha, CEO of NorCal Sevices for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, hosted a town hall on VRS Interoperability with engineers from ZVRS, Convo, Purple, CAAG and Global. Sorenson was invited but chose not to participate. They covered a wide range of issues and said engineers from all companies are working together with the goal of interoperability.They meet via video every week or so and in person every 6 months or so.

Interoperability is like a handshake. When you have a handshake, you acknowledge that you can communicate. With videophones, when one videophone “handshakes” with another videophone, communication takes place.

You can watch a video of the town hall with this link. Many thanks to iDeafNews for broadcasting the event and putting this on their website.

For more information go to this link: #VRSInteroperabiltyNOW

When interoperability issues are resolved, we will achieve functional equivalence.

Tell your family and friends about this!

Thanks Sheri and iDeafNews!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Editorial #143: VP Blurred Picture? Can’t Connect? Live Town Hall! – September 19, 2014

You asked for it! You got it! Many of you have commented on issues related to your VP when there were problems with videomail interoperability last month. Most of the comments were related to videomail, but some of you said you couldn’t connect, had a blurred picture.

You can find out why! On Friday, September 19, 2014 (8-10PM Eastern Time/5-7PM Pacific Time), you will see a live panel of VRS engineers representing VRS providers to discuss this issues and other issues related to why your VP is not working the way you expect it to. All of the VRS providers have been invited to this event. Sheri Farinha, CEO of NorCal Services for Deaf & Hard of Hearing will moderating this town hall. Here are the links to view the live town hall on your device or computer:

Link #1
Link #2

For more information go to this link: #VRSInteroperabiltyNOW

The purpose of this is to highlight issues related to interoperability. When interoperability issues are resolved, we will achieve functional equivalence.

Tell your family and friends about this!

iDeafNews will be providing the technical support for live streaming.

Thanks Sheri and iDeafNews!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development

Editorial #142: #VRSinteroperabilityNOW! Town Hall-September 19, 2014

Sheri Farinha, CEO of NorCal Services for Deaf & Hard of Hearing will moderate a LIVE Town Hall meeting on VRS interoperability on Friday, September 19th from 5-8 PM Pacific Time (or 8-11 PM Eastern Time). This event will be live streamed.

For more information go to this link: #VRSInteroperabiltyNOW

Representatives who are engineers from VRS providers will be on hand to discuss interoperability issues and how the industry is working together to address them. The town hall will be live streamed and the instructions to view it will be posted a few days before the event.

The purpose of this is to highlight issues related to interoperability. When interoperability issues are resolved, we will achieve functional equivalence.

Thanks Sheri!

Dr. Z cares about your communication access.

Disclosure: Dr. Z (Philip W. Bravin) is associated with CSDVRS, currently its Vice-President of Business Development