Wow, it’s 25 years for Polycom… and just think how the videoconferencing industry has changed.
Everything changes with time, of course.
"Work," for example, has drastically changed: from a place we went to each weekday, it’s now something that we do, irrespective of time, location and devices. Traditional offices and meeting rooms give way to open, team and mobile spaces as well as small ”huddle rooms.” All of this presents new challenges (and new opportunities) for work collaboration.
Recognizing this, to coincide with its quarter-of-a-century anniversary, Polycom unveils collaboration solutions focused on advancing the workplace of the future within organisations across the globe, enabling customers to collaborate more effectively across a new and broader array of workspaces.
Peter Leav, Polycom's President and Chief Executive Officer, says "As we celebrate our 25th year of innovation and leadership, we are announcing breakthrough collaboration experiences that uniquely place people at the heart of collaboration enabling them to work better, smarter, and more efficiently. We are delivering the workplace of the future today."
Polycom RealPresence Trio is the first smart hub for group collaboration that transforms the iconic three-point conference phone into a voice, content-sharing and video system that can fit into any team environment. Meetings start quickly with one-touch integration with calendars and participants can easily pair mobile devices or laptops to the RealPresence Trio solution to share content in HD quality. Add a webcam and now RealPresence Trio is a full visual collaboration solution that turns any space into a work hub. Easy to deploy, RealPresence Trio technology has broad interoperability and integration across multiple UC platforms including Skype for Business and Microsoft Lync, BroadSoft and others.
Research conducted by Polycom illustrates that while more traditional conference room settings are used in greater numbers, flexible collaborative environments are preferred for more open and effective collaboration. Polycom RealPresence Centro is the industry's first collaboration solution purpose-built to put people at the centre of collaboration. RealPresence Centro was built with instinctual human behaviour in mind - people feel more comfortable communicating and collaborating in the round. Polycom's patented 360-degree voice and video technology automatically tracks the speaker, while also showing the entire meeting space on the same screen. RealPresence Centro puts those on the far end of the call in the middle of the conversation enabling deeper engagement, quicker decisions and better outcomes. The intuitive touch screens make it simple to get a meeting started on time every time. The RealPresence Centro solution also offers wireless pairing with many devices, and has unique built-in proximity sensors to enable responsive and intelligent interaction.
With a focus on simplicity and affordability, RealPresence Debut brings enterprise grade video collaboration to the huddle room-- as well as for small or medium sized businesses with limited IT resources. Set-up time takes just minutes and the user interface has been designed with simplicity in mind to enable anyone to start and manage a call. The all-in-one design incorporates Polycom's NoiseBlock technology, and a pan, tilt and zoom camera and 1080p quality for video and content. RealPresence Debut is cloud-ready and can easily connect into Polycom's RealPresence Cloud services to ensure organisations large and small may purchase and deploy it easily \with no IT support needed.
Polycom RealPresence Medialign, a turnkey Polycom Group Series solution for multiple work environments - Polycom RealPresence Medialign enables consistent collaboration solutions across the enterprise without the need to alter the room in any way. RealPresence Medialign has a modern, all-in-one design and is the only solution that features Polycom's industry-leading and patented voice, content-sharing/management and video technology. RealPresence Medialign technology can be quickly assembled and installed without tools and interoperates with the broadest array of UC platforms in the market. Like every RealPresence Group Series solution, RealPresence Medialign features unique NoiseBlock technology, Polycom Acoustic Fence audio technology and Polycom EagleEye Producer and EagleEye Director camera.
Polycom Concierge is the first enterprise software that instantly connects your device to solutions across Polycom's collaboration portfolio for ease of conference control. Polycom is introducing the industry's first enterprise software that automatically connects to personal devices, including personal PCs and smartphones to Polycom solutions. The Polycom Concierge technology enables user devices to be at the centre of meeting control, wirelessly connecting to Polycom solutions including RealPresence Group Series, RealPresence Medialign, Polycom Open Telepresence Experience rooms and RealPresence Immersive Studio[systems. Upon entering the room, users will experience familiar interface for conference control and content sharing, personalising the group meeting. Participants can easily invite additional team members; adjust the volume and far-end camera angles or mute active participants all from an application on their own device. Polycom Concierge technology allows users to share content from their devices and even see content shared from others - up close on their own device. Users can also easily connect to a call right from their calendar from any room.
New Solutions for Microsoft O365 Environments Polycom VVX* business media phones will be the first phones to support and interoperate with the forthcoming cloud voice service offering as part of Microsoft Office 365.
"People work differently today. And they work in different places. Ideally, technology should allow customers to make any location a mobile workstation. But few solutions on the market today address the business and workflow issues that come with the next generation workplace," said Ira M. Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research. "Polycom's new releases challenge the notion that work happens in traditional meeting rooms only. Instead, these solutions bring collaboration to the places customers want to work including small meeting rooms and informal meeting spaces."
OK, he probably gets paid to say that…but nonetheless you can’t argue the fact that the workplace is changing and Polycom is doing the right thing by creating new approaches and new kit to address the way we now work.
Go Polycom Marks 25 Years of Industry Leadership by Announcing Innovative Solutions
