Polycom Sets New Standard for Room Telepresence System Capabilities

Polycom boosts standard features on room telepresence systems delivering the industry’s only UltimateHD user experience at half the bandwidth across entire HDX product line


PLEASANTON, Calif. - Apr 06, 2010 : Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice communications solutions, today announced expanded standard capabilities for its entire line of standards-based Polycom HDX room telepresence systems, including 1080p high definition (HD) video at up to 50 percent less bandwidth, to ensure an optimal, UltimateHD™ user experience.

Unique to Polycom, UltimateHD combines industry-leading high-definition video, voice and content-sharing capabilities to deliver a life-like collaboration experience that enables people to work across distances as effectively as if they were in the same room, which can improve organizational productivity, accelerate decision making and reduce costs.

"Customers are embracing visual communications faster than ever, extending its use across their organizations, and looking to integrate video into their unified communications environments," said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video communications, Polycom. "To support this growth, the expanding applications, and to ensure the best possible user experience, Polycom is making our industry-leading UltimateHD capabilities standard across all of our Polycom HDX room telepresence systems. This includes support for our Polycom Open Collaboration Network partners, beginning with native integration in Microsoft UC environments."

"As video conferencing is being rapidly adopted across our company, the quality of the experience is more important than ever," said Jonathan Zwang, senior director of technology services, Tyco. "Polycom is relentless in raising the bar by continuing to enhance its high definition video and audio capabilities, which, in turn, drives even greater adoption across our company. With Polycom’s interoperability and continued integration with Microsoft and others, we can have confidence that our existing technology infrastructure investments are protected."

The new portfolio of Polycom HDX room telepresence solutions (6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 models) now features many industry-leading and industry-first capabilities as standard features, including:

HD Video with Lowest Bandwidth Requirements (Industry First) - All systems are now 1080p capable and include support for H.264 High Profile, a breakthrough video compression technology that delivers HD video quality at significantly lower bandwidth than competing systems (up to 50 percent bandwidth savings).
HD Voice for Unrivalled Audio Clarity (Industry Leading) - Systems include standard support for Polycom StereoSurround™, super-wideband stereo audio (22kHz), including conversational stereo. This spatial audio can dramatically improve comprehension during telepresence meetings by helping people easily distinguish between multiple speakers - especially when people are speaking at the same time. A few competing systems offer stereo audio - but it is limited to simple stereo pass through from shared content only (i.e. when playing a DVD or stereo CD).
HD Content Sharing - Multiple Methods Support the Broadest Applications (Industry First) - Systems enable users to share content, using standards-based H.239 technology, both through wired and wireless (using wireless broadband connection) options form their laptop. Polycom HDX 8000™ and 9000 systems also now include Polycom People On Content, a breakthrough "green screen" (chroma key) technology, also known as the "weatherman" feature, which allows content to be displayed behind the presenter and sends both people and content in a single video stream to any standards-based system. Additionally, Polycom HDX 7000™, 8000 and 9000 solutions now support 720p at 30 frames per second (fps) in the content stream, while maintaining 720p or 1080p HD resolution for the people stream.
Native Integration for Microsoft Unified Communications Environments (Industry First) - Systems now include native integration for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Polycom plans to add standard support for additional Polycom Open Collaboration Network UC environments in the future.
Breakthrough Quality of Experience (Industry First) - Systems feature Polycom Lost Packet Recovery (LPR) technology, which ensures a consistent, high-quality experience over best-effort networks and public internet connections – even during packet loss.
In addition, Polycom also announced a new all-in-one room telepresence system that is quick to install and set up for a list price of US$9,999. The Polycom HDX 6000™ View Media Center features an HDX 6000 with EagleEye™ View Camera integrated with 42" HD LCD monitor on a table-top stand, a high-fidelity 60-watt sound system with built-in subwoofer, integrated microphones and remote control.

Pricing and availability
The new Polycom HDX room telepresence portfolio (6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 series) is orderable now and available this quarter. Polycom HDX room system pricing begins at US$4,999. Multipoint capability can be added to Polycom HDX 7000, 8000 and 9000 systems as an option.

About the Polycom Open Collaboration Network
Leading unified communications and networking providers have joined the Polycom Open Collaboration Network to provide open and interoperable collaboration solutions that give customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their unified communications environment. The Polycom Open Collaboration Network enables Polycom to deliver its productivity-enhancing and cost-saving telepresence, video and voice collaboration products as an integrated part of core unified communication environments, making the technologies easily accessible as part of the everyday workflow within a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.

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