Polycom has announced a trio of new products as it looks to build on recent impressive financial results and carry the fight to unified communications giants such as Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft.
The video conferencing specialist is buoyant after an impressive run of financial results; its most recent figures revealed record revenue of £344m, up from $276m a year previously. Quarterly profit stood at $34m, compared to just $5m the year before. The firm’s share price has climbed 136% since October 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal.
First of these new products is the EagleEye Director. The hardware/software combination features dual cameras, voice-triangulation and face finding technology. The aim is to ensure that the speaker is always the one on-screen. Once a participant starts speaking the system waits for a few seconds before centring one of the cameras on them. The idea behind this is that the system will not cut to a participant if they are only speaking for a short period of time.
The company believes this makes for a much more personal experience, something which Daniel Weisbeck, VP EMEA marketing, told CBR was key to increasing adoption of UC systems. He said EagleEye Director removes the need to make camera adjustments or fiddle around with a remote control during a video conference.
Polycom has also tapped into the growing craze for UC on portable devices, particularly tablets and laptops. Its new Telepresence m100 software platform enables a user to be involved in a video conference irrespective of the device they are using.
In a similar way to Avaya’s Flare platform, m100 enables users to share content within a video conference. It can connect to any standards-based telepresence platform, Polycom says, and is compatible with most USB and embedded cameras.
It sits alongside Polycom’s recent m500 announcement, which runs on tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom.
Finally the company revealed a new HD desktop telepresence platform that it says uses 50% less bandwidth than similar products on the market. The HDX4500 is an all-in-one system, meaning there is no need for a second unit under the desk. The monitor is a 24" LCD device with connectivity options for laptops and PCs.
This system can integrate with other UC systems from the likes of Microsoft, HP, IBM, Juniper and Avaya.
It is this openness and interoperability that Weisbeck believes sets Polycom apart from others when it comes to the video conferencing market. "Using open standards means it doesn’t matter what device or software you’re using; our bridges talk to Cisco, Tandberg, Polycom. There’s no rip and replace, which improves TCO," he told CBR.
Weisbeck added that it is unlikely Polycom will follow Cisco and Avaya and release hardware with its software inbuilt. "We’re not going to develop things we’re not experts in; we’re about software," he said.
The EagleEye Director and the HDX4500 are available from £5,999 and £7,899, respectively, while Telepresence m100 will be available from June. Pricing has yet to be announced.
