Polycom has joined forces with a number of services providers to create a consortium that it hopes will drive telepresence and video conferencing adoption in businesses through openness and interoperability.
Called the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC) it will provide what Polycom calls a, "global standards-based, multi-vendor, multi-network visual communication exchange", meaning companies will be able to use products from wide range of suppliers without being locked in to that company’s platform. The group will support telepresence and room-based systems as well as desktop and mobile platforms.
Describing this as the biggest news to hit the UC industry in a decade, and one that will change it forever, Andrew Miller, CEO of Polycom, said: "We want people to be able to use video conferencing as easily as they use their mobile phones and hope that this consortium will help break down the barriers that have blocked adoption of video conferencing in the past."
The deal will initially focus on the two million standards-based video systems in use today and will eventually be extended to include non-standards-based systems.
The service providers on-board from the start are: Airtel, AT&T, BCS Global, BT Conferencing, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, Global Crossing, Glowpoint, iFormata Communications, Masergy, Orange Business Services, PCCW Global, Telefonica, Telstra and Verizon.
"These are the founding members, they are the most strategic partners that will come together to formulate the recipe on how to architect the technical and commercial terms to allow us all to operate under one unified umbrella. This is the team that will define the plan going forward and will be set-up as a standalone non-profit entity that will be governed by the members themselves," Polycom’s John Poole told CBR.
"The name suggests openness and this group will set the terms of membership and publish them and it will be open to any other provider in the world willing to join and integrate with the terms the founding members have established," he added.
Miller added that he expects to see the first results of the consortium’s efforts by the middle of 2012.
Polycom has also announced an extension of its alliance with Microsoft that will see Polycom’s technology integrate with Redmond’s. Called Rally it will see Polycom HD end-points integrate with Microsoft’s Lync platform and its Office 365 cloud offering. It will be available during Q4 2011.
