Polycom Video Infrastructure Innovation Supports Broader Visual Communication and Video-Enabled UC Networks

Polycom enhanced infrastructure helps customers improve network efficiency and fault tolerance while giving network managers greater control, flexibility and expanded ROI reporting tools.

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video and voice communication solutions, today announced enhanced management and infrastructure solutions to drive broader deployments of visual communication and video-enabled unified communications (UC) networks that include telepresence, video conferencing and desktop video collaboration. The enhanced platforms deliver greater network efficiency, improved reliability and fault tolerance, and will allow customers to more effectively provision and manage broad-scale visual communication networks and video-enabled Microsoft unified communication environments.

“Visual communication is a mission-critical application for many customers, and Polycom’s standards-based solution is the only fully redundant and most network efficient, reliable and scalable platform for broad-scale visual communications as well as video-enabled unified communications networks,” said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video solutions at Polycom. “Polycom is listening to customers and delivering industry-leading solutions that address the real-world needs of users and network administrators. And through our Polycom Open Collaboration Network (POCN) partners, we are delivering integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions that provide customers with open interoperability, flexibility and investment protection, such as the new, expanded solution for Microsoft environments.”

The expanded capabilities are enabled by enhancements to the Polycom Converged Management Application™ (CMA™), a comprehensive management and provisioning platform supporting Polycom and other standards-based telepresence and video conferencing endpoints and infrastructure solutions, and the Polycom Distributed Media Application™ (DMA™), a unique network-based application for managing and distributing multipoint calls across conference platforms that provides higher network scalability, reliability and redundancy.

Polycom DMA 2.0 enhancements include:

* Intelligent call routing for improved quality of experience and network efficiency – The Polycom solution intelligently routes multi-point conferences on the network based on the geographical location of participants to deliver more efficient bandwidth use and a better quality of experience.
* Expanded fault tolerance for improved reliability – The Polycom solution provides greater fault tolerance and reliability by routing calls across bridging resources based on location and resource availability and by automatically moving conferences in the event of a disruption, such as a power failure.
* Extended interoperability and UC integration – In addition to supporting H.323, Polycom DMA now also supports SIP for extended interoperability across networks within UC environments.
* Simultaneous support for both scheduled and ad-hoc conferences – The Polycom DMA now allows organizations to migrate to ad-hoc video services affordably by supporting both ad-hoc and scheduled requirements simultaneously on Polycom RMX bridges, eliminating the need for separate, dedicated resources.

Polycom DMA 2.0 and CMA 5.0 enhancements supporting Microsoft unified communications include:

* Unified Communications integration – Microsoft Office Communications Server – Polycom has expanded its integrated solution for Microsoft Office Communications Server to simplify provisioning and management of Polycom systems in a Microsoft UC environment, to allow users to easily launch Polycom video solutions from presence-enabled Microsoft applications, to easily schedule and join video meetings through Microsoft Outlook, and to support large-scale desktop video deployments. Additional information about Polycom’s expanded integration for Microsoft UC environments are outlined in a press release issued Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010, titled: “Polycom Delivers Breakthrough Video Integration for Microsoft Unified Communications Environments.”

Polycom CMA 5.0 enhancements include:

* Greater video network management control and flexibility – The Polycom solution provides more comprehensive management capabilities and a dramatically simplified and user-customizable interface that allows network administrators to more effectively monitor network and system usage, locate issues and address any problems.
* Expanded system and conference monitoring – Enhanced conference monitoring capabilities help ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for users. New workflows allow administrators to quickly locate and access key information, easily move between multiple conferences and control top-level functions including muting audio and video, and adding or removing participants.
* Broader Management Support for Polycom Systems – IT support teams now have full management and provisioning capabilities for the Polycom HDX 6000™ and HDX 6000 View™ room telepresence systems, and the Polycom QDX 6000™ standard definition video conferencing system, as well as management of the Polycom RMX 4000™ highly scalable multipoint conferencing platform.
* Reporting tools for monitoring usage, measuring ROI and billing – IT support teams can track and report usage of endpoints and bridging resources to asses utilization, show usage trends and measure return on investment. The enhanced reporting capabilities can also be used to determine billing for shared resources between departments, agencies, campuses, etc.

Availability:
Polycom CMA release 5.0 and Polycom DMA release 2.0 are scheduled for availability in April 2010.

Supporting Links:

* Polycom Telepresence and Video Conferencing Solutions Website and Photos on Flickr
* Follow Polycom on Twitter and Subscribe to Polycom News RSS

Tags / Keywords:
Polycom, telepresence, videoconferencing, collaboration, unified communications, UC, video conferencing, video communication, visual communication, Microsoft, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Microsoft OCS

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.