Polycom promises collaboration at half the bandwidth with Open Telepresence Experience 300
JUNE 7, 2010 -- Polycom Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM) has unveiled the Polycom Open Telepresence Experience (OTX) 300. The immersive telepresence platform is designed to deliver true-to-life collaboration, including full 1080p video at up to half the bandwidth of comparable systems, and the lowest total cost of ownership.
Said Andrew Miller, president and CEO of Polycom, "Using telepresence, Polycom customers save millions of dollars a year by improving productivity and reducing the need to travel. In addition, we estimate a mid-sized enterprise will spend up to $2.1 million less in the first year of a typical Polycom telepresence deployment -- including equipment, bandwidth, services and maintenance -- versus a comparable deployment from Cisco."
The Polycom OTX 300 supports high-definition (HD) video using up to 50 percent less bandwidth than competing offerings through Polycom's implementation of H.264 High Profile, a new standards-based video compression technology that Polycom asserts is available only from the company.
According to the company, other benefits of the Polycom OTX 300 series include:
- Effective collaboration across distances: The system provides an immersive experience, including the benefits of conversational stereo audio, full 1080p video, and HD content sharing on monitors that automatically rise on demand -- all protected with Polycom’s Lost Packet Recovery technology.
- Room flexibility: The multifunctional design is optimized for across-the-table multi-media experiences when meeting face-to-face or live over video. This helps maximize worker productivity, room use, and real estate investments by supporting a range of business applications beyond telepresence meetings (i.e., in-room presentations).
- Investment protection through standards-based interoperability: Polycom says its system provides seamless connectivity with the estimated 2 million standards-based telepresence and video conferencing endpoints in use today.
- Native integration with unified communications platforms: As part of the Polycom Open Collaboration Network, Polycom telepresence offerings support integration with a variety of UC and networking platforms. At launch, Polycom OTX 300 will support native integration with Microsoft UC environments (Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 and Microsoft Exchange), including the Polycom Conferencing for Outlook solution that makes visual communications simple to schedule and use within the natural workflow of Microsoft Outlook.
- International design appeal and minimal room modification requirements: The Polycom OTX 300 features a design that provides a consistent room-to-room experience and natural collaboration that allows users to focus on interaction with others (see photo). Front and rear environmental walls and an optimized lighting package are designed to improve acoustic and visual quality and minimize room modification requirements. The architecture can be upgraded with new technology as well.
- Global service, support, and availability: Polycom telepresence systems are available globally through certified Polycom channel and service partners with complementary supporting implementation and managed telepresence services. The Polycom OTX 300 will begin shipping in Q3 2010.