In light of the recent spate of acquisitions in the industry, most recently Avaya’s acquisition of Radvision, Laura Shay, director, group product marketing, stresses Polycom’s independence. “We are the only independent left. We are taking the opportunity to be open, to stress interoperability,” Shay says.

The company is vested in standards, and while it has its proprietary products, the company wants potential customers to know that regardless of the videoconferencing products they already own, Polycom technology is designed to work with them, she says.

“As companies look to expand they don’t have to rip out and replace [still useful] products, says Shay.

She also stressed that Polycom is networking technology “agnostic.” “We work with Juniper, we work with Cisco, whatever they have,” she says.

Showcasing Interoperability at the Booth

In light of Polycom’s cooperative spirit, the company was showing products that integrate with other unified communications vendors, most notably IBM and Microsoft. In particular, the company was showcasing Polycom RealPresence Social, which includes video collaboration integration with IBM Sametime and IBM Connections. According to the company, Sametime users can join multi-party calls (or stick with one-to-one) by launching them within e-mail and “social business interfaces.” The company was also demonstrating its Polycom CX7000 unified group video collaboration system, which is built for integration with Microsoft Lync.

Smart Cameras and Whiteboards

The company was also showing its EagleEye Director, which automates camera views within a conference, focusing on the person speaking and when that person stands, switching automatically to a wide angle view. The solution uses pan, tilt and zoom cameras and works only with Polycom’s HDX series.

Also shown is the Polycom UC Board, which is a device that attaches monitor that can be configured to act as a blackboard or a whiteboard and can also feature presentations. Perfect for schools, users in different sites can share handwritten communications and other data.

About the author

Lisa Nadile - Managing Editor

Lisa Nadile is Managing Editor for TechDecisions. She has been a technology journalist for over twenty years and has never lost her love of technology and the way it changes (and improves) our lives. She has written for many magazines and websites on the development of computers and the Internet, and is enjoying her new mission in the audiovisual sector.