Polycom Unveils 360-Degree Panoramic Video Solutions

Polycom Unveils Innovative 360-Degree Panoramic Video Solutions Built for Microsoft® Lync® Environments

• The new Polycom® CX5500 and CX5100 Unified Conference Stations are the industry’s first solutions to deliver 1080p HD video and a 360-degree panoramic view of all meeting participants in the conference room with Polycom’s legendary HD audio

• Polycom achieves Lync 2013 qualification on a broad selection of phone and conferencing solutions; on track to achieve full Lync 2013 interoperability across its full portfolio this year

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open, standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), has unveiled the industry’s first 360-degree, panoramic 1080p HD video collaboration solutions custom-built for Microsoft® Lync® ® 2013. The new Polycom® CX5500 and CX5100 Unified Conference Stations are designed to deliver a groundbreaking around-the-table experience for all participants, whether they’re in the room or thousands of miles away.

At the Microsoft 2013 Worldwide Partner Conference, Polycom also announced that it has received Lync 2013 qualification for its full portfolio of Polycom® VVX® Business Media PhonesPolycom® VVX® Business Media Phones. These announcements further the extensive partnership between the two companies, building on Polycom’s industry-leading portfolio of 40 video, voice and content sharing solutions that are interoperable or optimised to work with Lync today.

“The strategic alliance we’ve built with Microsoft over the past several years continues to deliver innovative collaboration solutions that provide Polycom and Lync customers with an unrivalled experience,” said A.E. Natarajan, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Engineering, Polycom. “Our custom-built solutions for Lync such as the new panoramic video collaboration experience, and our leading portfolio of Lync interoperable offerings, enable Polycom and Microsoft to win business from organisation seeking unified communications and collaboration solutions that empower people to collaborate however, wherever and whenever they want.”

The new Polycom® CX5500 delivers enterprise-grade video and audio collaboration capabilities in an easy-to-use system that can be plugged into a USB port on a laptop, and it also doubles as a SIP audio conference phone providing the industry’s best audio quality. The Polycom® CX5100 provides the same HD panoramic USB video experience for customers who don’t require standalone conference phone connectivity.

“In the pervasive video era, it is all about the user experience. The new centre-of-table, panoramic video solutions from Polycom will provide Lync customers with a richer, more interactive collaboration experience,” said Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research.

The new additions to Polycom’s CX seriesPolycom’s CX series of Lync-optimised solutions retain the unique around-the-table, 360-degree, panoramic experience and delivers more than twice the HD video image quality, double the frame rate for life-like motion handling, and Polycom’s HD Voice for the highest quality audio while adding a new interface and design and a privacy cap.

For organisations with Microsoft Lync- environments, the new Polycom CX5500 and CX5100 Unified Conference Stations enhance communications and collaboration by providing:

• More productive and efficient meetings. The Polycom CX5500 or CX5100 is placed in the centre of a meeting room table, enabling natural conversation that addresses the need to engage simultaneously with those in the room (around the table) and other participants who are remote. Both systems deliver 1080p active speaker video that automatically tracks the flow of conversations at a fluid 30 frames per second, while offering a 360-degree panoramic view of the room. Conversations remain crystal clear with high-fidelity Polycom HD Voice.

• User-friendly design. An all-new user interface and system design makes it easy to launch or join a call directly from the Lync user environment – users simply connect the CX5500 and CX5100 via USB to a computer that is running Lync. The CX5500 and CX5100 systems can also be used in combination with the recently announced Lync Room System, bringing together centre-of-table 360-degree cameras360-degree cameras with a built-for-Lync video room system that includes touchscreen monitors and a tabletop touch controller.

• Lower cost of ownership. The Polycom CX5500 functions as both an HD video collaboration environment and a fully featured SIP conference phone, which reduces capital costs for organisations needing both. Also, because it’s easy to use, provision and configure, companies can save on training and IT costs.

The introduction of new solutions custom built for Lync, and the continued expansion of Polycom’s Lync-interoperable portfolio, reflect the strength of the Polycom and Microsoft alliance.

Polycom and Microsoft: Better Together

Polycom also announced it earned Lync 2013 qualification for Polycom® VVX® 300, VVX 310, VVX 400 and VVX 410 Business Media PhonesPolycom® ® VVX® ® 300, VVX 310, VVX 400 and VVX 410 Business Media Phones. Software updates for Polycom VVX Business Media Phones (Polycom UC Software v 5.0) in Lync environments have new features including improved call management such as call park or call transfer; and the ability to search address book contacts.

As announced in Marchannounced in March, Polycom plans to deliver a software extension to the Polycom® ® RealPresence® ® Platform later in 2013 that will enable interoperability between Lync 2013 and the full portfolio of Polycom standards-based video collaboration and content sharing solutions.

The new solutions join the more than 40 Polycom offerings that work with Microsoft Lync 2010 or 2013 For more information, visit www.polycom.asia/microsoft

Availability
The Polycom® CX5100 Unified Conference Station is scheduled to be available worldwide in September. The Polycom® CX5500 Unified Conference Station (with SIP Telephony) is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 2013. For Lync users, Polycom UC Software v. 5.0 is scheduled to be available as a free upgrade in August for customers on maintenance support of VVX Business Media Phones. For more visit www.polycom.asia.

About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.asia or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

NOTE: The product plans, specifications, and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and related specifications referenced herein are not guaranteed and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

ENDS

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