Polycom bolsters video net wares

PLEASANTON, CALIF. - After years of product acquisition and integration work, Polycom's goal of helping customers use video, audio and data conferencing on any network from just about any endpoint could finally be coming to fruition.

The company this week will roll out a variety of enhancements, from new appliance software to new videoconferencing endpoints, intended to ease customer management of conferencing resources, improve IP connections with lower bandwidth requirements, and simplify mixing of voice and video on a single call.

In 2001, Polycom acquired rival PictureTel and network equipment maker Accord Networks in an effort to provide a more rounded offering of voice, video and data collaboration products, although it's taken the better part of two years to get all the groups on the same page. The moves also helped set Polycom apart from competitors such as Tandberg and VCON, which offered only pieces of the puzzle, not the entire picture, experts say.

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PLEASANTON, CALIF. - After years of product acquisition and integration work, Polycom's goal of helping customers use video, audio and data conferencing on any network from just about any endpoint could finally be coming to fruition.

The company this week will roll out a variety of enhancements, from new appliance software to new videoconferencing endpoints, intended to ease customer management of conferencing resources, improve IP connections with lower bandwidth requirements, and simplify mixing of voice and video on a single call.

In 2001, Polycom acquired rival PictureTel and network equipment maker Accord Networks in an effort to provide a more rounded offering of voice, video and data collaboration products, although it's taken the better part of two years to get all the groups on the same page. The moves also helped set Polycom apart from competitors such as Tandberg and VCON, which offered only pieces of the puzzle, not the entire picture, experts say.

For network executives, the key features of the announcement are in the enhanced software for Polycom's multipoint control units (MCU), which connect multiple sites and round them into a single call. Version 5.0 of the software for the company's current MGC-100 and MGC-50 MCUs, as well as a new MGC-25 for small offices, now support the soon-to-be-ratified H.264 video standard. H.264 delivers the same video quality at 384K bit/sec that previous codecs delivered at 768K bit/sec, says Mark Roberts, products sales director at Polycom. With this support users get the same TV-quality video at half the bandwidth cost.

Also, 5.0 lets the MGC line handle audio and video callers in the same physical conference, rather than stringing together an audio-only call with a video call, as is required today. The number of endpoints that can be connected to a physical call, without having to cascade into a second physical call, also has been increased.

"I can now do 32 sites in one video call without cascading to another call," says Guy Welty, manager of global media networks and collaborative services at specialty chemicals and material company W.R. Grace in Columbia, Md., which has been testing Version 5 for a few weeks. Previously, if 12 sites were in a conference they would have to be cascaded in two separate calls. "This makes it easy on us, because we don't have to worry about multiple links, and it's easier to manage and set up. Anything you can do to tighten up mistakes is good for you," Welty says about the upgraded product.

Welty says he also likes the ability for each user to choose a view of a multi-point conference best-suited for his needs, rather than one view being thrust upon all users. Up to 16 people can be displayed onscreen side by side with an active border around the person speaking.

Polycom also rolled out Conferencing Suite 5.0, which features improved call management and scheduling features, including the ability to schedule a call via Microsoft Outlook. Users also can reserve a set amount of bandwidth to be used with each call. The suite also can be used to help manage non-Polycom endpoints.