Polycom generated some news this week. First the company released its new V500 set-top appliance targeted at the SMB market. With a self-contained limited-Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera, microphone and speakers and support for H.264 video compression and the Siren14 audio system developed by Polycom, the V500 is designed for the executive at home or small office that needs a video endpoint but doesn’t want to spend a ton of cash. The IP-only model of the V500 is priced at $1,999 and an ISDN/IP model is $2,999. Unlike many of Polycom’s other endpoint offerings, the V500 does not have a optional MCU component, though it is compatible with standard network-based bridges and MCUs.
As part of the V500 news, Polycom announced it was partnering with AT&T to sell the devices bundled with IP service. AT&T is calling the service “AT&T IP Video Bundle”, though specific pricing information isn’t available.
Not done there, the company also says it is working with Nortel on SIP integration (something Tandberg is doing with Cisco) and it demonstrated video over broadband applications with Juniper here at Networld+Interop.
