Polycom ups the ante on Cisco's 'telepresence' videoconferencing

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 November 2006 13:09

Your IT - Home IT

Hot on the heels of last month's announcement by Cisco of a 'virtual reality' videoconferencing system,   Polycom has launched UltimateHD, claimed to embody "the only complete high definition communications and collaboration architecture."


According to Polycom, the new kit "enables a total high definition solution" and, unlike other high definition solutions, which can only focus on delivering the requisite video resolution, systems adhering to the UltimateHD architecture "enable a total high definition solution for every aspect of the experience affected by high definition: HD video as well as HD voice, HD multimedia content, HD bridging, HD recording/archiving/streaming, and supporting HD services."

The result. Polycom claims, "is solutions that deliver a highly engaging virtual experience never before possible that rivals the efficacy of in-person meetings, enables new types of detail-oriented applications, and increases personal and team efficiency and productivity while eliminating the fatigue from remote collaboration."

"Because UltimateHD solutions enable remote participants to easily engage with everything happening in the on-site meeting without any of the common distractions of conferencing over distance, we expect to see a dramatic increase in the applications for our collaboration technology," said James Anderson, Polycom's country manager Australia and New Zealand.

Cisco, similarly, claims that its new videoconferencing system has "the ability to create a real sense of sitting face-to-face with a person on the other side of the virtual telepresence table...[completely changing] the experience of remote communications."

Polycom began delivering components based on the UltimateHD architecture last year with the Polycom MGC/MGC+, claimed to be the only multipoint bridges that support true high definition and capable of scaling to support 90 concurrent high definition sessions.

These were followed earlier this year by "the only scalable high definition recording and streaming server," the Polycom RSS 2000. Polycom plans to introduce a new VoIP conference phone in the second quarter of 2007 that will enable users to launch HD video sessions directly from the conference phone.