Polycom Demos Future of Converged Communication with First Integrated Voice/Video/Web SIP and H.323-Based Technology
VON CONFERENCE – SANTA CLARA, Calif. – March 29, 2004 – Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the world’s leader in video and voice conferencing, conference bridges and integrated web collaboration solutions, is demonstrating the industry’s first integrated voice, video, and web applications across H.323 and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) at the VON Conference (Polycom Booth #801), which begins today in Santa Clara.
SIP is expected to generate a new set of rich media, real-time collaborative devices, applications and services that will increase productivity and improve an organization’s ability to compete. Today, SIP is in its early deployment stages and is being used primarily for voice over IP calls. But SIP is a communication protocol also ideal for all media types and devices, as well as instant messaging and presence-based applications and services. The promise of SIP is its ability to converge protocols and transports layers; merging previously disparate infrastructure silos for multimedia conferencing, telecommunications, web services, wireless environments, and collaboration.
Polycom’s SIP technology demo is unique because it integrates video with voice, instant messaging, and web collaboration for the first time, showcasing the true power of the standard to provide seamless integration of real-time communication. The technology demo is also unusual for its broad array of Polycom endpoints, software, and bridges which recreates the enterprise challenge of connecting personal desktop and mobile systems with conference rooms and the network core. A practical example of a real world environment, the demo shows rich media applications in a mixed environment of H.323 and SIP; the reality for organizations for the foreseeable future as the emerging SIP standard matures. The only provider of collaborative communications solutions that support all current standards and environments, Polycom ensures companies exploring a migration to SIP can do so incrementally in order to protect investments in mixed protocol environments.
Polycom, the leading provider of Unified Collaborative Communications, is committed to an open, standards-based approach to rich media collaborative applications, enabling its solutions to interoperate with a wide range of partner environments. Polycom’s focus on standards and its integration work with strategic partners such as Avaya, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Siemens, Microsoft, BroadSoft, Interactive Intelligence, Sylantro Systems, Shoreline Communications and Sphere Communications will help organizations evolve from existing TDM-based telephony to IP environments that include H.323 and SIP.
“As our customers build out their real-time collaborative applications environments, they can trust Polycom and its partners to deliver the broadest array of high quality, open solutions that work across all environments and protocols,” said Bob Hagerty, chairman and CEO of Polycom “With Polycom, no matter which communications devices and applications you select now and in the future, you are assured they will work together seamlessly and your investments are protected.”
The Polycom SIP Technology Demo at VON, Polycom Booth #801
Polycom is at the forefront of the move to IP. For the last two years, Polycom has delivered award-winning, high quality IP phones that are easy to deploy, manage and use. The market leader in video communications, Polycom is also playing a central role with standards bodies in helping to define the SIP extensions for video. At the center of the Polycom H.323 and SIP collaborative environments lie two Polycom bridging platforms: the MGC multipoint video bridge and the Voyant audio bridge. The MGC bridge is the integration point between H.323 and SIP and different endpoints because of its unique transcoding technology that allows for different speeds, frame rates, resolution, video and audio settings.
At Polycom’s Booth # 801 at VON, Polycom is demonstrating desktop video and group video endpoints, the ViaVideo II and VSX7000, ViewStation FX, running in today’s communication standard H.323. Connected to these systems are another VSX7000, several IP Polycom SIP phones, and Microsoft Messenger desktop clients integrated through the Microsoft Live Communication Server on SIP. The Polycom SIP phones are also connected over IP through the Voyant and MGC bridges. Polycom’s web collaboration application, WebOffice, which provides instant messaging and presence detection of people and their devices, is connected to the Internet and enabling application sharing.
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the world’s technology leader of high-quality, easy-to-use video, voice, data and web conferencing and collaboration solutions. The Polycom Office™ is our continued commitment to make distance communications as natural and interactive as being there by providing best-in-class conferencing solutions that are interoperable, integrated and intuitive to the user. The Polycom Office is based on industry standards and supported by an open architecture that promotes interoperability in multi-vendor environments and complements leading network infrastructure platforms. For additional information call 1-800-POLYCOM (765-9266) or +1-408-526-9000, or visit the Polycom website at http://www.polycom.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events, future demand for our products, and future growth prospects that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions, which may differ materially from our or our industry’s actual future events or results. Further information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results are discussed in our 2003 form 10-K , quarterly reports on form 10-Q, and other reports filed by Polycom with the SEC .
Polycom, the Polycom logo, the ViewStation FX and Voyant are registered trademarks. Polycom WebOffice, Polycom VSX7000, ViaVideo II, and MGC are trademarks of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2004, Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.
