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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Polycom Delivers Lowest Telepresence Total Cost of Ownership Versus Competitors

H.264 High Profile on Polycom telepresence and infrastructure cuts bandwidth use up to 50 percent for lower network costs and faster ROI than competing solutions.


Pleasanton, CA – June 7, 2010 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice communications solutions, today announced expanded support for its industry-first implementation of H.264 High Profile, a powerful, standards-based video compression technology that reduces bandwidth requirements for high-definition (HD) telepresence and video conferencing up to 50 percent. Lowering bandwidth requirements and associated network costs, Polycom is helping customers extend the benefits of visual communications more cost-effectively across their organization for a faster return on investment.

Currently available on Polycom HDX series room telepresence systems, Polycom is extending H.264 High Profile support to the Polycom RMX 4000 and 2000 series, the highest performing multipoint conferencing platforms for HD visual communications. It is also extending support to the industry’s broadest line of immersive telepresence products, which include the most immersive telepresence offering available today, the Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX) series, the customizable Polycom Architected Telepresence Experience (ATX) 300, the Polycom Telepresence Experience (TPX) for collaborative meetings, and the new, future-focused Polycom Open Telepresence Experience (OTX) 300, also announced today (see additional press release issued today).

“We are excited to deliver the first end-to-end solution supporting H.264 High Profile, which will help our customers lower network bandwidth costs and cost-effectively expand their deployments,” said Andrew Miller, president and CEO, Polycom. “We estimate a mid-sized enterprise will spend up to $2.1M less in the first year on a typical Polycom telepresence deployment including – equipment, bandwidth, services and maintenance costs – versus a comparable Cisco TelePresence deployment.”

Polycom Chart

Polycom’s support for H.264 High Profile delivers breakthrough video performance at any bandwidth, including full-motion HD video quality starting at just 512 kbps, and full-motion DVD-quality standard definition (SD) video starting as low as 128 kbps.

“We have implemented H.264 High Profile on our Polycom HDX systems and the results are impressive,” said John Vitrano, vice president of service support, CA Technologies. “We can run our systems at reduced bandwidth without impacting quality. We are encouraged that Polycom is implementing it on their bridges and immersive telepresence products, as this will allow us to get the benefit of H.264 High Profile in more applications.”

Polycom’s support for H.264 High Profile will play a key role in its initiatives with Polycom Open Collaboration Network partners to integrate visual communications into leading unified communications (UC) environments. It is also strategic in Polycom’s initiative with Juniper Networks to improve the quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of video networks.

“Juniper and Polycom are creating the first scalable, ‘conferencing-aware’ network solution which will enable carriers to maximize the value of their existing networks to deliver the highest quality video services,” said Gerri Elliott, executive vice president for strategic alliances, Juniper Networks. “Polycom’s support for H.264 High Profile complements these efforts by enabling customers to run significantly more video connections over their existing network. Our combined solution will help carriers move away from overlay networks for video services toward more intelligent and efficient converged networks, which are inherently more sustainable and profitable in the long-term.”

Benefits for Remote Workers
Higher video quality at lower bandwidth will drive greater quality of experience among mobile and home office workers, and increased adoption overall will drive greater intercompany collaboration. These applications often involve calling across less-than-perfect networks or between corporate networks across the public internet. To ensure a more consistent, high-quality experience, the new H.264 High Profile video technology is complemented by Polycom’s innovative Lost Packet Recovery™ quality of experience technology. With LPR, Polycom is the only company that protects voice, video and content quality during packet loss and network congestion.

Polycom will demonstrate the benefits of H.264 High Profile at the InfoComm 2010 Conference and Expo, June 9 -11 in Las Vegas (booth N1806).

Availability:
H.264 High Profile is currently available on Polycom HDX series room telepresence systems (6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000). General availability for Polycom RMX 4000 and 2000 products and Polycom immersive telepresence solutions (Polycom RPX, OTX and ATX) is scheduled for Q3 2010.

Supporting information:
H.264 High Profile Whitepaper, Application Brief, Savings Calculators

About the Polycom Open Collaboration Network
Leading unified communications and networking providers have joined the Polycom Open Collaboration Network to provide open and interoperable collaboration solutions that give customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their unified communications environment. The Polycom Open Collaboration Network enables Polycom to deliver its productivity-enhancing and cost-saving telepresence, video and voice collaboration products as an integrated part of core unified communication environments, making the technologies easily accessible as part of the everyday workflow within a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.

© 2010 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom “Triangles” logo and the names and marks associated with Polycom’s products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.


Polycom Logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Polycom Delivers Future of Immersive Telepresence Featuring True-to-Life Collaboration at Up To Half the Bandwidth

Polycom Open Telepresence Experience features highest quality of experience with lowest total cost of ownership.


Pleasanton, CA – June 7, 2010 – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice communications solutions, today expanded the industry’s broadest telepresence solution portfolio with the Polycom® Open Telepresence Experience (OTX™) 300. The immersive telepresence solution delivers true-to-life collaboration, including full 1080p video, at up to half the bandwidth of comparable systems and offers the lowest total cost of ownership, to drive a rapid return on investment for customers.

“Polycom telepresence helps customers address the increasingly critical challenge of collaborating across multiple locations,” said Andrew Miller, president and CEO, Polycom. “Using telepresence, Polycom customers save millions of dollars a year by improving productivity and reducing the need to travel. In addition, we estimate a mid-sized enterprise will spend up to $2.1M less in the first year of a typical Polycom telepresence deployment – including equipment, bandwidth, services and maintenance – versus a comparable deployment from Cisco.”

Helping drive lower costs, Polycom OTX 300 supports high-definition (HD) video using up to 50 percent less bandwidth than competing solutions through Polycom’s implementation of H.264 High Profile, a powerful new standards-based video compression technology. Available only from Polycom today, H.264 High Profile lowers the costs of network bandwidth required for telepresence, and can help organizations significantly expand their video deployment without having to invest in large-scale network upgrades. (See additional press release today about Polycom’s expanded H.264 High Profile support)

“Polycom is helping to transform the way we operate, enabling our customers and employees to collaborate more effectively across distances and time zones,” said Simon Hunt, global product director of video communications at Regus Plc, the world’s largest provider of workplace solutions, operating over 1,000 business centers across 450 cities in 75 countries. “Polycom’s positive impact on our business, its customer-focused approach and relentless innovation through developments like the Polycom OTX and H.264 High Profile, are just a few reasons why Polycom remains an important business partner for our organization. As customers demand more solutions-orientated answers, Polycom has been invaluable in supporting our evolving need to deliver a robust global business-to-business offering.”

The Polycom OTX Advantage

In addition to delivering the lowest total cost of ownership, the Polycom OTX 300 series immersive telepresence system provides unique benefits and capabilities, including:

  • Most effective collaboration across distances. People appear true to life, enabling more effective collaboration and accelerated decision-making across distances and reducing the need for travel. A uniquely designed environment enables an immersive experience, including the benefits of conversational stereo audio, full 1080p video and HD content sharing on monitors that automatically rise on demand – all protected with Lost Packet Recovery™ technology that provides a consistent, high-quality experience over real-world IP networks.

  • Greatest room flexibility. Unique multi-functional design is optimized for exceptional, across-the-table multi-media experiences when meeting face-to-face or live over video. This helps maximize worker productivity, room utilization and real estate investments by supporting a range of business applications beyond telepresence meetings (i.e. in-room presentations).

  • Widest investment protection through standards-based interoperability. Polycom provides seamless connectivity with the estimated two-million standards-based telepresence and video conferencing endpoints in use today.

  • Deepest native integration with leading Unified Communications platforms. As part of the Polycom Open Collaboration Network, Polycom telepresence offerings support integration with leading UC and networking platforms. At launch, Polycom OTX 300 will support native integration with Microsoft UC environments (Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 and Microsoft Exchange), including the Polycom Conferencing for Outlook solution that makes visual communications simple to schedule and use within the natural workflow of Microsoft Outlook.

  • Broadest international design appeal and minimal room modification requirements. The Polycom OTX 300 features an elegant, modern design that provides a consistent room-to-room experience and natural collaboration that allows users to focus on interaction with others. Front and rear environmental walls, and an optimized lighting package, improve acoustic and visual quality and minimize costly room modification requirements. The future-focused architecture can be upgraded with new technology, enabling greater long-term value and investment protection.

  • Global service, support and availability. Polycom immersive telepresence solutions are available globally through certified Polycom channel and service partners with complementary supporting implementation and managed telepresence services to maximize customer satisfaction and return on investment. The Polycom OTX 300 will begin shipping in Q3 2010.


“As use of visual communications continues to increase, customers are looking for solutions that natively integrate with their core network and communications environments so they can derive more return from their technology investments,” said Yancey Smith, director of product management, Communications Server for Microsoft. “Today, Polycom’s integration for Microsoft environments is a great example, providing broad interoperability with Microsoft Office Communicator desktop video clients and dramatically simplifying the use of video by automating the scheduling and joining of video calls through Microsoft Outlook and the sharing of content through Microsoft SharePoint.”

The Polycom OTX 300 expands Polycom’s industry-leading portfolio of immersive telepresence solutions, which include the Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX) series, the most immersive telepresence offering available suited for boardroom applications to interactive classroom environments; the Polycom Architected Telepresence Experience (ATX) 300, a flexible solution customizable for specific applications and unique space requirements; and the Polycom Telepresence Experience (TPX), which provides an across-the-table collaborative meeting experience for geographically dispersed teams.

Polycom immersive telepresence solutions, including the Polycom OTX 300 is integrated with Polycom’s comprehensive solution for visual communication, and complemented by Polycom’s market-leading room and personal telepresence systems, video conferencing systems, desktop video collaboration solutions and conferencing infrastructure that delivers unmatched scalability, the highest availability, and complete auto-failover protection. In addition to real-time visual communication, the Polycom portfolio includes a scalable video content platform with video recording, streaming, content management and digital signage, to give customers unprecedented capabilities for video-enabling their organizations.

The Polycom OTX 300 will be demonstrated at the InfoComm 2010 Conference and Expo, June 9 -11 in Las Vegas (booth N1806).

About the Polycom Open Collaboration Network

Leading unified communications and networking providers have joined the Polycom Open Collaboration Network to provide open and interoperable collaboration solutions that give customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their unified communications environment. The Polycom Open Collaboration Network enables Polycom to deliver its productivity-enhancing and cost-saving telepresence, video and voice collaboration products as an integrated part of core unified communication environments, making the technologies easily accessible as part of the everyday workflow within a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

About Polycom

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.

© 2010 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom “Triangles” logo and the names and marks associated with Polycom’s products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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