Polycom Enhances Microsoft Lync, Again!

Polycom has been a UC leading partner with Microsoft all along, providing a range of devices for desktops, conference rooms, and video deployment. Today, December 5, Polycom announced another major step forward with Microsoft Lync 2010 both for video-based collaboration and for office mobility solutions. 

First, the Polycom CX7000 is the first room video collaboration solution custom-built for direct integration with Microsoft® Lync™, the UC platform that unites voice communications, IM, and audio, video and Web conferencing. This provides all the functionality of Microsoft Lync delivered integrally with the room video system. The room system comes equipped with wireless keyboard and mouse so that the room experience is exactly the same as the Lync desktop experience, including all the functions for presence, chat, and document sharing and editing. It is no longer necessary for a meeting participant to use their own PC to host the meeting and the Polycom CX-7000 provides the high quality camera system that is expected for room video users and applications.

The CX7000 is currently available for ordering.

Polycom is also testing integration of their Polycom RealPresence™ Immersive room video systems for Lync integration. This will add a high-quality telepresence-type capability to the Lync solution set. 

Second, Polycom announced that their mobility solutions now integrate with Microsoft Lync. This is will be very useful to customers who wish to use either the Polycom KIRK Wireless DECT or the Polycom SpectraLink Wi-Fi phones for in-building or on-campus mobility applications. Both of these mobile device families will now have the Microsoft Lync controls available on their displays with button and/or navigation wheel controls, similar to the functions previously available on the existing desktop devices for Microsoft Lync including Polycom USB phones, IP Phones, and the Polycom VVX 1500 video phone.

Third, and perhaps most exciting, even if it’s not a physical device, is the announcement of bandwidth management policies for video deployments with Microsoft Lync. These policies, which will span all Polycom video platforms as well as the Polycom RealPresence platform, will allow setting appropriate video bandwidth policies as well as managing the video bandwidth in realtime. Often, the threat of uncontrolled video bandwidth is a barrier to adoption for video solutions of any type. Now, Polycom is making their video solutions controllable in combination with Microsoft Lync.

In my opinion, these three steps are a major advancement for both Polycom and Microsoft as well as for their customers and prospects. Clearly, it is important for a partner ecosystem such as the Polycom and Microsoft alliance to work really well together to compete with vertically integrated companies such as Cisco who now owns the Tandberg product line and provides bandwidth management through Cisco networking products. It appears that Polycom and Microsoft are demonstrating they can work well together, providing their customers with innovative, standards-based products along with the software to manage those products in an integrated environment. The new Polycom video deployment management tools should make video much more "safe to deploy" in many organizations.

Also, since Polycom delivers standards-based products that integrate well with most installed video systems, Polycom is in an attractive position to support customers across their evolving communications infrastructure, in whatever mix of legacy TDM PBXs, newer IP PBXs, or the latest UC platforms such as Microsoft Lync 2010. 

It’s a fast-paced market out there, and Polycom continues to show they are flexible, adaptive and a responsive ecosystem partner.  

You can learn more about this on a webinar hosted by Polycom and Microsoft execs tomorrow, December 6, at 11 AM EST.