Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Mon, February 23, 2009 Polycom, Inc.: Polycom Delivers Industry Firsts in Visual Communication Infrastructure
PLEASANTON, CA--(Marketwire - February 23, 2009) - Polycom, Inc. (
"The Polycom RMX 2000 is a part of our complete visual communication network infrastructure solution that helps organizations of all sizes effectively deploy, provision and manage on-demand video services," said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video solutions at Polycom. "The future-focused RMX 2000 platform is designed for high-definition applications like telepresence and is the only conference platform that delivers the full range of HD video resolution support up to 1080p. It is also the only platform that can be optimized for either pure HD environments or for mixed-resolution environments, giving customers the flexibility to adapt their infrastructure as application needs change."
"While true that HD resolution is of great interest to many customers, our research indicates that most organizations today have mixed-resolution video conferencing environments. In addition, at this time the majority of the HD-capable videoconferencing systems deployed are primarily used for non-HD video calls," said Ira Weinstein, partner at Wainhouse Research. "Since its initial release, the RMX 2000's dynamic resource allocation and flexible capacity model has made it well suited for mixed SD/HD environments. With the enhanced HD capabilities and increased capacity of the V4.0 release, the RMX 2000 can now support the SD, HD, and telepresence applications of almost any enterprise."
Through a combination of software enhancements and new, faster processing resources (MPM+ cards), Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 delivers several industry-first capabilities, including:
Unrivalled HD Video and Content Quality -- Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 is the first multi-point conference platform to support the full range of video resolutions up to 1080p and optimizes call quality for all participants based on the capabilities of their systems. It is the only multipoint conference platform that supports HD video quality at 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps), broadcast-quality 720p (720p at 60fps) and 720p at 30fps. The RMX 2000 also supports Polycom's Lost Packet Recovery™ technology (LPR™), which improves the quality of video calls over IP networks during packet loss and network congestion.
Improved Quality for Non-HD Devices and Lower Bandwidth Calls -- Through an innovative new capability called Video Clarity™, the Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 can upscale and sharpen video images, providing dramatically enhanced video quality for lower-resolution video conferencing devices and video calls made at lower bandwidth speeds. For example, the video stream from an older video conferencing endpoint in low (CIF) resolution can be upscaled and sharpened to DVD-quality standard definition (4CIF, 480p) resolution and distributed to all capable devices without using additional processing resources. Similarly, a standard definition video call can be upscaled to HD.
Unmatched Flexibility and Greater ROI for Existing Investments -- To support the requirements for HD resolution and the mixed-resolution reality of most customers today, the Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 is the only conference platform that can be deployed in either a fixed or flexible resource (port) configuration. For the majority of customers that have video devices with different resolution capabilities and place calls at various speeds for different applications, the RMX 2000 offers Flexible Resource Capacity™ configuration, which dynamically allocates resources based on specific call requirements. This method provides greater capacity (up to four times the capacity of the completely fixed designs available today) and is more cost-effective for non HD resolution calls and older video systems, since they consume less processing resources.
New Fixed Resource Capacity™ configurations are designed for customers that have standardized on video endpoints with the same capabilities and that typically place video calls at the same call speeds and resolutions. For example, if a customer has all HD endpoints and primarily runs calls in HD resolution, then it makes sense to configure and set the bridge for HD video calls. The RMX 2000 now gives customers the best of both worlds, allowing them to configure their bridge to specific video network requirements and easily adjust their infrastructure as needs change.
Unparalleled Capacity and Scalability -- For HD only deployments, the bridge can support up to 40 simultaneous 720p 30fps video calls or up to 20 1080p 30 fps or 720p 60 fps video calls. For mixed resolution environments, it can support up to 160 simultaneous video calls, including 60 simultaneous DVD-quality video calls (4CIF, 480p). In addition, the tremendous flexibility of the platform can also support up to 800 voice-only calls.
For broader deployments, the RMX 2000 can be deployed in a distributed network architecture with the Polycom [ Distributed Media Application (DMA) 7000™ ], which manages and distributes video calls across multiple Polycom RMX 2000 conference platforms. This allows enterprises to scale resources as needed and connect and utilize main and branch office infrastructure systems together as part of a single, seamless solution. A Polycom DMA 7000 can support up to 10 Polycom RMX 2000 servers working together as a single pool of resources. This distributed model provides the greatest reliability, redundancy and scale available and offers many advantages compared to a single, high-capacity conference platform appliance.
"BT Conferencing is seeing increasing demand for visual communication solutions and services across industries. Customers are excited about the potential for the latest in HD, telepresence and desktop video applications to improve the productivity and efficiency of their organizations and expand what is possible for their businesses," said Bob Seidel, vice president of marketing, Video Business Unit, BT Conferencing. "The Polycom RMX v4.0 is well suited to address customers' current and future requirements. It offers the processing power for HD telepresence applications, scalability for distributed networks and broad video deployments like desktop video conferencing, and flexibility to cost-effectively accommodate older video conferencing equipment, which is a major requirement for many customers."
The RMX 2000 4.0 is part of Polycom's comprehensive infrastructure solution that also includes the Polycom [ Converged Management Application™ (CMA™) 4000/5000 ], a centralized video endpoint and network management platform; the Polycom DMA 7000, a unique network-based application that manages and distributes multipoint video calls across multiple RMX 2000s within an enterprise network environment; Polycom [ Video Border Proxy™ (VBP™) ] devices that prioritize video traffic and make it easier to securely connect across firewalls with people outside an enterprise network; and [ Polycom RSS 2000™ and Polycom Video Media Center™ (VMC™) 1000 ] for comprehensive recording, streaming and video content management.
The Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 is the latest development advancing the [ Polycom VC2 vision ] of video as a pervasive component of unified communication in the enterprise -- enabling people to call anyone, anywhere, anytime from any device. In conjunction with its global network of certified partners, Polycom offers world-class services to help customers seamlessly integrate Polycom infrastructure solutions into their enterprise network environment.
Availability
Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 and new MPM+ Cards are now available worldwide. Base list price for the Polycom RMX 2000 V4.0 with MPM+ is US$46,500. Polycom solutions are available worldwide through certified Polycom channel partners.
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (
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