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SAN JOSE, Calif.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--[ Polycom, Inc ]. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications, announced it is offering a royalty-free license for an interoperable implementation of H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) software technology. As more and more businesses use video to collaborate and meet face-to-face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners and customers, the use of highly flexible H.264 SVC open-standards video enables the best possible video collaboration experience across many networks. By offering this royalty-free license of an interoperable implementation of H.264 SVC, Polycom helps minimize the investment required to efficiently distribute video across networks and devices.

"Polycomas ongoing commitment to interoperability and the licensing of its SVC software technology is a testament to our shared belief in the power of interoperability to enable widespread global adoption of truly unified communications."

Extending the reach of interoperable video

aWeare pleased to provide our standards-based SVC implementation to the industry,a said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President of Products and Services, Polycom. aBy openly offering this new standards-based software technology on a royalty-free basis, Polycom unleashes SVC by giving technology and service providers a common foundation on which they can build solutions that are backward- and forward-compatible across platforms, as well as scalable across networks.a

"Todayas announcement is exciting for anyone interested in increasing the reach of SVC video to every corner of the UC experience,a said Bernard Aboba, president of Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCI Forum). aPolycomas ongoing commitment to interoperability and the licensing of its SVC software technology is a testament to our shared belief in the power of interoperability to enable widespread global adoption of truly unified communications.a

Extending interoperability with Microsoft

Microsoft, another founding member of the UCI Forum alongside Polycom, will be an early adopter of this new open standards-based SVC technology.

aThe licensing of H.264 SVC provides a foundation that will allow the industry to deliver the type of seamless interoperability that our joint customers are asking for. UCI Forum is uniting the industry through efforts like this and continues to lead the industry to an interoperable future,a said Warren Barkley, General Manager, Partner & Customer Engineering at Microsoft.

About SVC and Polycomas SVC Implementation

The open-standard SVC algorithm provides a multi-layered data structure that allows systems to adapt to networks to enhance the resolution, frame rate and quality of video streams, and increase error resiliency, all without requiring excessive bandwidth. SVC is an extension to H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), an efficient and high-performance standard that is used by most of todayas video conferencing devices. SVC technology enables high-quality video collaboration meetings even if network conditions or client capabilities are limited.

By licensing its SVC software technology, Polycom is delivering on a [ pledge ] to make the technology available at no cost to partners and vendors committed to open standards and interoperability. For enterprises and users, this means:

• This open standards-based software is backwards-and forwards-compatible with standards-based solutions, such as H.264 AVC, which helps drive down ownership costs and improve return on investment. Polycom was also at the forefront of implementing the most advanced version of the H.264 AVC codec, [ H.264 High Profile ], which reduces total cost of ownership by decreasing the bandwidth required to use video collaboration in the enterprise by up to 50 percent.
• Solutions with the new open standards-based SVC technology can be designed to work with any network, device or video collaboration system equipped with a standards-based implementation. By providing native interoperability between the H.264 SVC protocol and other standards-based protocols such as AVC, the new protocol bridges the avideo islandsa caused by older, closed implementations of SVC, which have required customers to either buy expensive gateways and hardware, or to rip out and replace existing video investments.

Availability

The Polycom SVC software technology is available today on a royalty-free basis. For more information, visit [ www.polycom.com ] or call 1-800-POLYCOM.

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the asafe harbora provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events, future demand for Polycom products, and the future performance of Polycom, including statements regarding the implementation of SVC helping to drive adoption of video across businesses and industries worldwide and Microsoft being an early adopter of the SVC technology. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the impact of competition on our product sales and for our customers and partners; the impact of increased competition due to consolidation in our industry or competition from companies that are larger or that have greater resources than we do; our ability to bring our new products and offerings to market in a timely manner due to engineering, manufacturing or other delays; changing market demands; potential fluctuations in results and future growth rates; continuing disruption to the business due to the realignment of the North America sales organization; risks associated with general economic conditions and external market factors; the market acceptance of our products and changing market demands, including demands for differing technologies or product and services offerings; our ability to successfully integrate our acquisitions into our business; possible delays in the development, availability and shipment of new products; increasing costs and differing uses of capital; changes in key personnel that may cause disruption to the business; our inability to achieve the expected results from adjustments being made to our expense profile; the impact of restructuring actions; and the impact of global conflicts and changing laws that may adversely impact our business. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Companyas Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and in other reports filed by Polycom with the SEC. Polycom disclaims any intent or obligations to update these forward-looking statements.

NOTE: The product plans, specifications, and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and related specifications referenced herein are not guaranteed and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

2012 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM, the Polycom logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycomas 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.