Polycom Delivers Enterprise-Class Visual Communications To Small Office And Home Office Environments

04-28-2008

Polycom Video Border Proxy solutions and breakthrough Lost Packet Recovery QoS technology improve the quality and interoperability of visual communications for small businesses, branch offices and teleworkers.

INTEROP LAS VEGAS (booth 2207) and PLEASANTON, Calif. – April 28, 2008 – Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced new and enhanced solutions that improve the quality and simplicity of visual communications in small businesses, satellite and branch offices of larger organizations, and home office environments for teleworkers.

"Customers are excited about the capabilities of Polycom's visual communications solutions as a way to accelerate their businesses, improve communications and collaboration among teams and help them meet their corporate and personal green initiatives by reducing the need to travel," said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager of video solutions at Polycom. "Truly video-enabling an organization means having enterprise-class quality and reliability everywhere you need it. As part of Polycom's VC2 vision of next-generation visual communications, we are scaling our industry-leading solutions to meet the needs of smaller environments within an enterprise like satellite and home offices, as well as for smaller organizations."

Polycom today introduced the Video Border Proxy (VBP™) 4350W and 200 EW appliances, the first network appliances of their kind for small office and home office environments that combine NAT/Firewall traversal, wired and wireless routing, gatekeeping, traffic shaping, and bandwidth allocation capabilities that together can dramatically improve the quality and security of, and simplify the connections of, visual communications between different organizations and networks.

Polycom also announced new software for its popular Polycom VSX® and V-series group and desktop video conferencing endpoints that delivers breakthrough Lost Packet Recovery™ (LPR) technology to minimize the impact of common network congestion and packet loss, providing more consistent, high-quality video calls over IP networks. First introduced on Polycom HDX high definition telepresence solutions, the patent-pending LPR, which masks up to 10 percent of network degradation, is now extended throughout Polycom's portfolio of video endpoints.

"Video conferencing users in small office and home office environments face numerous real-world challenges such as reliably connecting through firewalls, ensuring video calls receive adequate and consistent bandwidth without impacting other critical applications, and negating the impact of packet loss and network congestion," said Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner, Wainhouse Research. "Polycom's new VBP 4350W and 200 EW appliances address these challenges by providing a compelling combination of advanced features in a package that is scaled and priced for the small office / home office environment."

The Polycom VBP 4350W appliance is designed for small office environments, offering 3 Mbps throughput for video calls. The VBP 200 EW appliance is designed for home office environments, offering 1 Mbps throughput for video calls. Common benefits of these solutions include:

• Higher quality video calls in small office and home office network environments – The VBP 4350W and 200 EW solutions allow users to prioritize bandwidth for video calls to optimize the capabilities of their broadband connections. Small office and home office environments typically utilize broadband connections for numerous applications at the same time, including voice and data traffic. Packet-shaping technology allows the VBP devices to separate and prioritize the real-time video packets to ensure higher quality in video calls. With the addition of the Lost Packet Recovery technology on Polycom VSX and V-Series video endpoints, users can also further improve the quality of their video calls by negating the impact of network congestion and packet loss over their IP network.
• Simplified use and NAT/Firewall traversal – The VBP 4350W and 200 EW solutions contain network-aware NAT/Firewall traversal capabilities that allow users to easily and securely place video calls inside and outside of their corporate network. They can serve as a H.323 application-aware firewall, or work with existing firewalls. The solutions also include gatekeeper functionality that allows for simplified dialing plans such as dialing video calls using email addresses, IP addresses or corporate extensions, and can also streamline the routing of video calls on a corporate network for efficiency.
• Multipurpose functionality – The VBP 4350W and 200 EW solutions are also high-performance wired and wireless (802.11 b, g) routers, allowing small office or home office users to deploy them as a single network routing solution for broadband access, firewall and NAT/firewall traversal and enhanced video conferencing. Both routers include four ports and a wireless antenna.
• Standards-based flexibility – The VBP 4350W and 200 EW solutions work seamlessly with Polycom's entire line of video conferencing, HD video and telepresence solutions, and will work with standards-based video conferencing solutions from other manufacturers. The devices also work with standards-based network infrastructure solutions such as firewalls, routers, etc.

The new Video Border Proxy 4350W and 200 EW solutions complement the existing line of Polycom V2IU™ solutions, which are being renamed as part of the Video Border Proxy solution line. The range of Video Border Proxy solutions meet the needs of an extended video-enabled enterprise, with solutions for corporate headquarters, development centers, branch and satellite offices, and home offices.

The Polycom VSX series of video conferencing endpoints includes cost-effective options for various applications and environments from desktops and offices to conference rooms and meeting areas of all sizes, to integrated, custom-application environments. The endpoints work seamlessly with Polycom's entire line of visual communications solutions and standards-based solutions from other manufacturers.

Links to additional related information:
» Video Border Proxy Solutions
» Whitepaper – Polycom's Lost Packet Recovery Technology (Wainhouse Research)
» VSX Video Conferencing Endpoints for Small and Home Offices
» Polycom VC2 – Transforming Visual Communication

Pricing and Availability
The VBP 200 EW and 4350W are planned for North America availability in June 2008 with a manufacturer’s suggested list price of US$1,299 and US$1,999 respectively. The VSX 9.0 software, including Lost Packet Recovery technology, is planned for global availability in May 2008 and will be available to all VSX customers with current maintenance agreements.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations. Polycom delivers the broadest array of high definition telepresence video, wired and wireless voice, and content solutions so people can enjoy the best communications, whether from a real-time collaborative interaction or on-demand streamed video experience. Spanning from the desktop to the industry's only immersive telepresence suite, Polycom's high quality collaboration and communications solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use. Based on open standards, they integrate seamlessly with leading telephony and presence-based networks. With innovative market-driving technologies, a compelling vision for next generation visual communications, best-in-class products, alliance partnerships, and world-class service, Polycom is the smart choice for organizations to gain a competitive advantage with proven and trusted communication solutions. For additional information, call 800-POLYCOM or visit the Polycom web site at www.polycom.com.

Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and/or related specifications referenced in this press release are not guaranteed, and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

Polycom, the Polycom logo and VSX are registered trademarks, and Lost Packet Recovery, VBP and V2IU are trademarks of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2008, Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.