Polycom, the audio conferencing, video conferencing and VoIP endpoint device manufacturer, is committed to making all of their portfolio including video conferencing an integral part of unified communications and are investing product and services skills into making this happen.

Product

To complement the company's existing portfolio of video conferencing, telepresence and high definition video equipment, they've introduced a new signaling mediation server product for enabling the escalation of IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging sessions into a full-blown video session for desktop units, high definition units and telepresence systems. This also ties nicely with the IBM announcements at VoiceCon discussed here.

This new product, the RAS200I (pronounced RAS-200-eye) is an IBM-environment-specific conferencing interworking server that shares presence state information between the video network resources (MCU and endpoints) and the IBM Sametime infrastructure. A Polycom-built plugin for the Lotus Domino server shares initiation requests through the API to the RAS200I, which coordinates session signaling and presence state information.

The new unit is packaged for 50-1000 concurrent video users and is priced around $160 per concurrent session.

Services Muscle

Further to the RAS200I for IBM Lotus Sametime integration, Polycom and IBM Global Technology Services have also entered an agreement for the resell of Polycom products and management services. This allows IBM Global Services to integrate Polycom video systems into the customers Sametime implementation as well as more effectively compete against Cisco Telepresence and HP HALO.

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