Back in May 2015, Polycom hosted their Workplace of the Future event at the company’s NYC office, which consisted of some products being unveiled, but largely consisted of discussions about what the workplace of the future will look like, and some customer success stories utilizing Polycom products.
On October 6th, Polycom revealed what it would be bringing to the workplace of the future, and the results did not disappoint. Among products showcased were Polycom’s RealPresence Trio, RealPresence Debut and the incredibly thought-out RealPresence Centro collaboration and conferencing system.
The line of products are set to establish Polycom as a leader in future collaboration and conferencing technology within the workplace. As Polycom CEO Peter Leav said at the event, “The future of the workplace is now.”
Polycom Realpresence Trio
The first product introduced was the Realpresence Trio conferencing device. Long has Polycom been a leader in audio conferencing in the office, but with the Trio they have taken further steps to allow the interoperability of video and content sharing in order to create a central smart hub for group collaboration that transforms the three-point conference phone into a voice, content-sharing and video system.
“What we wanted to do is create a collaboration hotspot that can be brought into any space,” says Ashan Willy, SVP, WW Systems Engineering & Product Management at Polycom.
Photos: Inside Polycom’s New Collaboration Systems
The Trio is meant for offices, huddle rooms and conference spaces, and includes full color touchscreen, world’s best audio including base, a twenty foot mic pickup, HD voice, acoustic clarity, background noise cancellation and high definition 1080 p video conferencing and content sharing. RealPresence Trio technology has broad interoperability and deep integration across multiple UC platforms including Microsoft Lync and Skype for Business, BroadSoft and others.
The entire system runs on a single Ethernet connection. A single click on the touchscreen allows users to join meetings or invite others. Polycom smart pairing lets mobile devices and laptops join with Trio through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or NFC. A ‘pod’ plugs into displays with videoconferencing capabilities for automatic pairing to add video and content share. Taken together, Trio is the first conference phone with base speakers, Wi-Fi enablement, that is a native end-point to Skype-for-Business. The device can easily be paired with existing enterprise systems.
RealPresence Debut
The next debut at Polycom’s event was the RealPresence Debut itself. The solutions offers an affordable videoconferencing solution for SMB and small business settings, with enterprise level production at consumer pricing. The device allows for 1080p wired and wireless content sharing and conferencing, and is the only mechanical pan-tilt camera in this spacing, covering the expanse of the room it inhabits. The entire system requires only HDMI cable hooked into a monitor and an Ethernet cable hooked up to function.
RealPresence Debut has an easy, elegant design that enables high quality visual collaboration for huddle and smaller room environments, as well as for small or medium sized businesses with limited IT resources. Set up time takes just minutes and the user interface has been designed with simplicity in mind to enable anyone to start and manage a call.
The all-in-one design incorporates Polycom’s superb audio quality including NoiseBlock technology. Debut is cloud-ready and can easily connect into Polycom’s RealPresence Cloud services to ensure organizations large and small may purchase and deploy it easily and effectively with no IT support needed.
RealPresence Centro
The crown jewel of the announcements was the Realpresence Centro, a collaboration and conferencing platform that changes the landscape, literally, in which collaboration has taken place. When describing the genesis of the system, Peter Leav gave the example of a bowling alley and a bonfire.
At a bowling alley, one user goes, then sits down for another to go, and another, each taking turns and bowling at once. Collaboration, says Leav, is circular, like people sitting around a bonfire. They want to be able to interact and participate all at once, while being able to see everything around them simultaneously.
