Polycom’s Wild Ride
Polycom’s been on one hell of a roller coaster. The company that is synonymous with non-Cisco video conferencing has had its ups and downs – mostly downs – lately. From Fierce: The company has come back to Earth with a…
Avaya Does Have a Rad Vision
Last December, in response to rumors, I posted Does Avaya Have a Radvision? That posted offered up some reasons why the rumor that Avaya might acquire Radvision made sense. Now the rumor is Avaya bought Radvision – yet neither company had…
Digium Has Big Bells
Digium announces new phones. See my full post here. A few additional thoughts on Polycom, Aastra, and Snom – all three of which have been at every Astricon I’ve attended.
HP UC
Is HP a UC player? And if so, “Player” as in vendor or poser? The hot part of UC right now is mobility – and HP doesn’t seem to be in that space. Although that could still change. I’ve written…
Industry Update
The iPhone and iPad have broken more records than the iPod did CDs. Microsoft buying Skype was a game changer, but the new game remains a mystery. Here is the current industry round-up. Read it quickly as things are changing…
InfoComm, Where the Video Vendors Talk
The 800 lbs gorilla in Telepresence is Cisco/Tandberg, and the rest of the industry are teaming up against the giant. Polycom, HP, Microsoft, and Juniper seem to be united in their anti-Cisco positioning. At a recent Polycom conference, Gurdeep Singh…
Polycom’s “Ground Breaking News”: BFD.
For weeks Polycom has been teasing me with “ground breaking” news to come on June 1. If you are going to tease, you better deliver. Announcements and press releases are expected – normal and routine. “Ground Breaking” was meant to…
Video is OK, Audio is Where It’s At
Joe Burton has showed up now at Plantronics. For those of you not playing along, Joe defected from Cisco to Polycom last September. This was a fairly high profile move. Not only are Cisco and Polycom video/telepresence competitors, but Joe…
What is With All the Scanning?
Anyone who follows my tweets knows I read a lot of online news. Several unrelated tidbits suggests barcodes are an important and increasing part of our lives. Yes, barcodes – I’m serious. The barcode was born in the 40s, but…
Snom Wants More
Snom is one of the new companies. Founded in 1996 in Germany it quickly established itself as a quality manufacturer of SIP phones. The market for SIP endpoints continues to grow; as does Snom’s portfolio. This year, Snom has made…
Rodman Speaks
I had the opportunity to discuss UC products and trends with Jeff Rodman – Co-Founder and CTO of Polycom. The interview is posted at NoJitter.com (The Talented Mr. Rodman). Jeff is really easy to talk to and the interview could…
Video Interop: a Rorschach Diagram
I took the task of writing about video interoperability on NoJitter this week. The Inner Workings Of Interoperability This is one deep topic and I had no idea how much good and bad there was to write about it until…
Polycom Downsizes its SIP Saucer
Polycom today announced their newest SIP saucer the IP 5000. This SoundStation rounds out the company’s high-quality conference phone portfolio and fills a gap in the market by providing a conferencing solution for smaller rooms. It supports HD Voice and…
Astricon
Astricon is coming up next month. I attended last year and am excited about attending this year. The open source nature of Asterisk results with more developers working on it than any other telecom solution. As a result, going to…
Polycom VVX1500 All Show, No Go
The new Polycom VVX1500 is probably the single most exciting and useless product ever released from Polycom. The phone is positioned (too well) as a model for the future. It has rich media capabilities, a built in webcam, and comes…
Cutting the Cord in VoIP
Here is an apparent contradiction: Quarter over quarter enterprise line shipments are down 22%, yet mobile phones represent one of the fastest growing segments in technology despite the recession. Many of the PBX makers have designated “Mobility”…
HD Voice, Clearly
There has been a lot of chatter lately about HD Voice – sometimes referred to as the G.722 codec. Some people consider it the defining improvement to desktop phones – others (me) might consider it the only improvement to the…
Mitel vs. Polycom Phones
One thing I commonly hear among Asterisk loyalists is praise for the Polycom phones. I understand Polycom is the market share leader on Asterisk phone systems, and I think they make a decent product. But I have to say, the…
The FAX About Switchvox SMB 4
Last week, Digium announced details about the upcoming release of the Switchvox SMB 4.0 IP PBX. The release represents the first major upgrade since Digium acquired Switchvox, and it is clear Digium is serious about this platform. The upgrade contains…
“Digital Phones Are The Future” Anonymous 1976
Everything old becomes new again. Dumb terminals are dead (just don’t call a thin client dumb!). UNIX chat was so 80s (IMHO), and digital phones are doomed (to return). We live in a connected world. The Internet has enabled…