Polycom announced a new, modular, high definition telepresence system, the Polycom TPX HD306M today. The system is compatible with the company's existing immersive RPX telepresence environments and lowers the entry point for a Polycom HD Telepresence to $200,000 in what the Lab term's "modular telepresence" or systems that don't require a more expensive studio/shell/room-within-a-room construction.

Historically, telepresence systems have tended to be CxO-level purchases where it had been justified as an alternative to executive travel. The idea was for senior executives in distributed businesses to attend frequent virtual meetings without leaving their offices instead of wasting their time on airplanes, in hotels and in airports. The argument goes that as well as less travel and more productive executives, the convenient highly immersive sessions also leads to stronger trust between senior managers. It also leaves more time for remote executives to spend meeting with local or regional customers and otherwise run the business.

Yet, despite the positive impacts of telepresence, involving middle management has been a major challenge for most corporations. The high cost of implementation, operations and the intensive network resources required to deliver the truly immersive experience have limited their deployment to the executive floors and pretty much limited its impact to senior executives. In corporations with flat hierarchical organizations, telepresence rooms have tended to suffer from high utilization. Middle management are frequently 'bumped' from scheduled telepresence meetings in favor of higher priority, higher ranking executive encounters.

Today, Polycom announced its answer to these challenges with the TPX HD306M. This latest addition to the Polycom portfolio expands the range and affordability of the telepresence experience, bringing it closer to the sweet spot of middle management who are exactly the people who can take full advantage of the greater trust, higher productivity and better decisions that come from frequent immersive communications.

Key features:

• Three, 60-inch HD plasma displays encased in a video wall encompassing all of the video conferencing technology, cameras and audio processing system


• Specially designed conference table that positions six people on camera


• 360-degree ceiling-suspended microphones for unobstructed, unobtrusive and high quality audio pickup three preset Polycom EagleEye HD cameras built into the video wall


• An easy-to-use touch-screen control system (same as RPX)


• Furniture, lighting, chairs and acoustic wall treatments are included


• Support for two, three and four-screen telepresence solutions


• Directional audio output from speakers near where the remote spokesperson that is speaking is visualized


• Available as a multipurpose option so the room can be used as a meeting facility for both telepresence and non-telepresence meetings


• Integrated high definition content-sharing so participants can share PC content simultaneously and remotely


• Interoperable with the RPX series Telepresence room systems, standard definition video conferencing systems and high definition executive conferencing systems

The TPX HD306M is packaged with many of the company's advanced features in the RPX product line but is designed for multifunction meeting room applications. The HD306M sports a lower price point at $199,000 without losing the picture and audio quality or elegant room controls of the more expensive and more immersive RPX line.

The TPX HD306M implementation, maintenance and managed services are available through certified Polycom channel partners including Nortel, IBM and Avaya. Implementation services including room audit, installation and commissioning. Maintenance includes preventative inspections, 7x24 support line services, onsite and 2- or 4-hour response times. Managed services include options for complete concierge service that includes meeting reservation, scheduling management and remote room and network operations monitoring are also available.

This is a market-expanding move by Polycom, designed to deepen the appeal of the company's highly-integrated offering among customers and accelerate their growth in this emerging market.