<p>On Monday October 8, Polycom held a technology day in New York. At that event Polycom outlined its vision, strategy for the near future, and a bevvy of new products to support its new approach. Polycom's vision of ubiquitous video collaboration is similar to that of most other video vendors, but its approach is much different.</p><p>Talking about ubiquitous video is certainly much simpler than delivering on it, as it requires cooperation from the rest of the industry. Once every vendor is on the same page, video will go through that "rising tide" that we've all being waiting for. While I still don't think the industry is there yet, I believe what Polycom announced puts them in a position to capitalize on that rising tide, whenever it occurs.</p><p>Polycom made several product announcements, but the one that I felt was the most significant was the RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite, which is an extension to the company's RealPresence Platform. CloudAXIS is a browser-based client for secure B2B and B2C HD video calls. The client is built on HTML5 and unifies several video and collaborative work streams, such as document sharing, which creates a single pane of glass for workers to use to collaborate. However, the feature I like best in CloudAXIS is the unified directory. Polycom brings together directories from a number of business and social media platforms, including Skype, GTalk, Facebook, Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime. I've long felt one of the biggest barriers to broader video adoption is the directory problem, as users really don't know who is available or how to connect to anyone except to those individuals on the system you're using. CloudAXIS also has integration with standards-based systems from other vendors such as LifeSize and Cisco, enabling B2B communication. The company is also on the vision of ubiquitous video, so I'm hopeful we will see a single corporate directory or at least federated directories - sometime in the near future.</p><p>Polycom also announced it was supporting an open and standards-based version of SVC that also included native AVC interoperability. Startup Vidyo has been the most vocal regarding the power and value of using SVC for video, but they, like others, have a proprietary, closed version of SVC. As far as I know, Polycom is currently the only vendor with a standards-based implementation of SVC that offers simultaneous support for AVC, providing backward/forward investment protection. Microsoft has also announced that it will be the first company to license and implement this new standards-based SVC technology, per Warren Barkley's quote in Polycom's press release. The quality of SVC is breathtaking but the closed implementations of the technology has held back its usefulness. Polycom's open standards-based implementation will be a big step forward for SVC, especially as it will deliver 3X HD video capacity even for its installed base via a software upgrade option.</p><p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/81563">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/polycom-promises-to-make-vc-easier/146233">Polycom promises to make VC easier</a> (ITWorld Canada)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=dsAnYaOZvttM4XMBRrryMTQHww1jM&ned=us">127 additional articles.</a></p>