Nortel, Polycom Add HD Video, Telepresence to Unified Communications
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NEW GLOBAL DEMO NETWORK LETS CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE POSSIBILITIES FIRST-HAND
OCTOBER 10, 2007
NEW YORK - Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT] and Polycom, Inc. [NASDAQ: PLCM] are adding high definition (HD) video conferencing and telepresence to unified communications for enterprises, greatly expanding the possibilities for growth, enhanced productivity, lower cost and reduced carbon footprint by incorporating real-time video collaboration from the desktop to the board room.
Building on a global resale and services agreement announced in May 2007, Nortel has also launched a demonstration network that allows prospective customers around the world to experience truly immersive telepresence.
Bob Hagerty, chairman and chief executive officer, Polycom and Dietmar Wendt, president, Global Services, Nortel made these announcements today in conjunction with the World Business Forum in New York.
"Nortel and Polycom are making it possible for employees, customers and suppliers thousands of miles apart to experience face-to-face meetings so real they'll almost believe they're in the same room," Wendt said. "This provides all the benefits without the time, expense and environmental impact of travel."
"Nortel supplies everything from network design and installation to operation, management, scheduling, and utility-based pricing and service delivery," Wendt said. "This makes achieving tangible business results simple and fast. And Nortel is firmly committed to providing the best possible end user experience."
With this joint unified communications solution from Nortel and Polycom, users can get one-click desktop access to HD video conferencing, along with telephony, instant messaging and e-mail. This gives them the ability, for example, to have immediate, face-to-face meetings with anyone, anywhere in the world.
With HD video conferencing and telepresence, doctors can provide more life-saving, long-distance consultations. Banks and other financial institutions can make faster, more well-informed decisions impacting transactions worth millions of dollars. Hotels can increase revenues by expanding business services to include highly-efficient, multi-location conferencing and collaboration. Offshore oil drilling rigs can get immediate assistance making repairs, saving the cost of flying in experts by helicopter and literally thousands of dollars a minute in lost production.
"We're making numerous time and money-saving applications available to our customers by combining leading-edge Polycom video and collaboration products with world-class multimedia communications and application services from Nortel to create an outstanding unified communications experience," Hagerty said.
The two companies are delivering interoperability between Polycom's RMX 2000 Real-Time Media Conferencing Platform** and Nortel's Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100, enabling users to launch point-to-point and multipoint voice, HD video and HD content sharing in real time from Nortel's MCS desktop client.
The Nortel demonstration network is managed from eight Multimedia Network Operation Centers around the world. By year-end 2007, it will connect nearly 30 locations, including Nortel-deployed Polycom RealPresence Experience (RPX)** suites in Frankfurt, New York, Toronto, Dallas and Raleigh, N.C. Planned additional locations include London, Beijing, New Delhi, Singapore and Chicago.
Nortel resells and services Polycom video conferencing solutions as part of the Nortel Multimedia Services portfolio under a non-exclusive agreement. This includes telepresence; conference room and desktop video for multipoint conferencing; video network management and scheduling; and recording, streaming and archiving of video conferences and video content. These standards-based solutions are part of the Polycom UltimateHD* architecture**, which offers the highest quality, scalability and backwards compatibility necessary to provide an unrivaled user experience.
Polycom and Nortel Government Solutions, a U.S. company wholly owned by Nortel, also provide these solutions to U.S. Federal Government agencies seeking more efficient, effective and productive environments for collaboration among geographically dispersed workers.
About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations by integrating the broadest array of high definition video, wired and wireless voice, and content solutions to deliver the ultimate collaborative experience. Polycom's high quality, standards-based conferencing and collaboration solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use. Supported by an open architecture, they integrate seamlessly with leading telephony, workplace wireless telephony, and presence-based networks. With its market-driving technologies, best-in-class products, alliance partnerships, and world-class service, Polycom is the smart choice for organizations seeking proven solutions and a competitive advantage from on-demand communications and collaboration. For additional information, call 800-POLYCOM or visit the Polycom web site at polycom.com.**
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit nortel.com/news.
**This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.
Contacts for Press and Analysts:
Mark Buford
Nortel
972-362-1512
mark.buford@nortel.com
Jessica Kersey
Polycom
925-924-5689
jessica.kersey@polycom.com
