Polycom Puts Telepresence at Your Fingertips

In the fourth quarter, Polycom plans to release a touchscreen device to control its immersive telepresence rooms. Called Touch Control, it will work with all Polycom HDX immersive telepresence systems.

Touch Control’s technical features include an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) which Polycom says offers simple navigation, direct call control, administration and content-sharing capabilities, and a 7-inch, high-resolution screen.

Polycom says operating the Touch Control will be similar to using industry-leading smartphones and MP3 players and will require a minimal learning curve. It can be deployed with one cable connection to network and power over Ethernet (POE), share content in and out of a video call with materials from a USB flash drive or direct connection to a PC, and multiple deployed units can be managed on a network with a Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA).

Polycom’s room telepresence technology extends content from a central meeting location to remote rooms using advanced telecom systems. Using communication technologies such as HD, video and voice, room telepresence integrates centralized content with room endpoints such as TVs and PCs to turn a given room into a collaborative workspace.

Enterprise technology is not just about linking a remote user’s computer to the network, but fully linking the actual user to the network. Telepresence technology offers a good opportunity to more fully immerse remote users into what is going on in other parts of the enterprise beyond having access to data or IT systems. By truly linking remote users in a personal way to the central headquarters and to each other, telepresence makes the “virtual office” that much less virtual and more office-like.