Polycom (News - Alert), a manufacturer of conference phones, announced Tuesday a new product family, SoundStructure, consisting of what it claims are the industry’s first installed audio solutions for voice and video conferencing that deliver truly immersive sound quality.

 

The new solutions utilize Polycom’s audio technology to deliver scalable, flexible and comprehensive systems with state-of-the-art performance and audio processing capabilities. Voice quality is a major focus with this new product family.

 

“Great voice quality can dramatically improve the effectiveness of audio and video conferences, and the SoundStructure series delivers a truly immersive experience,” said Paul Waadevig, global director at Frost & Sullivan’s conferencing and collaboration division, in a statement.

 

Waadevig continued: “With features like full-stereo echo cancellation and high definition audio, the SoundStructure systems enable customers to communicate over distances as effectively as if they were in the same room.”

 

Polycom’s vice president and general manager of installed voice solutions, Craig Richardson, said that the SoundStructure product family significantly raises the bar for audio systems.

 

“The SoundStructure series with Polycom HD Voice technology complements our industry-leading high definition HDX video conferencing solutions to give customers an unequaled experience called Polycom UltimateHD,” Richardson said in a statement. “A SoundStructure system will provide a completely immersive collaboration experience that can't be implemented with today's installed audio solutions.”

 

Just how is Polycom delivering such outstanding audio quality? With SoundStructure, the company focused on supporting and enhancing industry technologies, such as StereoSurround audio (22kHz) and full-stereo echo cancellation. New noise cancellation technology is also used to eliminate a broad range of background noise. Additionally, a new type of gain-sharing, automatic microphone mixer introduces increased flexibility and smoother transitions.

 

Polycom’s SoundStructure solutions are designed for use with installed room environments, and to meet the needs of system integrators and audio/visual professionals. Features like multiple input/output options and submix processing capabilities make the solutions flexible enough for use in any room configuration.

 

Other features to note for the SoundStructure product family include: 

“Customers will be impressed by the voice quality delivered by the SoundStructure systems, and systems integrators and audio/visual professionals will appreciate the system's seamless scalability, advanced processing capabilities, direct integration with the Polycom HDX systems, and easy configuration,” said Richardson, summing up the value proposition of these new solutions.

 

Audio quality comes up again and again when discussing Polycom’s new solutions, with good reason: it’s important. That especially true when using audio conferencing in the education market.

 

“High quality audio is an often overlooked but vital part of distance learning classrooms,” noted Randal Abler, associate director for the Arbutus Center for Distributed Engineering Education at Georgia Institute of Technology, in a statement. “Stereo audio conferencing will vastly improve the student's sense of participation, which is crucial to learning.”

 

Polycom’s SoundStructure product family doesn’t end with just audio, though. The new solutions are interoperable with most video conferencing systems on the market today, including (as noted earlier) Polycom’s own HDX high-def systems. This particular connection is made a snap through the use of bi-directional stereo digital audio sent between devices.

 

In the North American, European and Asian markets, Polycom plans to make its new SoundStructure products available during the third quarter of 2007, through the company’s channel partners. Pricing will be as follows: eight-channel system, $4,995; 12-channel system, $6,495; 16-channel system (North American only), $7,995. The systems will be available in other regions later this year; regional pricing may vary.

 

To learn more about Polycom’s audio conference solutions, please visit the Conference Phones channel on TMCnet.com, sponsored by KeyPhonesDirect.com.

 

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