MetaSwitch Adopts HD Voice and HQ Video Communications with the Polycom VVX 1500

Polycom has teamed with carrier IP communications solutions outfit MetaSwitch (News - Alert) to deliver the PolycomVVX 1500 Business Media Phone to MetaSwitch customers worldwide.

 

The VVX 1500 is a touch-screen VoIP phone that combines IP telephony with business-class video and the ability to integrate with business applications. The phone’s personal video conferencing system has a fully featured VoIP telephone along with Polycom (News - Alert) HD Voice (wideband telephony) and an open application programming interface (API).

 

With the addition of the VVX 1500, MetaSwitch can now offer its customers the full line of Polycom SoundPoint IP desk phones product portfolio.

 

The Polycom phone also comes with a microbrowser for real-time delivery of personalized Web content and includes a 7" color touch-screen interface making it unique in the business IP phone category, according to the company.

 

The Polycom VVX 1500 will be on display at this week's MetaSwitch Forum 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

 

Sunil Bhalla, senior vice president and general manager of Voice Communications Solutions at Polycom, said the pairing is designed to help customers better leverage their communication systems to improve productivity and reduce costs.

 

"Together with MetaSwitch, we're able to deliver innovative, intuitive products like the VVX 1500 to market in order to help our customers work more efficiently and improve their bottom line,” said Bhalla.

 

The deal also marks the first time MetaSwitch will bring to market a visual communication solution, augmenting the HD Voice capabilities of the Polycom phones.

 

"As our customers move to enhance their unified communications networks, the demand for video communications continues to grow," said Andy Randall, vice president of marketing at MetaSwitch. "The Polycom VVX 1500 provides high quality voice and video communications with the ability to also integrate with key business processes and applications."

 

Tom Keating CTO, vice president and Founder TMC Labs, blogged here about the new phone and weighed in on its “game changing” status.

 

The VVX 1500 is designed to enable face-to-face collaboration and simplify multi-media communications in an effort to help reduce travel costs in the business environment.

 

The move is all the more important in the growing media phone market that is expected to grow to nearly 10 million units shipped worldwide and generate more than $3 billion in revenues, according to research firm In-Stat (News - Alert).

 
As TMCnet recently reported, MetaSwitch has been expanding its ability to enable channel partners to host business-class phone system features for standards-based Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) phones.

And partnering with Polycom, the leading provider of standards-based IP phones, with a range of solutions for the desktop, conference room and employees who require mobility within the workplace, is expected to help expand that footprint in both terms of quantity and quality.

 

MetaSwitch customer Nextera Communications will be one of the first companies to deploy the VVX 1500 as part of its MetaSwitch-based Hosted IP PBX (News - Alert) product line. According to Greg Arvig, president of Nextera, the company can see the benefits of high quality voice and video communications as a productive, economical advantage for the ever-increasing amount of geographically diverse businesses.

 

"There's no question that the clarity of telephone conversations has greatly improved by offering Polycom HD Voice products," said Arvig. "With the addition of the VVX 1500, we will also be able to offer a collaboration tool for increased customer efficiency.

 

And these tools include a business media phone that combines a personal video conferencing system with a fully featured voice over IP (VoIP) telephone with Polycom HD Voice. The intuitive color touch-screen interface, and open application programming interface (API)  has a microbrowser for real-time delivery of personalized Web content as well as integration with key business applications.

 

For those attending the MetaSwitch forum this week, Chalan Aras, vice president of product management for Polycom Voice Communications Solutions, will be present a session titled "Voice, Video and Beyond" at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 8.