The news from Polycom

It’s been busy over there at Polycom, so at My VoIP News we’ll catch up with those folks first.

Communications solutions provider Polycom has announced the launch of its SoundPoint IP 430 two-line phone. The IP 430 comes complete with a full-duplex speaker phone with Polycom Acoustic Clarity Technology, graphical LCD, simple menu navigation and one-button access to telephony features.

The SoundPoint IP 430 promises to “enhance voice quality and provide an easy transition from legacy PSTN systems to the world of IP telephony.”

In tandem with the news regarding the IP 430 came the announcement of the release of SIP 2.0 software, which again, promises to add “new features and functionality to the entire line of SIP-based Polycom phones, including integration with Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005.”

One ballyhooed addition to Polycom voice over internet protocol range are advanced security capabilities; remember, that’s the hot-button topic for VoIP in 2007. (As though you could forget.) System management capabilities also take a step forward with 2.0.

Earlier this month, Polycom representatives announced the firm’s acquisition of Destiny Conferencing Corporation, a privately held telepresence solutions company headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

Destiny’s product has already incorporated Polycom’s leading videoconferencing material and is in fact the very basis for Polycom’s RPX telepresence offering. As a result of the acquisition, Polycom now owns several patents core to telepresence, a market that Polycom PR describes as “rapidly-emerging” and “driven by the need for dispersed people to communicate as if they are all in the same room.”

Polycom purchased Destiny for $47.6 million in cash, which includes repayment of debt and an escrow amount. Destiny shareholders could receive up to an additional $10 million of consideration through 2009. Destiny has 27 employees; all have been promised job retention, as they are to join Polycom.

Most recently, Polycom together with commercialized Asterisk VoIP software producer, announced their integrated solution, resulting in … an upgrade in the SoundPoint line’s technology. (Like how we brought that full circle?)

Digium AsteriskNOW software is employed in Polycom SoundPoint IP desktop phones and the package promises “an intuitive configuration process that automatically provisions the phones for immediate customer use.”

Meanwhile, Digium's Asterisk software now supports Polycom HD Voice technology, which reportedly doubles clarity and sound quality from traditional analog. The BuyNOW feature, within AsteriskNOW's Digium-designed GUI, is designed to simply the phone purchasing process by connecting users to VoIP product outlet NETXUSA.

Thanks to BuyNOW, you can buy Polycom's SoundPoint IP 650 with HD Voice, SoundPoint IP 601, SoundPoint IP 501, SoundPoint IP 430, SoundPoint IP 301 and the conference phone SoundStation IP 4000.

NOW.

And Asterisk 1.4.0 itself now supports Polycom's HD Voice technology, which includes wideband audio, enhanced signal processing, and the trademarked Acoustic Clarity Technology.

Code for Asterisk, originally written by Digium’s Mark Spencer has been contributed to from open source software engineers around the world. Currently boasting over 1 million users, Asterisk supports a wide range of TDM protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces, featuring VoIP packet protocols such as SIP and IAX. Asterisk supports U.S. and European standard signaling types used in business phone systems, allowing a bridge between next-generation voice-data integrated networks and extant infrastructure.

Polycom, Inc. is a specialist in unified collaborative communications that integrate the broadest array of video, voice, data and web software.

Nice month you’ve had, Polycom. What'll you do for an encore?