Last Updated on March 30, 2015 by GrahamWalsh
So web cams have been around for years. Video Conferencing has been round for years. Now some people think it is OK to put a £50 web cam in a meeting room and get a good experience.
Well, yes in some environments it may work if you have all the right technology around you such as screens and audio too but in most cases it will be chucked in and expected to work like a high performance codec.
Polycom recently announced the RoundTable 100 in conjunction with Microsoft for the upcoming launch of Skype for Business. Now this solution is fine for very small meeting or huddle rooms. You also won’t get the experience shown in the press images as the camera lens and angle is not capable of producing that image, that’s unless you are 2″ from the camera.
In addition, the RT 100 will only register to the Office 365 platform and not your internal Lync or Skype for Business server. This clearly demonstrates where it will be suitable. SoHo users in my opinion. The list price will be around $1,000 when released and only available via Microsoft online shop. Polycom sales reps will not retire over a few RT 100 sales.
Now to invest in some proper room video conferencing systems that can integrate with Lync and Skype for Business, then the Polycom Group 300 with Eagle Eye Acoustic camera would be the perfect fit at just over £2k. What you get for this is a huge amount of technology and innovation that you would probably not find in something like the RoundTable 100. Things like acoustic bubble is perfect for organisations building workspaces for tomorrow where there are more open plan spaces rather than meeting rooms.