Polycom Inc. believes its upcoming OTX 300 telepresence system will suit most businesses to a “T.”
That’s because the table around which the three-monitor system is built around is shaped like a stubby T. The company found customers were unhappy that most telepresence rooms have a table with chairs that only faces the monitors, so the room has only one purpose. The extensions on the OTX table allow staff to face each other for non-video conferencing meetings.
“It’s optimized for collaboration inside or outside a video call,” explained John Antanaitis, Polycom’s vice-president of marketing.
The table also includes three fold-down 21-inch monitors that automatically pop up when a presenter wants his audience to see content from a desktop computer. When not needed the monitors fold down to give more space.
The three 65-inch monitors in the OTX system have thin bezels, Antanaitis said, to better give the illusion that they are almost one.
Above the central monitor is a module that holds three high-definition cameras capable of delivering 1080p video at 60 frames per second. In addition, it can use the H.264 High Profile compression system, which Polycom said uses as little as 512 kilobits per second, uses half the bandwidth that H.264 standard uses.
H.264 has been available up only on the company’s HDX series room telepresence systems that use mid-sized monitors. However, starting Monday, it will also be available on the room-sized RMX 4000 and 2000 series, the customizable ATX series and the TPX
The OTX series uses codecs from Polycom’s HDX 8000 system, which allows standards-based presence capabilities when used with the Polycom CMA management solution. That gives one-click dialing to other endpoints, from desktop video applications to immersive telepresence rooms.
It also supports native integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 and Exchange and Polycom’s Outlook conferencing solution for scheduling meetings.
The OTX series is aimed at organizations that want a telepresence system for up to six people. Its closest competitor would be Cisco System Inc.’s TelePresence 3010, which also has three 65-inch flat panel screens with pop-up desk monitors.
Options in the OTX series include overhead lights and portable front and rear acoustic walls.
