Polycom RealPresence Platform Integrated with SimpleSignal's UC Platform

SimpleSignal (News - Alert) and Polycom have announced a strategic agreement to provide Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) offerings by combining the Polycom RealPresence Platform software infrastructure with SimpleSignal’s cloud-based unified communications platform.

Dave Gilbert (News - Alert), CEO at SimpleSignal, said video communication changes everything whether it’s a one-on-one conversation or a video conference with a large team.

“The combination of Polycom’s (News - Alert) RealPresence Platform software infrastructure and SimpleSignal’s cloud can now make this experience simple, practical and affordable for companies of all sizes,” Gilbert said.

An interoperable software infrastructure, the RealPresence Platform is ideal for universal video collaboration. It powers the new SimpleMeetup Video service, allowing SimpleSignal to leverage Polycom’s broad open standards-based inoperability.

Company officials said this enables employees, partners and customers to collaborate face-to-face, across multiple platforms and devices.

The SimpleMeetup Video is an anytime, on-demand, HD-quality VaaS offering for two to 100 participants. In addition to complementing SimpleSignal’s existing phone service, the service can also be used on its own or in combination with the phone service.

“Collaboration is becoming one of the most common services in the cloud, and the Polycom RealPresence Platform is the software infrastructure of choice for a growing number of service providers offering Video-as-a-Service,” said Gary Testa, global vice president of Cloud and Service Providers at Polycom.

The combination of Polycom’s software infrastructure and SimpleSignal’s service offers low operating costs, reliable access, and ease of use, Testa said, adding that with the Polycom RealPresence Platform, SimpleSignal can connect virtually any device – standards-based or proprietary – resulting in powerful ROI for customers.

Recently, Polycom updated RealPresence Platform software by adding the open standards-based scalable video coding (SVC), with 3X HD multipoint video call capacity for greater scalability, dramatically lower TCO and backwards- and forwards-compatibility.

According to company officials, SimpleSignal’s VaaS offering rounds out a suite of cloud-hosted unified communications services. These services have exclusively featured Polycom IP phone equipment – the Polycom SoundPoint IP series of phones – since SimpleSignal’s launch in 2004.

Additionally, Polycom also announced a definitive agreement to acquire Sentri, a provider of advanced services with expertise in Microsoft (News - Alert) technologies, UC&C, video collaboration, cloud services and networking. 

To find out more about Polycom, visit the company at ITEXPO Miami 2013, happening now in Miami, Florida. ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit Polycom in booth #516. For more information on ITEXPO, click here.