Polycom Revealed New Software Capabilities for Its Realpresence Video as a Service

Polycom today revealed new software capabilities for its RealPresence ‘Video as a Service’ platform to encourage more developers to work with the system.

The crux of announcement was more open application programing interfaces (APIs) and new software development kits (SDKs) so developers could create more custom applications using RealPresence at the centre.

Polycom also provides a digital sandbox for testing the applications throughout the development process and enables community input via a forum to encourage an open source attitude.

The company has provided additional support for the post-development phase as well with its Polycom RealPresence Resource Manager. This enables admins to provision and manage the solution centrally for up to 10,000 devices.

"As more organisations realise the benefits of collaborating face-to-face by video from anywhere – benefits such as increased productivity, improved engagement, and reduced operational and travel costs – they want to fully incorporate video into their business processes and workflows to make usage as easy as possible,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, president of products and services at Polycom.

“Our new suite of APIs for the RealPresence Platform will provide this integration and give customers greater flexibility to innovate as they further build out their video collaboration networks to drive significant business value. At the same time, we’re delivering more scalability and manageability to IT administrators who are looking to video-enable their organisations.”

The mobile version of RealPresence has now reached version 1.3, expanding its compatibility to HTC mobile devices and tablets, rather than just working with Apple’s iOS operating system. The stand-out feature in the new version, however, is the camera control feature, which enables a user to adjust settings – such as zooming or tilting – on the other end of the line to improve the view during a video conversation.  

One of the key industries Polycom is focusing this on is healthcare, where being able to contact specialists across the globe quickly and giving them a full view of a situation gives huge benefits to a patient.

Carlos Carrasco, director of business development and innovation at US healthcare provider, Orlando Health, is using the system and says it has given doctors at the practice much more freedom.

“When a stroke situation arises, we have to make contact with doctors very quickly to discuss the type of treatment that a patient needs, so we have neurologists on call around the clock,” he said. “Polycom RealPresence Mobile enables our doctors to conduct video consultations from anywhere that they are able to access the internet.”

“The far-end camera control has proven to be very easy to use, and a great feature that lets the doctors who are in a remote location control the view of the patient, whether wide angle or close up, without needing someone in the patient’s room to adjust the pan, tilt, and zoom in the hospital room.”

All of the new features for RealPresence and the latest mobile version will be made available commercially at the end of July.