Poly has been leading the pack in terms of innovation since the earliest days of video conferencing.  Today at Zoomtopia, we’ve unveiled the Poly Studio X70, a beautifully engineered, all-in-one video bar that combines razor-sharp 4K video with boardroom filling stereo sound for the best meeting experience available. Joining the lineup alongside the Poly Studio X30, Poly Studio X50 and the recently announced Poly Studio E70, these solutions represent the next generation of Poly hardware for large conference rooms.

Smarter Hybrid Meetings Driven by Artificial Intelligence

The magic of the Poly Studio X70 comes from its dual-camera design and Poly MeetingAI, a proprietary suite of features designed to enhance virtual meetings. We’ve engineered the system to constantly analyze the room using a 120-degree wide-angle lens and automatically switch to the 70-degree telephoto lens when there is a better view. Both cameras have a 20-megapixel sensor for lifelike clarity.

Poly DirectorAI is the brain behind Poly’s cutting-edge video experiences. It uses A.I. and machine learning technology to deliver real-time automatic transitions, framing, and tracking that make everyone feel like they are in the room together. Poly DirectorAI perfects the hybrid working experience by seamlessly connecting those in the meeting room to those joining remotely.

Beautifully Engineered Audio Experience

The Poly Studio X70 has crystal-clear, boardroom-filling audio from two-way stereo speakers, aluminum cone tweeters, and custom-tuned bass ports. We’ve also brought our NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence features with our patented 2nd order gradient microphones to make sure that distractions are kept out of your meeting. Here’s a demo video to show you just how good the microphone pickup is:

Personal Device Control and Environment Control integration with Extron

In addition to announcing our new hardware, we’re also delivering new software with the rollout of Poly Video OS v3.6 for the Poly Studio X line and G7500 codec, giving users access to new features to control the meeting room experience. When a person walks into a conference room, the first thing they do is interact with the controller in the room which is why our team at Poly has been hard at work building the future of room control. First up, we’ve added the ability to control the room system with a personal device to avoid interacting with shared surfaces. Secondly, we’ve worked with our partners at Extron to provide the ability to control lights, monitors, and shades in the room directly from the Poly TC8 touch controller.

Control the Room System Right from your Personal Device

When it comes to driving the experience in a conference room, we believe that there should be more options than just the controller on the table.  Sometimes the controller might be out of reach and a personal device is more convenient. As we return to the office, many people will simply prefer to avoid having to touch shared surfaces. Keeping that in mind, Poly has built a solution that allows a user to control the meeting room system from any personal device that has a web browser.

When a customer has a Poly Studio X or G7500 in Poly Video Mode, there is now an option that allows a user to securely connect to a video system without the need to download an app. All that a user needs to do is walk into the room and scan the QR code or visit the dedicated URL. After that, the system will display a code to be entered, and the user will be able to drive the experience right from their personal device.

Control More than just the Video System… Control the Environment

Full room integration extends beyond codecs, cameras, and microphones. Many of our customers look to integrate the entire room environment with their video system. Whether it be the lights, the shades, or the monitors in the room, they can now all be controlled via the Poly TC8 controller. We are proud to announce a new integration with our partners at Extron to provide this feature. You can now enable a Poly TC8 to connect to Extron hardware to give full control of the elements in the room.

Whether you use Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or any of our other great video partners, you will have the option to swipe from the right to access room controls.

But wait, there’s more!

Also, in this 3.6 release, we’ve added support for Zoom Smart Gallery, and the ability to configure static IP addresses and WIFI settings during the setup process. To learn more about the features in the 3.6 update see the release notes.

Poly is committed to ensuring that our equipment continues to deliver more value as time goes on. Our engineers are working to ensure that the Poly video experience is evolving to meet our customer needs and pushing video to the next level. With the addition of the Poly Studio X70, there is now a Poly Studio X model for every room in your organization.

To learn more about Poly’s Video Solutions or download our 2021 Product Guide, visit Poly.com.

Nobody wants to feel left out during a meeting. As IT leaders adapt their collaboration strategies to support the hybrid workforce, the key to success is ensuring all meeting participants are on equal footing, no matter where they dial-in from.  Without the right collaboration tools on both ends of the call, remote participants can begin to feel isolated from the conversation happening in the conference room, leading to reduced engagement and impacting overall productivity.

Poly and Zoom are at the cutting edge of empowering a new way of working by delivering the next generation of hardware and software features that create meeting equality for distributed teams.

Introduced today, the Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery feature is a great example of innovation designed to democratize meetings by giving remote participants a more optimal view of people in Zoom Rooms. The AI technology takes a single camera view of multiple participants in a Zoom Room and divides it up, giving each participant their own square in Zoom Meetings. When combined with Poly Studio X video bars, Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery ensures all participants – especially those who are working remote— are more empowered to speak, interact and share their best ideas with confidence.

Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery Public Beta was released by Zoom today and will be coming to Poly Studio X series this July. Check out this simulation video showcasing the Smart Gallery Experience:

Poly is committed to providing the best video-led experiences which makes our partnership with Zoom the perfect pairing. Our cutting-edge AI innovations including group framing, speaker tracking, and conversation mode serve as a great foundation for Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery to build on. I look forward to testing the next AI innovation Poly and Zoom engineer that will take group video conferencing to new heights. The possibilities are endless.

To learn more about Poly solutions for Zoom visit poly.com/zoom

Being the conduit between you and seamless Microsoft Teams experiences is a role that we don’t take lightly. In fact, it’s something we work tirelessly to improve. When we launched Microsoft Teams on Poly Studio X, it was built around the touch monitor experience, our TC8 controller served as a virtual remote control. While this worked well to launch basic calling functions, our customers wanted functionality that granted them a richer, more complete experience right at their fingertips. We listened.

NEW LOOK + NEW POSSIBILITIES

With the release of the latest Poly Video OS version 3.3.2, the Teams Room on Android user experience goes to a whole new level of interactivity with an all-new dynamic controller. This brand-new control interface for Microsoft Teams Room on Android provides features that will streamline your room collaboration experience — such as accessing camera control settings, an interactive calendar to stay up to date with all your meetings, and call controls so you can add attendees on the fly or mute participants.

New Microsoft Teams UI

This updated touch control UI adds to the excellent experience that Poly Studio X provides on Microsoft Teams Room for Android. With a Poly Studio X running Microsoft Teams, you get all of Poly’s MeetingAI features like automatic speaker tracking, group framing, Acoustic Fence, and NoiseBlockAI.

POLY AND MICROSOFT, AT YOUR SERVICE

As remote collaboration continues to be a fundamental part of how you do business, Poly and Microsoft will continue to work together to bring the best possible experience to you, your organization, and your partners. Poly Video OS Software 3.3.2 update is available now via Poly Lens or as a download from the Poly support site and stay tuned for more exciting updates.

Now more than ever, workforces are dispersed, and industries of all types are relying on technology to maintain and reimagine their workflows. The way we teach, heal, build, and do business has been rapidly disrupted and Poly is moving at warp speed to deliver innovations to help our customers make the most of this new way of working. With Poly Video OS update 3.2 for the Poly Studio X and G7500, we’ve added USB and HDMI camera input capabilities (G7500 and Poly Studio X50)  – providing our endpoints with a wide variety of camera options and the ability to switch cameras in a dynamic setting. Moreover, we’re proud to announce the addition of two new native partners apps, StarLeaf and RingCentral.

CONNECT ADDITIONAL CAMERAS FOR GREATER FLEXIBILITY

For those working remotely in industries such as broadcast, education, and medical, we are especially excited to provide the ability to add supplementary cameras and switch between them for the best possible view.

With OS update 3.2, a teacher in a classroom with some or all of their students joining over video can now walk to another part of the room to show a model or draw on a whiteboard while staying on-camera – simply by switching to whichever camera has the best view. This can be done by connecting an EagleEye IV USB to the Studio X50 for alternate views that might need greater zoom capabilities.

Or, a specialized camera can be connected via HDMI for medical or mechanical trainings. This can be done by connecting multiple cameras to the G7500 or Studio X50 and the view controlled from the Poly TC8 touchscreen controller.

USING MULTIPLE CAMERAS WITH POLY STUDIO X50

USING MULTIPLE CAMERAS WITH THE POLY G7500

IMMERSIVE AUDIO EXPERIENCE

We also added greater audio flexibility by enabling 3.5mm audio output on the Studio X50, allowing you to use a wider variety of speakers when required for larger rooms. Additionally, the 3.2 software update brings USB support for Extron DSP opening up a wide array of audio options for larger rooms.

USB DEVICE MODE IMPROVEMENTS

Upgrades to USB Device Mode make it even better – giving you full control while using your PC to drive the meeting.  You now have mute, camera, and volume control in USB Device Mode which provides the ultimate flexibility to connect to whatever platform you need via your PC.

NEW PARTNERS

Now you can launch your StarLeaf or RingCentral meeting natively from your Poly Studio X30 or X50.  This brings our total number of native partner applications to six – far and away the most of any videoconferencing hardware on the market.

FLEXIBLE MOUNTING OPTIONS FOR THE STUDIO X30

You asked, we listened…

With our new inverted mounting kit, you can now mount the Poly X30 underneath the monitor while concealing all of the cables.

Regardless of how you are working now or in the future, Poly is here to adapt and innovate according to the times – ensuring you look and sound your best no matter where you work. Poly Video OS Software 3.2 update is available now via Poly’s cloud management tool.

As conversations of returning to the office begin to circulate, operations and facilities leads find themselves in an attempt to plan for a largely unforeseeable future. Although this transition will vary greatly around the world, one notion that seems to be repeated is the need to be prepared for any possible outcome. For many organizations, this means equipping their workforce with technology which enables them to seamlessly transition between remote and in-office working as needed – something that is only possible with the right collaboration gear and platform to serve as the glue holding together a distributed staff.  Since COVID-19, Microsoft Teams has witness tremendous growth in its daily active users — from 32 million in early March* to a staggering 75 million by April**. Today, Poly is proud to make another addition to the broadest device portfolio for Microsoft Teams with the certification of the Studio X family.

Already an affirmed devotee of Microsoft Teams? Now, you can order the Studio X30 and X50 with native Teams already running right out of the box. And, if you’ve already purchased and/or deployed the Studio X and would like to run the native Teams app, simply install the Poly Video OS Software 3.1.1 update and select Teams as your preferred collaboration platform.

What’s New?

Proximity Join

Now more than ever, the fewer times throughout the day that you can touch shared devices and high-traffic areas, the better. With the new Proximity Join feature, you can simply walk into any available meeting space and join a meeting from your personal device via the Microsoft Teams app.

Leave your Device Behind

Joining meetings has never been simpler, now you can walk into the scheduled meeting room and with a simple touch of the Teams button on the TC8 you’re in the meeting.

Content Sharing via Teams App

Have something to share during your meeting? Now you can easily share content from your phone or laptop via the Teams app.

Consistent User Experience

Familiarizing yourself with different meeting technology is not only frustrating, but it can also cause meeting delays and waste people’s time. A native Microsoft Teams experience means that users can expect a familiar user interface while meeting from their home office, desk, or huddle spaces.

Smarter Tech Meets Unparalleled Poly Quality

Poly has an unparalleled track record of driving innovation and prioritizing quality in the video conferencing space. The Studio X continues in this spirit, featuring Poly’s advanced MeetingAI which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat the common distractions that derail your meetings.

Best Audio – Always

Keep distracting noise and outside conversations from disrupting your meeting with Poly NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence. Common noises such as typing, tapping, paper sliding, and candy wrapper crinkling are all kept out so you can hear the speaker clearly. Additionally, the Studio X’s beamforming microphone array delivers crisp, clear voice pickup so you can be confident you’re being heard, no matter where you sit in the room.

Production-Quality Meetings

Poly MeetingAI makes far-end participants feel like they’re in the room with our built-in production rules that intelligently track the speaker – thereby keeping visual focus on who’s talking. Expanding on speaker tracking and group framing functionality, the smooth tracking feature subtly shifts the camera’s focus to frame a different speaker when the distance between the two speakers is small, instead of a sudden cut.

Insights and Device Management

Now more than ever, IT and Facilities Managers need actionable insights to inform big-dollar decisions about how to equip and manage their workspaces. Poly Lens provides a clear line of sight into device health trends to ensure maximum uptime. Additionally, no matter where your endpoints are deployed, Poly Lens enables IT to inventory and ensure all devices are up to date with the latest software. Together, empowering businesses to maximize their investments and seamless roll outs.

A Teams Device for Your Entire Organization

No matter how or where you work, Poly has a solution to meet your every collaboration need across and outside your organization. As a certified Microsoft partner, Poly offers Microsoft Teams device solutions for Teams Rooms, video conferencing, phones/speakerphones, headsets, and professional services. With a Microsoft Teams Certified device, users experience the very best of Teams including, high-quality audio calls, video conferencing, calendar integration, file sharing, and more.

No Matter What’s Next, We Got You

Without a doubt, this next year will require patience, persistence and flexibility. And, with all the unknowns, the one thing that is nearly certain will be our increased reliance on quality collaboration tools to keep businesses running smoothly. Poly is here to make sure you look and sound your best – from the board room to the living room – we got you!

Poly Video OS Software 3.1.1 update is available now via Poly’s cloud management tool. Learn more about the Poly Studio X and other Poly solutions for Microsoft Teams.

*“Microsoft announces new Teams features as usage skyrockets nearly 40 percent in a week” (The Verge, March 2020)

**“Microsoft Teams now has 75 million daily active users” (Business Insider, April 2020).

At Poly, we strive to transform your meeting rooms into the hub where authentic human connections and collaboration take place. Our aim is a future where we make the connection, then that’s the last time you notice us in your meeting. What we mean by this is developing smart devices that are able to follow along with how humans communicate in a way that feels so natural, they disappear.

When we launched Poly Video OS as our platform of the future, we made a commitment to ensure our customers could get more out of their investment as time went on. Today, we’re excited to deliver software update 3.1 to make your G7500 and Studio X family that much better.

Poly AI Leveling Up

Poly MeetingAI is the bit of magic that makes video conferencing with the Studio X video bars or the G7500 feel so natural. Two of our flagship features are NoiseBlockAI and Automatic Camera Framing, both of which gained significant improvements with this software release. If desired, Automatic Camera Framing will group all meeting participants and naturally move between speakers, framing them as they speak. This feature allows far-end participants to feel like they’re in room while also freeing others in the room from having to control a camera. Check out the video below to see how we’ve made this even more natural.

NoiseBlockAI ensures voices come through naturally, and you don’t have to be concerned about distracting background noises disrupting the flow of your meeting. Software update 3.1 makes further improvements to our noise-canceling technology that uses machine learning to truly understand what belongs in a call and what doesn’t!

BYOD Flexibility with USB Device Mode

Next, we’ve all had experiences where we’ve had difficulty joining a meeting from a room system.  Maybe the dial-in info was not in the correct format, maybe it’s a different cloud service than you’re used to. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a reliable backup to give you peace of mind? We think so too. USB Device Mode allows you to connect your laptop to the room system and utilize all the awesome audio and video features with any meeting service in just two steps while staying connected to your laptop.

New Controller Option with Trio

With this update, you can now use the Poly Trio 8500, 8800 or the brand new C60 as a controller with the Zoom Room app or the Poly Video app. In addition, you also get to use the Trio mics at the center of the table for an outstanding audio experience.

G7500 Getting Stronger

When it comes to covering large meeting spaces the G7500 is the answer — and, its coverage just got even better. It now supports 3.5mm audio mixing options, the IP mic adapter to support SoundStructure and USB support for SHURE microphones.

A New Partner App

First, we are pleased to announce that we’ve added a new app from our cloud video partner, GoToRoom. End users will be able to natively run the GoToRoom app on their Studio X or G7500 and experience GoToRoom’s familiar UI.  The app is there today, and service from our partner will begin next month. Part of the vision for Poly Video OS was to build a platform that included all cloud video services, and we’ve got more announcements to come, so stay tuned.

There’s still more

I told you, our commitment to bringing you more value is real. In addition to everything listed above, we’ve also included the following in this release:

• Support for Poly USB headsets (includes any Poly headset with a USB dongle)
• Ability to leverage analytics with Poly Lens
• Camera enhancements to correct for sharpness and motion blur in low light
• Support for IPv6
• Support for Zoom Rooms for touch monitors
• Debut extension mic for the Studio X50

Update today and begin using all these features to enhance your meeting experience. We hope you enjoy and there’s more to come — stay tuned.

Videoconferencing has gone from being a niche play in board rooms to an expected part of virtually any conference call.  And with good reason: in today’s increasingly global, digital work environments, employees expect to be able to connect and collaborate with remote team members quickly and easily as the need arises. Today, you hear a lot about huddle rooms and small, modular solutions (including from us!), but there are still standard conference rooms that need to be equipped.  IT wants these rooms to be consistent and easy to deploy; users want the experience to be the same, regardless of which size room they are in. And facilities wants these to look the same, so as employees travel from site to site, they know that they are still able to get work done.

We’ve shared a lot here about our new Poly Studio X family of all-in-one endpoints, as well as our G7500 modular codec—all of which share the same platform that supports open standards, Zoom, and more.  Now we’ve taken that one step further and made the G7500 available in an all-new, redesigned Medialign solution that includes the codec, camera, microphone, speakers and screens in one easy-to-install unit that doesn’t require room remediation.  Poly’s next generation video endpoint lineup just got broader!

One Solution with Big Impact

Poly Medialign comes with everything you need in one package, including the monitor, microphones, EagleEye Director II Cameras, high-fidelity speakers and the G7500*, which means it’ll take you about an hour to set up.  No expensive construction and no need to break the bank on installation costs. Everything was designed as an integrated system, so it just works.

Medialign delivers the latest Poly MeetingAI functionality including automatic speaker tracking, group framing, Acoustic Fence and NoiseBlock to suppress background noise and ensure that meeting participants can focus on what matters.  Remote teams will truly feel like they are in the same room due to Ultra HD 4K for amazing video quality and digital annotation and whiteboarding capabilities when sharing content.

 The new Medialign systems are available in three models, Poly Medialign 65, Poly Medialign 75 (with a touch monitor) and Poly Medialign 86, all fully customizable and updated with a sleek new design. The new models come in four different colors: applewood, slate, black or white.

Medialign delivers a simple, consistent way to build more collaborative workplaces. Give your end users the streamlined experience—and protect your investment—with one solution that integrates with a wide variety of unified collaboration platforms.

For more information about the updated Medialign models, please visit the Poly website.

* Medialign is also available with the Group Series 500 codec.