VoIP & Gadget News – Spirit DSP and Polycom Ink Licensing Deal on Polycom CX5000

Today, SPIRIT DSP signed their fifth licensing agreement with Polycom. Polycom has licensed SPIRIT’s product to support quality videoconferencing on the CX5000 Unified Conference Station, Polycom’s branded version of the Microsoft RoundTable, which I reviewed here.

As a Polycom-branded version of the Microsoft RoundTable collaboration and conferencing device, the CX5000 system provides engaging group telepresence and also can be used as an analog conference phone.

The Polycom CX5000 Unified Conference Station makes for an engaging group video experience to Microsoft Live Meeting session or to Microsoft Office Communicator conversation. With five cameras and six microphones, the CX5000 is primarily a USB peripheral device that delivers a unique, engaging 360-degree group video experience to Live Meeting 2007 applications, and when used only with Microsoft Office Communication 2007, the client functions as a video switched webcam. Interestingly, there is no mention of support on Polycom’s website for the latest version of OCS now called Microsoft Lync. It should work with it since it is a USB webcam, though I heard it may only display the standard active speaker view and not the panoramic 360 degree view. There might be a firmware fix for this, but I’m not sure. The CX5000 is still a bit price costing around $3500, so it’s still a high-end 360 degree webcam with niche applications.

In any event, the device has TI C54CST processor inside that powers it, which also runs on SPIRIT communication software.

“We are extremely pleased to expand our relationship with Polycom, a clear global leader in unified collaboration and communications, to ensure quality communications on the CX5000,” said SPIRIT’s Sales Director Igor Morgunov. “Polycom’s continued commitment to SPIRIT underscores the ever growing demand from businesses for quality, real-time multipoint video communications, and our continued commitment and leadership in delivering on this promise to millions of users worldwide.”

SPIRIT’s engine SDKs (Software Development Kit) are designed for real-time, multipoint, videoconferencing. The software uniquely combines scalable audio with scalable video, a necessary marriage to ensure the highest quality conferencing experience. The voice engine includes highly optimized standard voice codecs, and a patent-free wideband and highly scalable SPIRIT IP-MR voice codec. The video engine includes an H.264 SVC video codec that addresses video packet loss and video quality improvements, including a network adaptation module that compensates for network jitter and packet loss.

Tags: cx5000, h.264, lync, microsoft, ocs 2007, polycom, roundtable, sdk, spirit dsp, usb, video conferencing, webcam
Related tags: engine includes, video experience, group video, unified conference, microsoft roundtable, polycom