Polycom (News - Alert) Inc. has announced a new executive desktop video conferencing and collaboration solution for businesses wanting to add the productivity enhancing benefits of video communications at the desktop.

As a complete, all-in-one system the Polycom V700 features business- quality video conferencing, an integrated display that can double as a PC monitor, integrated camera, microphones and speakers, and content sharing capabilities.

Ed Ellett, senior vice president and general manager of video communications at Polycom, believes customers now have the choice of offering more employees Polycom video systems at their desktops with new, lower-priced, high-quality V700 systems.

According to industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, desktop video conferencing will experience significant growth, which projects the shipment of personal video conferencing systems (including executive desktop video conferencing systems) to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent over the next five years.

A recent survey of attendees at the 2006 Polycom User Group conference, the annual meeting for the independent association of Polycom users, showed that in 2007, 70 percent of respondents plan to either deploy desktop video conferencing or expand their current desktop video conferencing deployments.

The V700 delivers solid business-quality video conferencing capabilities and features an integrated 17-inch LCD display, built-in camera, and microphones and speakers capable of delivering 14kHz wideband audio voice quality. The new release also includes an intuitive remote control and audio prompts in multiple languages.

The V700 is reportedly the second entry in Polycom’s value line of video conferencing and collaboration systems. Currently, the line includes the Polycom V500 set-top video calling appliance for conference rooms that works in conjunction with a standard television.

“The V700 gives customers a complete, integrated executive desktop system that works with all other standards-based video conferencing systems and delivers solid performance and business-critical capabilities,” explained Ellett in a press release.

“The V700 and V500 are well suited for remote workers and remote locations that may not have as much available bandwidth as a corporate office,” he concluded.

Polycom Inc. is the global provider of unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations by integrating the broadest array of video, voice, data and Web solutions to deliver the ultimate communications experience.

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Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering call centers, CRM and information technology. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.