Worth the extra cost if you use it correctly
June 01, 2021

Worth the extra cost if you use it correctly

Curt Sminkey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • RealPresence Group 310
  • RealPresence Group 500

Overall Satisfaction with Polycom RealPresence Group Series

Being a global company, it's important to be able to communicate effectively - more so than just a Microsoft Teams meeting. Polycom RealPresense Group Series allows our groups to sit in a conference room and speak with other conference rooms as if it was one large meeting. Generally, these are used by departments spread out across multiple locations to have routine meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. In a previous company, they were used so much that when our HQ was moved into a new building, the RealPresense devices more than doubled because we didn't have enough room. They were in anything from a small 2-person conference room to a large lobby where company-wide meetings would take place and accessed remotely by other locations.

Pros

  • The audio and video quality can not be matched.
  • For the most part, they are rather simplistic in their use and just work. People don't usually have a hard time operating them
  • They are rather versatile in that we have been able to integrate them with other applications

Cons

  • They are certainly not cheap.
  • I've struggled to come across any unified solution to manage all of our Polycom RealPresence devices instead of using the web interface of each one. It makes company-wide changes rather cumbersome
  • This might be an old issue but we had a really hard time pairing the RealPresence device with a Polycom conference phone and have them work together
  • I don't have any firm stats but I can promise there was a decrease in travel costs
  • It gives such a better experience connecting with people at a different site that it's easier to form a relationship. It's not some person on the other end of a phone call - you can see them and hear them.
When I started at one of my jobs, they already have Lifesize VC equipment. It was nice, they worked and they were less expensive. But once we started transitioning things to Polycom it was a night/day difference. Some of our large conference rooms had audio issues that the Lifesize had trouble picking up all the voices in the rooms but that was resolved with Polycom. We also had trouble integrating the Lifesize in with other applications which was the driving force in moving to Polycom.

As far as Teams, I don't consider it a good comparison. I list it because at first, people thought of Teams as a compeditor of Polycom so there was a question of why do we need both.... Teams handles the single-person joining a meeting, Polycom is more for a conference room. I think there's a need for both and they can work together.

Do you think Polycom RealPresence Group Series delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Polycom RealPresence Group Series's feature set?

Yes

Did Polycom RealPresence Group Series live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Polycom RealPresence Group Series go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Polycom RealPresence Group Series again?

Yes

We have some very technology-challenged people, but they have no issues getting up a meeting, sharing content, ETC.
I can't say I've needed support more than a handful of times. One was for trying to connect a Polycom Conference phone and a Real Presence together. After a few months, we came to the conclusion it wasn't possible, that was the only frustrating occurance with support. Any other time if we needed to RMA a device, it was very smooth.
While expensive, you can't compare the cost and time of people flying all over the globe to have in-person meetings when 95% of the time they can be done between a RealPresense.... even more so in today's post-pandemic world. You just get such a better video and audio experience than a Teams meeting.

We were also able to connect our RealPresence to Teams so that you can join a meeting and choose whether to join it from your desk with Teams or from a conference room with a Real Presence. This solved 2 issues for us in that there's now a simple link on the Real Presence to join a meeting instead of making a direct phone call to another RP device, and for meetings with 1 or 2 people from a site, they can now join this meeting from their desk and free up the conference room for a large meeting.

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