The Poly Studio P Series comes with access to Poly Lens device management service through the new Poly Lens Desktop App. This app allows an organisation’s IT team to easily gain insights and manage a remote workforce from the cloud, as well as giving users tips on device setup, troubleshooting for the best possible lighting and camera placement, and ergonomics for the optimal workspace setup. Users also have the option to receive personal health and wellness tips throughout the day, such as suggested movement and hydration to keep your energy flowing.
The company also announced Poly+, a personal device support service to provide: enhanced 24/7 tech-support including phone, chat, web, and live video; an extended three-year product replacement and overnight device replacement; and single-app support across compatible Poly personal conferencing solutions so users can control personal device settings, ensure up-to-date software, and advanced troubleshooting tools.
Long-term solutions
Neil Fluester (pictured below, right), product director for EMEA at Poly, explained what these products mean for the channel. He discussed how, in the initial phases of the pandemic, businesses and workers focused on getting by: figuring out where to work at home, moving to the cloud if the current set-up could not sustain large-scale remote working, using whatever webcams or headsets workers could find at home – even if that meant PlayStation of Xbox accessories!
Fluester explained, “As we come into 2021, the idea of ‘good enough’, is no longer good enough. It was acceptable to have bad audio and bad video in 2020. But moving into 2021, if you are going to be a remote-first worker, you need a home studio setup. You need a space that you can call your office, you need good lighting, you need good video, you need good audio, because it's very fatiguing. Joining a call with someone where you've got a lot of background distraction is very disruptive.
“So we decided to pivot our product development roadmap mid-last year and looked at [solving] this [home-working] space. We looked at what the gaps were and what the pain points were, and we saw that we could add a lot of value around premium audio and video experiences. It's in our heritage, it's in our DNA. It's what Poly does.
With the P5 webcam, Poly is “taking everything from the high-end and distilling and boiling that down into a product and a solution that will enable exceptionally good video and audio”. The in-built software, Fluester said, makes the range “more than just hardware”.
The product uses a directional microphone and software to “block out unwanted noise” in the user’s working environment – whether that’s “dogs barking, a neighbor who's got the leaf blower going or whatever else might disrupt the call”.
In addition, Fluester explained, it includes a privacy shutter which is now vital with these devices in people's bedrooms and lounges. With these devices, users can make sure they are getting privacy when they aren’t on a call.
Fluester added, “The P15 takes this to the next level. This is the ultimate personal camera solution or camera speaker bar solution. It's an all in one, camera, speaker and microphone that you can drop on top of your screen. This is for people that have more of a dedicated space, you can make noise, you don't necessarily have to wear a headset, you can shut the door.”
It has 4K resolution with tracking and framing that will automatically adjust the picture as the user moves around. It also uses noise block and acoustic fence technology to suppress, block out and attenuate non-human speech from disrupting the call. So if you are typing away on the keyboard, if someone is eating some crisps or someone's dog is barking, it won't bleed into the call.”
Channel opportunities
This product range creates opportunities for channel partners. Fluester explained, “There's revenue opportunities for the channel partners to take over management [of these devices] for companies and provide that as a professional service. Professional services organisations could say to a large enterprise, “Don't worry about it, we'll do the software updates, and we'll offer the service for you as a wraparound managed service”. They would have traditionally done this for customers for large meeting room deployments, now they can do that for customers’ home users.
“In addition to that, the go-to-market is going to be different. We used to ship products to IT departments that then used to go and deploy into meeting rooms. Now the channel is going to be deploying this straight to people's home addresses. The reseller channel could fulfill this directly.”
The Poly P Series connects with the cloud-based video provider of the user’s choice, including: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, GoTo by LogMeIn, and StarLeaf. These products will be available for purchase in April 2021, with the Poly Studio P15 available for pre-order.
Overview of product capabilities
The complete Poly Studio P Series includes:
- Poly Studio P5 Webcam – this personal webcam has 1080p resolution and 4x digital zoom. It comes with a built-in privacy shutter, directional microphone, and integrated USB connectivity for headsets for easy audio plug-and-play connectivity.
- Poly Studio P15 Personal Video Bar– this personal video bar has 4K clarity, automatic camera framing, and a powerful integrated speaker and microphone array with advanced NoiseBlockAI technology to block outside noise.
- Poly Studio P21 Personal Meeting Display – this video conferencing display includes a 21” display, camera, and audio all-in-one. Its dynamic ambient lighting adjusts to illuminate and improve the user’s appearance and overall video quality. It connects via a USB and can work with any video app that runs on a PC or Mac.
- Poly Studio P5 Kit– this kit pairs the Poly Studio P5 webcam with a choice of a headset or portable speakerphone. There are four out-of-the-box combinations with corded or wireless headset options from the Voyager and Poly Blackwire families, as well as kits that include Poly Sync.
