Polycom provides Video Conferences for the Democratic National Convention

Press Release

Hours before the 2004 Democratic National Convention officially gavels opened on July 26 at the FleetCenter, more than 4,000 delegates gathered in Boston had already participated in their first official Convention event, without even leaving their hotels. For the first time in Convention history, more than fifty delegations connected each morning via a secure server to participate in live video broadcasts. Video conference leader Polycom, Inc. partnered with the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) to provide daily "Polyconferences" between delegates and Democratic leaders, including former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Convention Chair and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Kerry-Edwards Campaign Manager Mary Beth Cahill and DNCC Chairwoman Alice Huffman.

“Polycom's technology has helped us create an innovative environment to deliver information and better communicate with our delegates in real time,” said Rod O'Connor, CEO of the DNCC. “The Polyconference will served as a virtual Convention, allowing delegates to hear from prominent Party leaders and Convention speakers at the opening of each day, and we are proud to offer this unique opportunity for the first time here in Boston.” The DNCC announced that Gore would open the series of daily, live video sessions and that delegates would hear from Huffman, Cahill, Albright and Richardson.

Polycom—the official video conference provider of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, provided VSX 7000 units to each of the 22 hotels and the one university housing the delegations. The video conference units allowed each delegation to connect to a secure central host site using Polycom MGC 100 multi-point conferencing units and to hear from one speaker. “We are pleased to join the Democratic Convention, and project manager The Rendon Group, in making video conferencing an historic part of the political process,” said Robert Hagerty, chairman and CEO of Polycom. “We believe virtual communication and collaboration as natural as being there in person enhances group productivity and decision making. The delegates' morning Polyconference, where they will hear from key Democratic leaders and receive briefings on the evening Convention schedule, is truly an innovative application for the technology.”

Polycom, Inc. is the world's technology leader of high-quality, easy-to-use video, voice, data and web conferencing and collaboration solutions. The Polycom Office makes distance communications as natural and interactive as being there by providing best-in-class conferencing solutions that are interoperable, integrated and intuitive to the user. The Polycom Office is based on industry standards and supported by an open architecture that promotes interoperability in multi-vendor environments and complements leading network infrastructure platforms. For additional information, call 1-800-224-7083, or visit http://www.ivci.com.

2004 Web Conferencing Usage Report

Key findings from the second WebMetrics quarterly benchmarking study indicate that those respondents who use WebEx and Microsoft as their largest vendor will hold stable over the next 18 months, says a new report from Wainhouse Research. The good news for smaller players is that this indicates that the two market leaders may not continue to gain market share at the expense of smaller players, which leaves ample room for getting more attention and increasing deployments in a fast-growing market.

In a survey of the WebMetrics Panel conducted online between June 22 and July 1, 2004, Wainhouse Research heard from 141 buyers and users of web conferencing on their deployment behavior, purchasing criteria, and use of consultants.

“The combination of high growth and particular expectations for which vendors will be 'preferred' is a healthy aspect of a market not yet 'won' by any single vendor, contrary to what the leaders would like buyers to believe,” said Alan Greenberg, Senior Analyst & Consultant with Wainhouse Research. “Web conferencing is not yet the 'duopoly' seen in two-way videoconferencing, and an opportunity remains for new and existing vendors and service providers to make their mark.”

The market growth outlook is more than optimistic. Over 1/3 (36.7%) of respondents expect their web conferencing minute use to grow over 25% over the next 12 months. A total of 82.2% believe that web conferencing minutes will grow over the next 12 months. The lion's share is expected to be in the 10% to 25% range.

Internal teams, e-Learning, and presentations to clients and partners are applications for which more than half of all the respondents use web conferencing, but web events and Learning Management Systems (LMS) show the greatest growth over the short-term future. The latter two scored a 24% growth rate over the next 18 months among the Panel. “This is significant, Greenberg added, “because though we know that the rate of web events is growing quickly, LMS vendors should take note: the slump may be ending.” Learning Management Systems have suffered from the dot.com bust, reduced e-Learning spending, and industry consolidation.

The WebMetrics Q2 2004 Report is designed to provide a better understanding of web conferencing deployment behavior, purchasing criteria, and use of consultants. An annual subscription for the report series is available as well as copies of each individual quarterly report. Information about the report series is available at http://www.wainhouse.com/webmetrics. End users who participate in the surveys receive a high-level summary of the findings and qualify for prize drawings. To participate in future WebMetrics surveys, please visit http://www.wainhouse.com/webmetrics.

Acceptable Risk Seen in Conferencing

By Bill Brenner, News Writer
SearchSecurity.com

Enterprises are expected to heavily rely on Web and video conferencing in the coming years to reach a wider audience. But while the risk of being hacked rises when conferencing goes outside the firewall, many believe added security isn't worth the time or money.

“We're not losing sleep over security,” said Richard Norris, European video conferencing manager for Information Services International, a division of Mars UK Ltd. “We worry about data hacking, but not video hacking. We don't do data conferencing and with video, we don't see the need for encryption or other security measures.”

Wainhouse Research of Brookline, Mass., held a roundtable discussion focused on the security aspects of conferencing as part of a three-day summit last week in Boston. Norris participated, as did Ira Weinstein, a senior analyst and consultant for Wainhouse, which specializes in media conferencing research.

Weinstein cited the firm's recent study predicting revenues in the videoconferencing industry will increase from $530 million in 2003 to nearly $1.1 billion by 2008. It also predicts personal videoconferencing systems will dominate the market on a unit basis with revenue growing from $21 million in 2003 to $180 million by 2008. A driving factor will be companies' growing dependence on the technology to broaden their public audience, Weinstein said. That's when security becomes an issue.

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