Are we in the future predicted by Back to the Future film yet?

[Andrew Hug (Andrew Hug)]

This year we kick-started the annual Polycom Tech Summit programme for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region with a UK event. As we move across the region and countries to connect with our partners to discuss our latest innovations, I couldn’t help but think about putting our new solutions into the perspective that was presented in the 1980’s film “Back to the Future”.

21st October 2015 was the day that the characters of the film jumped to in the future. While flying cars and hoverboards still seem to be far-fetched realities, there is no denying the fact that we are coming closer to the future that was predicted. We have made progress and Polycom is a shining example of that. We continue to lead the unified communications sector with innovations that are now taking video conferencing, that was also one of the predictions of Back to the Future, to the next level.

 

We marked our 25th anniversary this month by launching ground-breaking new solutions: Polycom® RealPresence® Centro™, Polycom® RealPresence® Trio™, Polycom® RealPresence Debut™, Polycom® RealPresence® Medialign™ and Polycom® Concierge. I am pleased to say that our partner community is equally excited about the launch of our new solutions as they support the new way of working, which means more open, mobile and small/ huddle spaces and increasingly mobile workforce. Video and voice conferencing solutions must be positioned at the centre of the room to benefit from effective collaboration in this workplace of the future.

During the UK Tech Summit, our partners confirmed that our new innovations are flexible and effective solutions that will help customers resolve their day-to-day-business challenges. Lync enablement promotes the ease-of-use by extending the familiar Microsoft environment and allowing seamless integration of Polycom’s new voice and video conferencing solutions into the workflow processes. If I have to pick one out of the many latest innovations of ours and compare it with the Back to the Future predictions, I would say that the filmmakers didn’t know that in the year 2015 a powerful conference phone like Polycom® RealPresence® Trio™ will come into existence and will bring the ability to add video on-demand right from the centre of the meeting room. And to be honest, the new handle-less segways really aren’t that close to the hoverboards either.