#Polycom25 Employee Spotlight: Gopal Paripally, Senior Director of Video R&D

[Bill Conlon (Billy_Conlon)]

How long have you worked with Polycom?

For about 16 years. I started out with PictureTel in 1999, and became a Polycom employee in February 2002.

What has kept you at Polycom all these years?                                                

When you start out in your career, it’s good to work for a company like Polycom so you can build a strong foundation of skills. My jobs have changed over time, but with the strong foundation of skills I built here, I was able to take on all of the challenging career-progressing job opportunities.

To highlight a few key areas that kept me going:

• Challenging tasks to build solutions that transform the way the world communicates
• Change is constant in the technology industry, so being here kept me energized and motivated
• Culture and People: There are smart and talented engineers across all sites who share the same passion

What inspires and motivates you?

• Great leadership—Polycom gives us the freedom to innovate with rapid prototyping, and the ability to influence the roadmap through working demos with customers.
• The young tech industry provides us with a ton of challenges on delivering the promise of Polycom’s vision “to unleash the power of human collaboration.”

What’s your favorite Polycom memory? 

• The RealPresence Experience (RPX) launch and winning our first ITP customer, McKenzie. This was a big win for Polycom at the time. We demonstrated our solutions to McKenzie in a rented art studio in New York City. We originally wanted to hold the demonstration at the historic Waldorf Astoria Studioon New York City’s Park Avenue, but they wouldn’t allow us to modify the building. I was able to work with Sam Kennedy, Dina Becchina, Rommel Childress, Derrick Fitzgerald, and Mark Duckworth. We had the freedom to work and innovate like a startup in the then newly incubated Telepresence R&D center.
• Developed and implemented several key industry-first technologies like Ultrasonic Camera Tracking, Ceiling Microphone, EyeConnect, ClassStation, Open Telepresence, and other fully immersive experiences. I worked with Peter Chu, Jinwei Feng, Jeff Rodman, Nathan Yang, Rommel Childress, and Mark Duckworth. We used Polycom technology to collaborate between Andover, Austin, San Jose and India to work on these solutions.
• The opportunity to work at different sites.

What about Polycom stands out to you the most? 

We have the best talent and brightest people to help deliver our vision.

What are your goals for the next 25 years?

To work on delivering the “better than being there”experiences. I also want travel around the world, teach and write.

What advice do you have for other inventors who are aspiring to be as accomplished as you?

We are fortunate to be here at the right time—during this video-enabled generation—and at the right company—Polycom. This industry is very young, so there is so much more room for discovery. Don’t be discouraged by failure or rejection. If you believe in the potential of your skills and ideas, take the feedback from the failure and re-invent. Evangelize your ideas by prototyping and collaborating with your team. Most importantly—work on what you enjoy the most.

If you could talk to yourself 25 years ago, what advice would you give?

Get out of your comfort zone.

What’s the most memorable thing about your own 25th birthday?

I got my US Visa and traveled out of the country for the first time.

Give us one fun fact about yourself.

I love watching videos (everything from nerdy shows like ‘The Big Bang Theory’ to Samurai-style action movies) and reading books.