SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), announced today it is delivering Polycom® RealPresence® HD video collaboration solutions to power live face-to-face dialog between past laureates winners and the host of the event at The Tech Awards 2012 Gala in Santa Clara, Calif. on November 15, an annual event recognizing entrepreneurs who are using technology to benefit humanity. Polycom has been actively involved with The Tech Awards program since its inception in 2001, and 2012 marks the fifth consecutive year Polycom has served as the exclusive Global Communications Sponsor of the program.
Polycom’s video collaboration solutions, powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, will bring two past award laureates "on stage" via HD video to provide updates on their progress since winning the award. Laureates Abhishek Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Eko India Financial Services Private Limited, and Howard Weinstein, founder and CEO of Solar Ear (provider of solar-powered hearing aids to the hearing impaired in impoverished areas), will join the event from Polycom's New Delhi and Sao Paolo Executive Experience Centers, respectively, for a conversation with Master of Ceremonies Hari Sreenivasan, Correspondent, Director of Digital Partnerships for PBS Newshour, who will be in-person at The Tech Awards Gala. Polycom President and CEO Andy Miller will also address the Gala audience during the evening.
"We are honored to help bring Mr. Sinha and Mr. Weinstein to The Tech Awards Gala through the power of video conferencing," said Miller. "The visionaries and humanitarians being honored at The Tech Awards are proof that the true impact of innovation is realized when technology is creatively applied to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. At Polycom, our vision is to help make video collaboration ubiquitous, enabling hundreds of millions of people to easily use video to communicate and collaborate from anywhere, on any device. Polycom innovations are eliminating the distance between people so that these laureates can have face-to-face dialog with the audience to share their experiences and successes."
“By using the power of technology, Polycom is able to bring two worlds together in real time and share with gala attendees the deeply important, inspirational work of our laureates,” said The Tech Museum of Innovation President Tim Ritchie. “Polycom’s commitment to The Tech Awards is highly valued by us and the laureates who work tirelessly around the globe to solve some of the world’s most stubborn problems.”
The Polycom technology used in the live gala video conference includes:
- The Polycom Open Telepresence Experience (OTX) series of room telepresence systems, which delivers vibrant life-like video, audio and content collaboration in a modern, immersive environment.
- The Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, the most comprehensive and interoperable software infrastructure for universal video collaboration, providing robust provisioning, management, scalability, reliability, flexibility, and security. The RealPresence Platform’s unsurpassed support for interoperability transforms islands of fragmented communications systems into a seamless video enterprise, which makes enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorized participants whether they're mobile, remote, or on-site. In early October, Polycom announced powerful enhancements to the RealPresence Platform, including the industry’s first open standards-based SVC (Scalable Video Coding), with 3X HD multipoint video call capacity for greater scalability, dramatically lower TCO, superior performance, and backwards- and forwards-compatibility to protect customer investments.
About The Tech Awards
The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, is a signature program of The Tech Museum. The international program recognizes laureates in five categories: Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health. An individual is also honored as a James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian, which recognizes those whose broad vision and leadership help to alleviate humanity's greatest challenges. This year’s recipient is Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist N.R. Narayana Murthy. Past recipients include philanthropist and social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, education and cross-cultural dialogue advocate Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Nobel Laureate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Applied's Chairman Emeritus James C. Morgan, who inspired the award.
The Tech Awards program was launched in November 2000, and The Tech Awards Gala was held in 2001 for the first time. Since the inception of The Tech Awards program, 257 laureates have been recognized. Their pioneering work has included designing earthquake-resistant construction technology to creating a heat-sensitive label for vaccine vials to make sure children receive potent immunizations to building a simple, low-cost, mobile phone-based device that allows remote monitoring and operation of irrigation pumps.
About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit, experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.
About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we're pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.
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