Customer Reviews

Polycom CX5000 Unified Conference Station for Microsoft Lync

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I worked at Microsoft for 6 years, and these are standard issue in every conference room. Most people there have never even used one. But I ran dozens of meetings a month with hundreds of people around the world using one of these, and I LOVE these things.

They're deeply integrated into Microsoft's Office LiveMeeting and their newly rebranded Unified Communications (now called Lync). If you're in a company with remote office locations, where you need to run lots of meetings - this is by far my personal choice with how to go. The hardware works great once you learn how to use it, and isn't very hard to use.

It has a 360 degree panoramic view that is placed via LiveMeeting at the bottom of your screen so you can see everyone in the room you're meeting with, and then it has a larger video window that shows the person who is speaking at that moment in a close-up. It switches from person-to-person using a directional microphone.

Microsoft now offers LiveMeeting for a low monthly fee (I know this because I just started using it at the startup I'm now at) and it's reasonable for even a small company.

I did find that these have a tendency to need repair, mainly because (I think) conference rooms at Microsoft are used heavily by lots of different people - and in each meeting a different laptop would be plugged into the device. So I'd recommend that you either keep this attached to a dedicated computer, or that you buy a maintenance and protection plan.

As Eric mentioned - this is an all round winner. Simply the best video conferencing device on the market! A hefty price, but worth every minute.

Good quality images and audio, very easy installation, no need to install drivers, it's plug and play, panoramic view of your meeting room, so all the participants are viewed and automatically identifies people who is having the word and show him/her in a separate window. Works perfectly with office live meetings. Be careful warranty does not cover mirror and camera lenses. It is not a cheap equipment, if you do not need panoramic views buy a cheaper one.