Polycom Unveils ShowStation; creates new document Conferencing Market Segment; Audioconferencing Market Leader Adds Real-time Exchange of Complex Information to Teleconferencing Equation

Business Wire, May 15, 1995

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 1995--Filling the gap between audio and video conferencing solutions and ushering in a new market segment now made possible by the new T.120 teleconferencing standards, Polycom, Inc., introduces the ShowStation(TM) Document Conferencing Projector(TM) for real-time review and revision of documents during a conference call.

Working in tandem with Polycom's SoundStation(R), the world's leading audioconferencing system, ShowStation makes it simple for teleconference participants to interactively view, annotate and print business documents or data files. ShowStation works much like an overhead projector that is linked, via regular telephone lines, to distant meeting rooms or desktop PCs. This enables live, interactive review of documents such as spreadsheets, diagrams, slide presentations or memos. Computer-based presentations and files can also be shared by simply connecting a PC to one of ShowStation's auxiliary ports.

"ShowStation represents a new and compelling product category that teleconferencing users have been demanding for years," said Brian Hinman, Polycom's president and chief executive officer. "With the emergence of the new T.120 standards, interoperability between multivendor conference room systems and desktop PCs finally makes document conferencing an effective and viable teleconferencing solution. With its affordable price tag and ease of use, we believe ShowStation will accelerate the emerging market for document conferencing."

Document Conferencing: Teleconferencing's Missing Link

As an alternative to face-to-face meetings, organizations are turning to teleconferencing technology to speed the decision-making process and reduce travel time and costs. Audio and video are both effective teleconferencing vehicles. Audio-only conferencing provides an inexpensive and quick decision-making forum, while videoconferencing conveys the non-verbal cues essential for negotiations and other relationship-focused meetings. Neither one, however, adequately addresses the need to exchange complex, high resolution, document-based information.

Evidence is mounting that users are not satisfied with makeshift solutions, such as faxing and overnight shipping of important documents needed during audio or video teleconferences. In fact, 98 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by ConferTech International said the ability to share documents would improve their audio and video teleconferences.

Document conferencing solutions, such as ShowStation, provide the missing link for effective teleconferencing, enabling conference participants in remote locations to interactively share data and business information.

ShowStation is the first document conferencing system designed to the new T.120 standards. It is interoperable with a wide range of other systems, including desktop PCs running inexpensive communications software, such as DataBeam's FarSite(R) electronic meeting software. In addition, multiple sites can be linked together using conference bridging services, such as ConferTech's ConferCall PLUS(TM).

"Because it can interact with a $200 desktop conferencing system or a third-party multipoint bridging service, ShowStation offers a cost-effective, real-world teleconferencing solution for almost any organization using teleconferencing for intracompany and intercompany meetings," Hinman said.

Three-Step Process Adds Documents to Teleconferences

A premier document conferencing system, ShowStation not only makes the exchange of complex information possible, it makes it simple. Much like an overhead projector, the ShowStation requires virtually no training to use and is fully operational in three easy steps:

1. Dial a remote site over standard analog telephone lines;

2. Position the document; and

3. Press the "Show" button.

ShowStation snaps a high-resolution digital image of the document or object, projects it into the conference room, and transmits it to remote sites simultaneously.

Using ShowStation's stylus on the liquid crystal display, participants can make notes, erase text, or highlight an item as it is discussed, with changes being seen at all sites simultaneously. By connecting the ShowStation to a laser printer, hard copies of annotated documents can be printed for future reference. ShowStation also easily connects to a PC for viewing of computer- based documents.

ShowStation is a powerful productivity tool that enables sharing of a variety of business documents, from sales figures or an engine design to a new marketing plan. It addresses the needs of a wide range of distance meeting applications, such as:

o reviewing designs or project specifications

o conducting staff meetings

o negotiating contracts

o previewing slides or photo layouts

o planning projects or budgets

o training new employees

o giving a sales presentation

Because ShowStation works the way business people work, it can be used in virtually any meeting, from a boardroom presentation to a brainstorming session.