Pricing for an MGC 100

[marc55]

We presently have an MGC 100 and are looking for pricing for another. Incredibly, both Polycom vendors I contacted haven't called me back to give me pricing info. Do others on this board have the same experience trying to get pricing from Polycom??

[pbraatelien]

I think you have an unusual situation. Being in the reseller community, I jump at the chance to sell Bridges (high dollar, quota reduction, blah, blah, blah). Unfortunately Polycom must depend on its resellers to sell the product and sometimes we(they) are not as responsive as they could be.

[CallOne]

Under Polycom's current certification requirements for it's resellers and distributors, the vast majority of resellers have not put the investment to become certified to resell MCU's, and therefore become unresponsive.

[tjulian]

I'll become a reseller if you'll buy one from me...;)

If you need a pointer to a reseller, let me know (PM me), and I'll get you the info for my usual vendor. Are you a commercial or government site?

[seifran]

Whenever I contact my distributor for the Accord inquiring about an upgrade, it seems to take them a long time to get the info from Polycom. I have been told that the price quote is generated for each customer situation independantly because of all the different options available on the MCU. They apparently need to enter all the information into some kind of online calculator and generate the costs, then calculate various discounts and price points (hey, I am a tech guy so I don't pretend to understand Marketing).

The bottom line is that I do not get the price quote back for 1-2 weeks...it could just be my distributor but they always tell me the delay is at Polycom. ;)

[bms2004]

I would price a new MCU from www.codian.com better performance and cost

[robertk]

The codian seam nice... but you should really not compare it to a MGC.

First of all, the CODIAN is a IP-only mcu, if I understand this correctly.

For a service provider, the CODIAN/RAD/TANDBERG still have a little too few features. The MGC line has more of theese functions.

But if your need is to connect a number of sites and not need the extra functionality, then the MGC stands flat compared to performance/price of the others. maybe the MGC25 can compete there... but then I'm not a sales person, so I don't really know :)


//Robert

[ismail]

Guys,

I hv same experience with my Polycom vendor too...We need to upgrade our module, but it seems the distributor rely to Polycom principle to get respond...I 've been waiting until more than 3 weeks.. then quotation deliver to me...And second quatation I requested to them untul I calling to Polycom rep. office directly....annoying...

[senthil]

hi

Codian is going to release PRI ISDN Gateway very soon. I have one PRI gateway and its works very well. Supports all codec transcoding of H261,H.263 and H.264.


Senthil

[Kevin]

The codian seam nice... but you should really not compare it to a MGC.

First of all, the CODIAN is a IP-only mcu, if I understand this correctly.

The Codian PRI gateway has now been shipping for around 6 months. When used with the Codian MCU all the functionality of the MCU is available - together they support all the advanced functions of the Codian MCU such as H.264 support and an encode for every user by default. Just like the Codian MCU it can be used with or without a Gatekeeper.

With or without the PRI gateway the Latency of the Codian solution is FAR lower than that of the MGC.


For a service provider, the CODIAN/RAD/TANDBERG still have a little too few features. The MGC line has more of theese functions.

Depending what these features you require are it is very possible that the Codian MCU can just do them - they just aren't called a specific name like on other MCUs as they are part of the Codian MCU's basic functionality. (As an example the MGCs have a special "Lecture" Mode - the Codian MCU has this functionality there as part of its standard method of operation so it does not need a special name for it.)

Of course Codian realises that there may be a few things that are are not yet implemented - however these are coming very soon.

If there is any particular functionality you need that you are not sure the Codian units can do please ask - as it is very likely that they may already be possible or may be very soon on the roadmap.

Kevin

[kliman]

hehe guys, dont know where you live , but in my country ill sell you Polycom bridge, same day if you like :D

[robopunk]

The Codian PRI gateway has now been shipping for around 6 months

Polycom (Accord) since years! :tired:

With or without the PRI gateway the Latency of the Codian solution is FAR lower than that of the MGC

Is there a document available with some test results which shows us how FAR lower your system's latency is compared to the MGC?

Depending what these features you require are it is very possible that the Codian MCU can just do them - they just aren't called a specific name like on other MCUs as they are part of the Codian MCU's basic functionality. (As an example the MGCs have a special "Lecture" Mode - the Codian MCU has this functionality there as part of its standard method of operation so it does not need a special name for it.)

wow :tired:

Of course Codian realises that there may be a few things that are are not yet implemented - however these are coming very soon.

If there is any particular functionality you need that you are not sure the Codian units can do please ask - as it is very likely that they may already be possible or may be very soon on the roadmap.
Kevin

Hmm....- tell me something about encrypted multipoint VCs.

[ChuckF]

marc55 -
I understand your frustration about getting a timely quote, but agree with PaulB - you just picked the wrong vendor to look at. Or maybe it was just the Holiday season??

Go with a Certified Polycom (or other major) reseller, that is direct and does not have to go through another distributor. And one that hasn't changed names, or management, or been bought or sold within the last 10 years.

I also recommend you give your vendor a deadline for providing you with the quote. If he cannot even get you a quote to you with a deadline, think of what will happen when you go to order the equipment.

Now for the sales hat which I hate to put on -
AGT is a certified Polycom reseller with history and clients around the globe. We would be extremely happy to provide you (or anyone else) with a quote should you still be shopping. PM me.

There, now I can take the hat off.

[channelmaster23]

Gotta agree with Chuck F on this one. AGT is the way to go.

They will sell you an MCU and stand behind it as well. I have seen them in action first hand.

They installed the Polycom bridges in our Atlanta HQ and even sent techs to Kuwait to install a MCU right before the war started.

Nothing but good things to say about them from me.

[Kevin]

Is there a document available with some test results which shows us how FAR lower your system's latency is compared to the MGC?

We measured it! Try it yourself if you like. You can measure the delay for a point-to-point video call by pointing the endpoint's camera at a screen showing a stopwatch and then taking a photo where you can simulaneously see the near end and far end views of the stopwatch. The latency is the difference between the two times in the photo.

If you do the same for a call via the MCU and subtract the delay for the p2p call you get the extra latency added by the MCU.

For the stopwatch there is shareware app called XNote Stopwatch that works well.

The Codian MCU latency is 80ms when using continuous presence and a separate encode for all users (768kbps H.263). We measured the MGC latency to be significantly more than this when simply doing voice switching and close to 3 times it when doing continuous presence (transcoding, 768kbps H.263).


Hmm....- tell me something about encrypted multipoint VCs.
Good point! This on the roadmap and will be added in an upcoming release. There will be no loss of port count or functionality when using AES as with some MCUs as the Codian Bridge has a hardware encryption accelerator.

Kevin

[teacherlia]

If you dont believe Kevin, you should try it for yourself. Codian is the only vendor who makes their MCU publicly available on the internet and on ISDN, you can get to it via +1 510 623 6628 or on IP at 64.71.128.186, that is how we first looked at it, then we got one in house. Its an amazing box.