Polycom dominant?

[Toney]

From reading the other threads and posts on VTCTALK, it's apparent that Polycom seems to be the dominant choice of the major VC vendors. Since many of the posters seems to be from the reseller or integrator side, does that mean that you like Polycom better or it is simply because they're cheaper than say Tandberg?
Or is it because Tandberg's are so easy to configure and use that no-one needs help with them? ;)

[Entropy3XD]

Actually, in my business I find it to be about 50/50. For most of our secure applications, most of our customers prefer the Tandberg. I also prefer the Tandberg in this environment mainly because of how easy it has been to deal directly with Tandberg on making changes so different pieces work together.

Most of our users who prefer Polycom are in environments in which the end user has most of the control. The graphic interface of the Polys tend to be more forgiving to the newbies. These environments tend to be more in the medical and education fields.

Unless you have a very specific configuration, you really can't go wrong with either manufacturer.

[George]

Exact same situation as Entropy here Toney. It's about a 50/50 split with Polycoms dominating mostly where an easy end user interface is desired. But for command conference rooms where there is definitely a tech on hand to run the conference and the end user expects to walk in, sit down and start talking, I find that Tandberg is dominant in those areas.

I'd be really interested in hearing more opinions on this.

[mazzarak]

In Europe I've found that its probably leaning towards Polycom a little, but only as a result of the Picturetel takeover. There are a hell of a lot of iPowers that are really only Polycom by default.

I also find that Tandberg, not surprisingly, are more dominant in Scandinavia where it originated. 9 out of 10 sites that I test in Norway are Tandbergs of one form or another, usually 880s or 2500s.

But there are more Sonys here it seems than in the US. Not sure why that is, maybe part of it is the desire for big, noticeable equipment in corporate boardrooms and meeting rooms, and Sony systems are getting smaller!

[Entropy3XD]

I'm not sure why Sony hasn't pushed their VTC more in the US. I very rarely ever find any Sony equipment in the field.

[mazzarak]

I may be doing it a dis-service but the Sony equipment doesn't seem to... do much. Maybe they don't put the mileage into it because they have so many other pans in the audio visual fire.

Generally speaking they are as reliable as any other brand, though one of the real bug bears I have is with the Multipoint function on ISDN. You either have to have it on or off, so when its on, and you put it on a CP call on the bridge, you not only get just 2x64k, but you also get a miniature multpoint of the conference in their quadrant.

This gets even freakier if they are trying to do it themselves, so you get two sites connected in a multipoint on 2x64k each, then you dial out to them from the bridge at 2x64k each... talk about hollywood squares, this is more like playing chess on acid. Ahem. So I'm told...

[tom9933]

I know in our case we are currently around 95% Polycom (there are always few stragglers and test endpoints). We have looked at Tandberg several times and the additional cost (normally almost twice as much) was always a big issue. In addition to that we used to use a wide variety of equipment and I was a little tired of the manufactures blaming each other whenever we had a problem. Now as I like to say I have one neck to choke when things don’t work correctly. It seems like educational institutions we work with are about 10% Tandberg, 60% Polycom and 30% other (VTEL, Zydacron, VCON, etc). Now on the other hand it seems like most of the Federal entities we work with seem to be almost entirely Tandberg. Does Tandberg give better discounts on the Federal side?

[Toney]

I don't want to sound like a Tandberg fan, but one of the great things about the company is that they're approachable. I'm sure that if you contacted their people in Reston that you'd be able to talk about pricing.

[vtjoe]

I work for a university, and we are 80% Tandberg, 20% Polycom - which is unusual for a university. I sometimes hear from other universities "wow, you must have money to blow"... We don't, we just spend our money on equipment, not support.

We use the Tandberg Management Suite we got for free when purchasing an MCU. It does a great job with Tandberg endpoints and an OK job with Polycom endpoints.

Huge advantage with the Tandberg codecs:

- Tandberg AudioScience PZM microphone - we've tried other ceiling microphones and they just don't compare until the price and complexity are too much to handle.

- Integration - Standard inputs & outputs, Integration API - Polycom is always doing a better job.

Support:

- For tech support - Polycom's Website blow's Tandberg's away. Tandberg's tech support department is better than Polycom.

- Support - I once had problem over IP between a Tandberg system and Polycom. I e-mailed both companies. At the end of the day the Tandberg technician e-mailed us a solution based on the Polycom release notes - which ended up being the correct solution. Polycom got back to me two days after my initial e-mail with a good (but incorrect) suggestion.

Most people compare Tandberg endpoints to Polycom endpoints. However, comparing entire solution to entire solution may give you a different answer. If we built out our same infrastructure with comparable functionality, (MCU, Gateway, Management Suite, etc.) with Polycom, the list price would actually be considerably more expensive – and more pieces and parts to work with. However, Polycom does scale much better to with the MGC-100.

We have three models of Polycom systems, all different platforms and different feature sets.

We have three models of Tandberg systems, all the same platform - and a more logical feature set differentiation - this makes support a lot easier.

However, on the affordable desktop market side of things, Polycom dominates with the ViaVideo and potentially the new V500. While this doesn't make Polycom the big bucks - it does put them into a lot of offices.

[tjulian]

Well, we are mostly a mixed bag here, but few Tandbergs...

Polycom vs. Tandberg? It really makes no difference unless, as previously stated, unless you have very specific requirements.

As far as the majority of endpoints in the government being Tandberg, I think we are beginning to see a change in that. Tandberg is still nearly twice as high as Polycom on the government side, and they haven't seemed to care much about bargaining for price. I think the reason there are so many in the Government has to do with DVS as much as anything else. At one time, the DVS network practically pushed Tandberg, but they have backed off of that in recent years as well.

Again, unless you have specific requirements, wither one will do the job, which is why you see more of the cheaper priced Polycom's around.

Also, in my limited experience with Tandberg's tech support, Polycom has them beat hands down. We were told by Tandberg that a new system to replace a DOA system would take 4-6 weeks to get....because we didn't purchase a service agreement. It was DOA, it didn't break, or quit, it never worked...

[Entropy3XD]

Originally posted by vtjoe@May 12 2004, 10:59 AM
I work for a university, and we are 80% Tandberg, 20% Polycom - which is unusual for a university. I sometimes hear from other universities "wow, you must have money to blow"... We don't, we just spend our money on equipment, not support.

We use the Tandberg Management Suite we got for free when purchasing an MCU. It does a great job with Tandberg endpoints and an OK job with Polycom endpoints.

Huge advantage with the Tandberg codecs:

- Tandberg AudioScience PZM microphone - we've tried other ceiling microphones and they just don't compare until the price and complexity are too much to handle.

- Integration - Standard inputs & outputs, Integration API - Polycom is always doing a better job.

Support:

- For tech support - Polycom's Website blow's Tandberg's away. Tandberg's tech support department is better than Polycom.

- Support - I once had problem over IP between a Tandberg system and Polycom. I e-mailed both companies. At the end of the day the Tandberg technician e-mailed us a solution based on the Polycom release notes - which ended up being the correct solution. Polycom got back to me two days after my initial e-mail with a good (but incorrect) suggestion.

Most people compare Tandberg endpoints to Polycom endpoints. However, comparing entire solution to entire solution may give you a different answer. If we built out our same infrastructure with comparable functionality, (MCU, Gateway, Management Suite, etc.) with Polycom, the list price would actually be considerably more expensive – and more pieces and parts to work with. However, Polycom does scale much better to with the MGC-100.

We have three models of Polycom systems, all different platforms and different feature sets.

We have three models of Tandberg systems, all the same platform - and a more logical feature set differentiation - this makes support a lot easier.

However, on the affordable desktop market side of things, Polycom dominates with the ViaVideo and potentially the new V500. While this doesn't make Polycom the big bucks - it does put them into a lot of offices.
Great post. I really like the response "we just spend our money on equipment, not support". I may have to steal that quote if you don't mind. Very well put.

I also agree with you on the Audio Science mic. When I had to install my first one I thought there was no way that plastic toboggan would work. Well I was definitely wrong. That mic picks up everything! I did find it to be a pain to install without the assistance of another however.

Sending the email to both companies to see who comes through first......PERFECT!!!

[vtjoe]

Originally posted by Entropy3XD@May 12 2004, 03:23 PM
Great post.  I really like the response "we just spend our money on equipment, not support".  I may have to steal that quote if you don't mind.  Very well put.



Thanks. I like Tandberg, but I might start appreciating Polycom more with the V500. Shh.. don't tell my Tandberg sales rep.

I also agree with you on the Audio Science mic.  When I had to install my first one I thought there was no way that plastic toboggan would work.  Well I was definitely wrong.  That mic picks up everything!  I did find it to be a pain to install without the assistance of another however.


We have two rooms that are acoustical nightmares because of the HVAC. Not only is it loud, it makes inconsistent noise (which is hard for electronics to remove). We had a bunch of supercardiod tabletop microphones in the room with an external mixer - all the gains turned down real low to help compensate for the HVAC - however I was not happy with the quality.

A Tandberg sales representative gave us a demo audioscience microphone to try out. I had used the microphone before, but did not think it would be usefull in this room. Wow, was I wrong! We ordered two AudioScience Mics after that.

The AudioScience lists at $1,500 - however it replaced one mixer and 8 table top microphones which were more expensive.