The Cisco Board Series offers room devices for hybrid teamwork. Its latest generation models, the Board Pro 55 and Board Pro 75, bring video conferencing and co-creation to small and medium-sized workspaces, conference rooms, and ideation spaces. These room devices feature an AI-powered chipset, a responsive, 55- or 75-inch touch screen, speaker-tracking dual cameras, built-in speakers and microphones, and a versatile set of mounting and peripheral options. Users can join any video meeting,…
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Polycom RealPresence Group Series
Score 6.0 out of 10
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The Polycom RealPresence Group Series is a video conferencing codec that connects to a standards-based video conferencing infrastructure to allow users to make video conference calls. There are three products in the series – RealPresence Group 300, RealPresence Group 500, and RealPresence Group 700. It is certified to use with Office 365 and Skype for Business.
The above-mentioned tools that I used before are not much more effective than Cisco Webex Board Series. It enables me to save everything on the cloud which I have created on the Webex Board and associate it easily with a virtual meeting. My team members can easily pick up where …
Polycom Group Series was very good for what it used to do for its time, however newer technology that provides a more simpler method to configure, join and host video conference meetings has come in the form of Zoom and [Microsoft] Teams which is hard to go back from and …
It is best suited for video\audio calls and meeting use. you can easily connect to the meeting with an ID or your laptop and also share content easily in a couple of ways. It's less useful for large-scale meetings as attendees seem to get lost as their video can get shrunk or hidden offscreen.
If you're always working in the Polycom ecosystem then the Group Series codecs are reliable and the quality of the camera and microphones are extremely good. However, the system relies heavily on either having onsite server technology and/or cloud based bridging capability. In addition, the peripherals like cameras and microphones are quite expensive. Maintenance and support costs also make the ongoing investment a costly one
The only issue that we have experienced with Polycom RealPresence Group Series is the speed dial functionality. When attempting to use the speed dial buttons, the system occasionally sends a call through the computer system, not the phone. While the computer call option is valuable, not everyone can answer calls that way and we have had to do a manual lookup of an extension and call back when that happens.
Cisco Webex Board Series has great UI. It's very compelling to use. Touch controls are great and have never had any trouble navigating. However, screen mirroring can be laggy sometimes and frame drops are seen quite often while mirroring. Overall it's a great device to use with many useful features and optimized UI.
The directory is slightly dated and unless you have a Skype for Business integration license, dialing users into a call is difficult. The Group Series Remote whilst minimalistic is actually more difficult to use than the previous HDX remote. Having to recharge the battery on the group series remote is both annoying and difficult as if you do not keep on top of it, you will be faced with a situation where the remote is not working and then have to try and find another one. Not ideal if you need to start a video call (assuming auto join has not been enabled in the admin portal).
It's honestly hard to tell since we haven't had many hiccups, if any at all! We have used Webex support for other situations and it was great, but for the board itself, we only had one issue, when we received it, a pixel was broken and Webex replaced it. Fair to say they lived up to our expectations.
I can't say I've needed support more than a handful of times. One was for trying to connect a Polycom Conference phone and a Real Presence together. After a few months, we came to the conclusion it wasn't possible, that was the only frustrating occurance with support. Any other time if we needed to RMA a device, it was very smooth.
It is almost an unfair comparison as the base Microsoft Teams product doesn't have many whiteboard options. Both can screen share, but it's hard to make a fair comparison. That being said, the whiteboard is really great if you have the smartboard to support it and fully utilize its features.
Polycom RealPresence Group Series stands head and shoulders above Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Meetings both for dependability and robust delivery of function. One established the meetings were very hard to break apart but easy to end when so desired. The installation of the devices, the training of technicians, and end-users were both intuitive and easy to manage, where the same interactions with Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex In my opinion, and experience, were challenging to work through.
It makes team meetings more productive. All team members can contribute simultaneously.
After the meeting, all team members got access to the files discussed in the meeting and this allows you to continue discussions even after the meeting.
The only negative impact of Cisco Webex Board on the company is its high price as I mentioned earlier.
Once pexip integrates Polycom/skype this will be a big win for us due to the RPTouch integrating the "one - touch join". This will increase adoption of video greatly.
Before the Group series with peripherals was implemented the cost of a video room was twice what it is today. Massive win.
Due to provisioning and automated firmware the IT involvement has been greatly reduced. No longer is there a need for manual changes to individual endpoints.