Poly (formerly Plantronics and Polycom) issued a new report highlighting a granular shift in focus from “place” to “purpose” of work as businesses respond to the COVID-19 crisis, redesign their operations and reinvent the way they work. Out of city coworking spaces, ergonomic at-home work setups and virtual water cooler moments — the effects of […]

Plantronics and Poly announced Tuesday that the Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 video bars now run Microsoft Teams natively. Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 are both now available for order with native Teams running right out of the box. Organizations that have already purchased and/or deployed the Poly Studio X and […]

Plantronics and Poly announced Thursday that the Poly Studio X30 and Poly Studio X50 video bars and the Poly G7500 videoconferencing system are now the first Zoom Rooms Appliances to receive Zoom certification. As the first Android-based appliances to offer native Zoom Rooms functionality, the Poly Studio X30, Poly Studio X50 and G7500 videoconferencing devices […]

Plantronics and Poly unveiled a new series of Poly Room Solutions for Microsoft Teams Rooms Friday. These are the Poly G10-T, G40-T and G80-T. The listed solutions include audio and video tools for users on Microsoft Teams and give IT managers the ability to scale for meeting rooms of all sizes. Teams has more than […]

Plantronics released today the Voyager 4200 and Voyager 5200 Office Series. These Bluetooth headset systems are an extension of the Voyager 4200 UC and Voyager 5200 UC Series. Both enable mobility and multiple connectivity options for office workers. The Voyager 4200 and Voyager 5200 Office Series will have a version available with a dedicated Microsoft […]

Plantronics today announced that the company will transform into a new company called Poly. In explaining the new name, their press release explained that Poly, which means “many,” leverages the legendary audio and video expertise of Plantronics and Polycom and its breadth of smart endpoints that connect across and between unified communications platforms to reduce […]

According to CNBC, CBS MarketWatch, Reuters and Nasdaq’s news service, Plantronics — the maker of wireless headsets and the parent company of Polycom — is for sale. After reporting terrible earnings Tuesday, and the stock plunging 11 percent, it appears they are looking for a buyer. In the earnings announcement Tuesday, Plantronics said its revenue […]

Plantronics today announced the Plantronics Elara 60 Series mobile phone station integrated with native Microsoft Teams support. Plantronics Elara enables a mobile phone with desk phone-like capabilities, including headset, speakerphone, and handset options.  This mobile phone station receives Microsoft Teams notifications and provides users with a touch or voice-activated Microsoft Teams experience.  To operate, a mobile […]

As the rest of the advertiser-supported AV press just reprints the Polycom or Plantronics press releases, we’re going to call it how we see it — with the truth about this “acquisition.” Yes, Plantronics is taking control of Polycom — a history-making videoconferencing company that all but invented the space — for what amounts to $2.0 billion in enterprise […]

Earlier this week, we broke the news that Plantronics was entering the ProAV market with a new product called Habitat Soundscaping. It wasn’t a complete surprise as Plantronics is one of the worst companies I’ve ever seen at keeping secrets. I found out about the product five months before they called me out of the blue to “tell […]

Plantronics today announced Habitat Soundscaping, an “intelligent acoustic management service” that helps transform distracting, dysfunctional, open office spaces into peaceful environments where people can focus, collaborate and thrive (think sound Masking using water and nature sounds instead of pink or white noise). The service uses nature-inspired audio and visuals, coupled with intelligent software to mitigate distractions due to speech -– the most common complaint employees have about […]

As a followup to my blog Where the Internet of Things Takes A Center Stage, I wanted to bring some perspectives from the Consumer Electronics Show to include AV/IT industry companies — Savant, Lutron, Revolve Robotics and Plantronics which involved IoT, Smart Home technology, robotics and unified communications. Savant is a recognized leader in home control […]

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune of visiting the Plantronics headquarters in Santa Cruz, California. The business purpose was to meet with a handful of SMART Technologies’ Collaboration Executive Council (CEC) members in a semi-annual meeting hosted by SMART’s customer and CEC member Plantronics. The CEC event was great – I learned […]