Polycom Expands Video Everywhere with ViVu Acquisition

Polycom continues to grow ever larger, especially with its latest acquisition of ViVu, whose technology portfolio offers video collaboration inside web applications for quick and streamlined video chatting and sharing of content. It should come as no surprise that ViVu fits Polycom’s needs perfectly. Acquisition details follow …

For Polycom, ViVu is a match made in UC heaven. Polycom’s latest technology bender has focused on bringing video collaboration software everywhere, even to iPads and Android devices. Now, with ViVu’s video-anywhere embedded web design, Polycom can continually deliver and expand on that goal.

ViVu can be used essentially anywhere there’s a web browser, and that’s perfect for Polycom, since it will enable “a fast-track to embed HD video into web-based applications [and] accelerate time-to-market and adoption of Polycom HD video collaboration solutions,” according to Polycom.

Ideally, this will also push Polycom’s name out deeper into the channel and UC space: Polycom hopes to embed ViVu technology into social networking and other mobile solutions as well as integrate ViVu’s code into the Polycom RealPresence platform. Polycom also plans to take ViVu deeper into the channel through vertical market integration, since ViVu is being touted as an “instant” way enhance “customer service [with] faster help desk resolution [and] healthcare [with] doctor and patient conversations via video.” Realistically, the applications are endless.

As a reminder, Polycom has strongly pushed its UC Everywhere ethos, and in June 2011 launched the Open Visual Communication Consortium (OVCC), tasked with creating a protocol that would enable all UC video devices to chat with any other UC video device. ViVu seems to be a unique way to reach that goal, since web browsers are a single ubiquitous and unifying platform for development. Polycom’s continue moves will be monitored closely.