Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), today announced the use of Polycom® RealPresence™ video solutions at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), enabling the University to provide a more interactive learning experience for its law students, including the ability to collaborate with overseas students in real-time.

The establishment of the new Centennial Campus at HKU gave the Faculty of Law a chance to review its existing technology and evaluate how advanced collaboration technologies such as video collaboration could enhance the learning experience and significantly improve engagement among students. The Centennial Campus aims to provide a learning environment that is truly fit for the 21st century and worthy of a world-class, research-led, international university. Following a rigorous selection process that focused on the stability, flexibility, quality and interoperability of the solutions, HKU chose to work with Polycom on the education enhancement project.

The delivery of Polycom’s video conferencing solutions at HKU’s Faculty of Law was completed in October 2012. Through the use of secure, high-definition video collaboration in classrooms and lecture halls, law students at HKU are able to enjoy simultaneous learning experiences, immediate exchange of ideas, and knowledge sharing between legal professionals and talent around the world.

“Previously, our students’ performances in simulated court proceedings had to be recorded in one room, and played back simultaneously in another – a highly time-consuming and inefficient system,” said Professor Johannes M.M. Chan, S.C. (Hon), Dean of the Faculty of Law at HKU. “With Polycom’s solutions, we are now able to evaluate these recordings in one place so that students can receive immediate feedback on areas of improvement.”

“Polycom RealPresence video solutions have also been useful for us outside the classroom. We have been able to streamline our admission and recruitment processes, as well as internal meetings, and have the ability to collaborate across geographic boundaries. We can now conduct interviews with international candidates ‘face-to-face’ in real-time and meetings are now more effective with the camera tracking feature that enables us to easily focus on speakers,” added Professor Chan.

The Faculty of Law deployed Polycom’s RealPresence™ Room Solutions HDX® 8000 and Polycom’s EagleEye™ Director cameras to enhance the collaborative classroom environment with the ability to automatically locate and focus on active speakers. Polycom HDX Ceiling Microphones also deliver superior audio coverage and noise reduction. The complete solution is powered by the Polycom® RealPresence™ Platform, connecting the video classrooms into a seamless video collaboration network around the world.

“Polycom’s vision of collaborative education includes bridging teachers, instructors, students and content providers around the world to enhance and improve the learning experience,” said Michael Alp, President, Polycom Asia Pacific. Through our partnership with HKU, students and academics are experiencing greater benefits through real-time visual interactions. I am delighted that Polycom is playing such as a vital role in nurturing talent from the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law for the future good of society.”

About The University of Hong Kong

Established in 1911, the University of Hong Kong is the territory's oldest institute of higher learning. Over the past century, the University has committed itself to creating knowledge, providing education, and serving society. It has grown with Hong Kong and generations of our graduates have helped shape the city from which the university takes its name. Today, HKU is internationally recognized as a leading research-led comprehensive university, with frontier research endeavors and scholarly achievements that have won it worldwide acclaim.

About Polycom Education Solutions

With their budgets under strain, administrators are using Polycom video solutions to give students more interactive, immersive, and innovative educational experiences — with a technology that pays for itself by reducing administrative costs and improving staff productivity. All of the top 10 universities worldwide, as well as hundreds of schools, colleges, and universities around the world, are using Polycom to improve all facets of education from teaching to course development to administrative meetings to advanced blended learning applications.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

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