Good afternoon, colleagues.
Finally, the time has come to fulfill the promise and tell how it all continued and ended. I apologize for being so late.
There will be 2 parts:
- RMX1500
- CMA4000
The text below will contain a lot of letters and may cause an incorrect assessment of my attitude towards this decision. In conclusion, I will reveal the point that I have an even and good attitude towards Polycom, it’s just that their products are not for everyone. So, a picture to describe the situation:
Incepto Ne Desistam
foreword
So, let me remind you. In 2013 it was published about the pitfalls of Polycom hardware codecs. The implementation, in principle, began in 2011 and by 2013 we had 10 such devices throughout Russia. The next question arose: how to organize multipoint conferences? In theory, 1 existing HDX 7000 with a certain license (and we had one) could combine up to 4 points, and two - up to 8 points (I remember the joke about a marker and two markers), but it was not entirely clear what to do with users with laptops and how to implement bridges without overloading communication channels).
Let's start doing good
So, in 2013 we were ready to purchase the RMX1500 with 45 licenses. Why so much? Everything about the polycom is cunning :)
- 1 license != 1 participant
- 1 license = 1 stream of a certain width.
- Voice = 1 thread.
- Video with SD quality = 1,5 streams or licenses
- HD = 3 licenses.
Those. a total of 45 licenses allowed us to combine up to 15 meeting rooms (in the same or different rooms). We could also connect to another (external RMX) and unite at least 30 users using proprietary cascading technology.
I had to go to training, since it was clearly longer to master almost 1000 pages of the administrator’s manual. Also, the sweethearts from Polycom did everything to make the administrator comfortable:
- Excellent and clear interface
- Logical placement of settings items
- Absolutely safe change of table settings
- Instant access to detailed logs
- There is a clear need for as many as 4 network ports (of course, everything is signed)
- A good table of contents in the manual allows you to find the answer to any question in 3 minutes
- The web interface works under all modern browsers
In general, everything is clear. I will say that in 2013 it was already difficult to find Internet Explorer 8...
A little about laziness
During the training, everything was explained in detail and the scenarios were described, and the integrator completed his task. But the problem is that the scenarios of the courts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and banks are not entirely suitable for a young and rapidly growing organization that “needs it yesterday and why isn’t it ready.”
Since I am not known for loving continuous support, I did what classic integrators were horrified by. I simply created 30 rooms for every taste and color - with different layouts, number of participants and quality, printed them out for business meeting rooms, put them in all HDX catalogs, and put them in speed dial. (by the way, our employees mastered this... but dialing *59# to deny entry to strangers turned out to be much more difficult).
In addition, the following was done:
- translation into Russian of all IVRs (oh yes, the vendor is not ready to provide them) it also turned out there, I wouldn’t lie - mono 8bit wav
- replacing welcome pages
- documentation: administrators, service specialists, users (1 sheet with pictures)
- Backup of full configuration
- 3-year support and update contract
Everything is collected in a folder and safely transferred to operation
Results
Polycom RMX1500 experienced:
- Video conferencing with one large bank (it was so nice when the video conferencing administrator of this bank, hearing my voice, said “I asked to connect me with a technical specialist.” In the end, everything worked out, but I had to align the MTU - because the content was not passing through (Desktop)
- 2 data center moves (including intercity in winter)
- A fallen off video card and a complete reset (in 2016. The funny thing is that a backup from 2012 helped)
- Log full
- 4 hardware administrators and an operation service (the organizational structure has changed)
- 3 address changes
In 6 years, we have made only 1 change - we added a connection to the CMA4000, which came back to haunt us in 2019, but I will talk about this in part 2.
PS
Polycom has a very good line of hardware and software for it. They have excellent support, good partners. The equipment is ultra-stable and fault-tolerant. Everything is great. Question: how much are you willing to pay for it and do you need this level? If you are a bank, a legal organization, an emergency center, an infrastructure company responsible for safety (railroads, nuclear power plants) - then yes, definitely consider it. If you are still young, do not plan for 5-10 years ahead, and do not know how the business will develop, then it is better to stop in time and limit yourself to HDX and a cloud solution.
This is my personal opinion based on Polycom's positioning in the industry and my experience working for a young company.
Thank you for your attention, I promise not to miss part 2.
Questions are welcome!
Source: habr.com