Good afternoon, colleagues.
Finally, the time has come to fulfill the promise and tell how it all continued and concluded. I apologize for the delay.
There will be 2 parts:
- RMX1500
- CMA4000
The text below will contain many words and may lead to a misunderstanding of my attitude towards this solution. In conclusion, I will clarify that I have a neutral and positive view of Polycom; it's just that their products are not for everyone. So, here's a picture to describe the situation:
Incepto Ne Desistam
Preface
So, let me remind you. In 2013, an article was published about the pitfalls of Polycom hardware codecs. Implementation actually began in 2011, and by 2013 we had 10 such devices across Russia. The next question arose: how to organize multipoint conferences? In theory, one existing HDX 7000 with a specific license (which we had) could connect up to 4 points, and two could connect up to 8 points (reminds me of the joke about one marker and two markers), but it wasnāt quite clear how to deal with users on laptops and how to implement bridges without overloading communication channels).
Letās start doing good.
So, in 2013, we matured to the acquisition of RMX1500 with 45 licenses. Why so many? Polycom operates cunningly š
- 1 license != 1 participant
- 1 license = 1 stream of a certain bandwidth.
- Voice = 1 stream.
- SD quality video = 1.5 streams or licenses
- HD = 3 licenses.
Therefore, a total of 45 licenses allowed us to connect up to 15 conference rooms (in one or different rooms). Additionally, we could connect to another (external RMX) and merge up to 30 users using the proprietary cascading technology.
I had to attend training since mastering nearly 1000 pages of the administrator's manual would clearly take longer. Polycom also made every effort to make it convenient for the administrator:
- Excellent and intuitive interface
- Logical arrangement of the settings
- Completely safe modification of tabular settings
- Instant access to detailed logs
- Clear need for 4 network ports (of course, all clearly labeled)
- Good table of contents in the manual allowing to find answers to any questions in 3 minutes
- The web interface works in all modern browsers
Overall, everything is clear. I should mention that by 2013, it was already hard to find Internet Explorer 8ā¦
A little about laziness.
The training covered everything in detail and described the scenarios; the integrator fulfilled their task. However, the problem is that the scenarios for courts, emergency services, and banks do not quite suit a young and rapidly growing organization that wants everything done yesterday and questions why it isnāt ready.
Since I don't have a fondness for continuous support, I did something that shocked traditional integrators. I simply created 30 rooms of every kind and colorāwith different layouts, participant numbers, and quality, printed them out for the business in meeting rooms, and added them to all HDX directories for quick dialing. (By the way, our employees managed thisā¦ but dialing *59# to restrict entry to outsiders turned out to be significantly harder).
In addition, the following was done:
- translation into Russian of all IVRs (oh yes, the vendor was not ready to provide them), and it turned out to be, if Iām not mistakenāmono 8bit wav.
- replacement of greeting pages.
- documentation: for administrators, service specialists, users (1 page with images).
- Backup of the complete configuration.
- Contract for support and updates for 3 years.
Everything was collected into a folder and successfully handed over for operation.
Summary
Polycom RMX1500 survived:
- A video conference with a large bank (it was so nice when the video conferencing administrator of that bank, hearing my voice, said, 'I asked to connect me to a technical specialist.' In the end, it all worked out, but the MTU had to be adjustedāas the content (desktop) wasnāt going through).
- 2 data center relocations (including intercity ones in winter).
- A failed graphics card and a complete reset (in 2016. The funniest thing is that a backup from 2012 helped).
- An overflowing log.
- 4 hardware administrators and an operations service (the organizational structure changed).
- 3 changes in addressing.
In 6 years, we made only 1 changeāwe added a connection to CMA4000, which came back to us in 2019, but I'll discuss that in part 2.
P.S.
Polycom has a very good range of hardware and software for it. They provide excellent support, and have great partners. The equipment is ultra-stable and fail-safe. Everything is wonderful. Question: how much are you willing to pay for this, and do you need that level? If you are a bank, legal organization, emergency center, or an infrastructure company responsible for safety (railroads, nuclear plants) ā then yes, definitely consider it. If youāre still young, not planning 5-10 years ahead, and unsure how your business will develop, then itās better to stop in time, settling for HDX and cloud solutions.
This is my personal opinion, based on Polycom's positioning in the industry and my experience working in a startup.
Thank you for your attention, I promise not to disappear with part 2.
Questions are welcome!
Source: habr.com
