Poly introduced its Studio P series of devices, designed for today’s remote worker, at an event in Singapore with the requisite safeguards in place for Covid-19.
The Poly Studio P series includes the Poly Studio P5 webcam, Poly Studio P15 personal video bar, and Poly Studio P21 personal meeting display.
In an exclusive interview with Inavate, Bill Zeng, chief technology officer and director, sales engineering, Poly, explained the driving force behind the Studio P series: “If we go back 12 months, we really did not know how Covid-19 would play out. When the lockdowns happened, we assumed that the disruption would last for a few weeks and then we would return to normal. But we are now a year down the road, and we have seen that there has been a fundamental shift in how we work. Poly has been fortunate because we have a unique history is helping people work whether they are in the office or at home and with the P series we are really expanding our capabilities. We are looking to support our customers as they make the transition to ‘hybrid working’, where they find their own balance between working from the office of working from. This hybrid working model requires the right devices to support it.”
Zeng acknowledges that the personal device product vertical is crowded and talked about Poly’s unique proposition: “Personal devices have been out there for a long time, but very little innovation has happened. The PC webcam for example has been stagnant in its development even though the market has been growing rapidly. I believe that Covid-19 has changed everything, and people are now seriously looking at the quality and the performance of their personal devices. So, at Poly, we started with investment in R&D to really bring a new level of quality to the personal devices we offer as part of the P series. In the long run, we believe that better audio and video experiences will win because people want to have quality.”
Poly is also considering its approach to the market with the Studio P series. Zeng says: “When it comes to personal devices, we’ve seen a different approach to procurement. Sometimes it is a centralised purchase, but it can also be the employees evaluating their options and using their own means to buy solutions. But most importantly, it is about getting the right device to the end users.
“The B2B channel remains extremely important to Poly and it still has an extremely important place in how technology and solutions are deployed. When you are looking at meeting rooms and boardroom spaces being fitted out at scale, that is still something that the channel will handle. The centralised model will still be around. But at the same time with Amazon and other e-commerce platforms, users have the ability to make purchasing decisions themselves. As I said, for Poly it is all about making sure that the right devices reach the right customers.”
The Studio P series is accompanied with the announcement of Poly Lens Desktop App and Poly+, services that help you monitor your hardware and provide support.
Janet Au Yeong, head of corporate communications, APAC, Poly, summarises: “The Studio P series is for the ‘hybrid; worker and for wherever they work, whether they are in the office or at Starbucks or at home. It is a portable office they can bring around with them wherever they go. It looks like measures like social distancing and travel restrictions are going to be around for a while, so videoconferencing will remain extremely important and when it becomes the only way you can communicate and collaborate with your colleagues and teams, then the quality of video and audio becomes even more important. Providing this quality is the aim of the Studio P series.”