Dolby presents the Dolby Voice product line of consisting as software as well as conference phones and video conferencing equipment, able to produce an immersive, natural conferencing experience. It is available in various kits, such as the Dolby Voice Room kit, as well as Dolby Voice Pro (for boardrooms), and Dolby Voice Huddle.
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Polycom Trio
Score 9.1 out of 10
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Polycom Trio 8800 is a conference phone system that offers high-quality audio, as well as the ability to add video conferencing and HD content sharing. RealPresence Trio is Skype for Business on-prem and Office 365 Skype for Business Cloud PBX certified for conference calls and supports a 1080p30 USB camera for video conferencing. Users can share content from their personal devices, facilitating a BYOD (bring your own device) approach to collaboration.
Implementing these units within our business reduced the number of support requests to our internal IT support desk. This was simply because these units are so simple to use. The user books a video conference meeting within Outlook and includes the meeting room they wish to hold the video conference in. Within five minutes, their meeting is recognized on the Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice). Their meeting is also shown on the TV screen within the meeting room so that other people can see who will be using the room. On entering the room, the user simply touches the Join button next to their meeting on the Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice), normally in the middle of the table, and within a few seconds, the meeting room has joined the video conference meeting.
The Polycom Trio is a great tool for huddle rooms that don't rely as much on a responsive screen. There are better room controllers out there, but if you just need a good speaker and microphone combo in the traditional conference phone style then the Polycom trio is a good option.
Lync/Skype Integration - The Trio can be used in an existing organization that regularly uses Skype for Business, it makes the user experience seamless.
Phone Conferences - If you have the PBX Licenses installed, the phone can be used to dial out and receive phone calls inbound. Sound Clarity is very good.
Video Conference - Fair video quality for using existing Skype for Business infrastructure.
It was frustrating to not be able to share a user's desktop in a Skype for Business meeting using the People+Content.
From a design perspective, I don't like how the USB port is on the side. Now that we're running in Skype USB optimized mode, we are unable to hide the USB that connects to the SmartDock.
I wish that it had a secondary option in addition to POE to provide power to the unit. Running one powered usb cable from the Smartdock to the trio would be ideal.
This rating is given because it is simple for us--a no-brainer to replace these units with a new Dolby video conferencing device. The fact that these units make the room neater and make it very easy for a user to onboard and use, just makes it a must-have item. The Linux version of these units is also easier to use with a little software patching required. For us, we can also use the Microsoft Teams gateway.
That this unit is so easy for users to use. To join a meeting is a simple one-touch join. If they have not added the meeting room to their invite, then entering the meeting ID into the unit via the touch screen on the flying saucer is very easy. The mute button is on the top of the unit and shows a red LED circle when on mute.
When we have asked the question to either BlueJeans or Dolby, we have been given the answer quickly. To be honest, the number of times that we have had to go to support on these units has been very low--maybe once a quarter.
We did not have any key issues during the implementation. The units are very easy to configure for BlueJeans. When you first turn on the unit, you select the video conferencing platform that you are using. The wizard will then request various information (e.g., IP address, network) and then look for software updates. Once completed, the unit can be installed in the meeting room. The unit will run off a PoE network lead, so one lead to the unit.
The biggest issue with others that we find is that no one has a simple one-touch method for users to join a video conference meeting. With most others, we found you either have to find your meeting or manually enter your meeting. With Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice), you are straight into the room--one touch and in the meeting.
Polycom Trio provides better conference call quality, picks up voice from corners of the room with additional mics for large room, better widescreen display, and it was mostly the user satisfaction which made us choose Polycom Trio.
Since we were really looking for a device that could provide Skype for Business Online services (web conferencing/video/audio/local screen presenting) at a reasonable price point, I cannot say that this device meets all of our needs. The device has to be at least 99.99% reliable. This is about 60% there. Audio is definitely in the 99% range. Local screen presenting is probably around 75%. Video and web conferencing is about 70%. To comfortably deploy a device in the wild you really need to have 99% reliability. It has to work when its needed. I can understand an occasional hiccup, but one every other day is a too many. If you are replacing older SoundStations with an IP or Skype based audio solution, then this is it.
