Polycom RealPresence Group Series Reviews & Insights

Score6 out of 10

54 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Polycom RealPresence Group Series are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Audio and Video Quality: Reviewers have consistently praised the audio and video quality of the Polycom RealPresence Group Series. Many users have described the audio quality as astounding and excellent, while also highlighting the sharpness, clarity, and high resolution of the video.

Versatility: The versatility of the Polycom RealPresence Group Series has been a standout feature for users. They appreciate being able to integrate the system with other applications, allowing for seamless online to phone interactions and easy sharing of computer content with participants at remote locations.

Ease of Use: Users find the Polycom RealPresence Group Series to be extremely user-friendly. They value its simplistic design and how easily it operates without any difficulties. The intuitive user interface, attractive touch panel option, and overall ease in running meetings are highly appreciated by reviewers.

Reviews

24 Reviews

Polycom Group Series - Good for it's time.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

July 6, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Polycom RealPresence Group Series codecs were used as part of our outgoing Video Managed Service. Enabled collaboration for staff in meeting rooms over video conferencing. Where it was used it faciliated meetings with colleagues both internal and external and saved time on traveling nationally but crucially with international contacts including suppliers.

Pros

Solid codecs, well built and robust
Video and audio quality is very good including the microphones
Codecs are reliable, as long as users don't interfere with the cabling.

Cons

The UI is fairly dated compared to what's available on the market
Codecs require a fair bit of config before they are able to be used
Remote control is fiddly

Likelihood to Recommend

If you're always working in the Polycom ecosystem then the Group Series codecs are reliable and the quality of the camera and microphones are extremely good. However, the system relies heavily on either having onsite server technology and/or cloud based bridging capability. In addition, the peripherals like cameras and microphones are quite expensive. Maintenance and support costs also make the ongoing investment a costly one.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Worth the extra cost if you use it correctly

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Being a global company, it's important to be able to communicate effectively - more so than just a Microsoft Teams meeting. Polycom RealPresense Group Series allows our groups to sit in a conference room and speak with other conference rooms as if it was one large meeting. Generally, these are used by departments spread out across multiple locations to have routine meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. In a previous company, they were used so much that when our HQ was moved into a new building, the RealPresense devices more than doubled because we didn't have enough room. They were in anything from a small 2-person conference room to a large lobby where company-wide meetings would take place and accessed remotely by other locations.

Pros

The audio and video quality can not be matched.
For the most part, they are rather simplistic in their use and just work. People don't usually have a hard time operating them
They are rather versatile in that we have been able to integrate them with other applications

Cons

They are certainly not cheap.
I've struggled to come across any unified solution to manage all of our Polycom RealPresence devices instead of using the web interface of each one. It makes company-wide changes rather cumbersome
This might be an old issue but we had a really hard time pairing the RealPresence device with a Polycom conference phone and have them work together

Likelihood to Recommend

While expensive, you can't compare the cost and time of people flying all over the globe to have in-person meetings when 95% of the time they can be done between a RealPresense.... even more so in today's post-pandemic world. You just get such a better video and audio experience than a Teams meeting.

We were also able to connect our RealPresence to Teams so that you can join a meeting and choose whether to join it from your desk with Teams or from a conference room with a Real Presence. This solved 2 issues for us in that there's now a simple link on the Real Presence to join a meeting instead of making a direct phone call to another RP device, and for meetings with 1 or 2 people from a site, they can now join this meeting from their desk and free up the conference room for a large meeting.

Curt Sminkey

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Southco (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

View profile

Poly Group Series: A good choice.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 30, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it exclusively for our video conference rooms solution throughout our organization as well as support other campuses and state entities with their own Group Series units. We use Poly Group Series for static rooms as well as an integrated mobile solution for our live production events. Poly Group Series is our preferred equipment including a Poly Clariti infrastructure.

Pros

Dedicated appliances for video.
Quality video.
Sound and content integration.

Cons

Cost
Non-proprietary camera options on the GS 500 and 310 units.
External audio integration on the GS 310.

Likelihood to Recommend

Having a dedicated video unit performs much better than virtual solutions. High-quality video.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Great for meetings

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 12, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the Polycom RealPresence Group Series to participate in conference calls. We use Microsoft Teams to create and host the meetings. It helps bring meetings together and a sense of togetherness. You can see the other people on the screen and the cameras help them to see you and whoever is talking.

Pros

Make conference calls
Display clear pictures

Cons

Setting up meetings can take a bit to register
The initial setup was very cumbersome

Likelihood to Recommend

It is very well suited for conference calls. You could also use it for demonstration purposes. We use two cameras and they will move to focus on the whole room or towards the person that is talking. We use two TV screens so that the people of the meeting can be displayed on one screen while the presentation can be displayed on the other.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Veteran Collaboration Manager

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 3, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We standardized our enterprise video conferencing platform around the Polycom RealPresence Group Series for several reasons. The most compelling were:

1) The ability to support HD video quality at the lowest required bandwidth in the industry.
2) Superb sound quality.
3) Flexibility to work with various cloud services.

Pros

HD resolution at low bandwidth.
Sound quality.

Cons

Microphone compatibility.
Physical interface standards.

Likelihood to Recommend

The Group Series is well suited for all meetings spaces. I cannot think of a scenario where video conferencing requirements would not be fully fulfilled by a Group Series device.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Polycom RealPresence Group Series Provides High Quality Experience and Decreases Travel Cost

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 28, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Polycom RealPresence Group Series 500 is used in about a dozen conference rooms across the united states that require high-quality audio and video. The Polycom RealPresence Group series integrates easily with Microsoft Teams, and our ceiling microphones. The touch panels are easy to use and easy to learn, having the Polycom RealPresence Group series 500 in our high priority, high traffic conference rooms has lead to a better meeting experience,and thus has resulted in a decrease in the need for travel.

Pros

Ease of Use
High quality video

Cons

Remote control of the Polycom RealPresence Group series panel is very buggy.
Additional license cost for integration with Teams.

Likelihood to Recommend

Polycom RealPresence Group series is very well suited for high traffic, high priority conference rooms where video and audio quality and required to be the best. Polycom RealPresence Group series is overkill for small huddle rooms and smaller conference rooms ( mainly due to the cost), but for board rooms and large meeting spaces, it excels.

Brian Coyne

Unified Collaboration Engineer in Information Technology at Signet (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Satellite office conference room solution at lower costs.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

September 14, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Polycom system was deployed in the board meeting room. Board members have lifesize and cisco conference systems in their offices, and Polycom was chosen as a low-cost endpoint to participate in those meetings.

Pros

It's fairly straightforward to deploy.
Good integration with Polycom® SoundStation® IP 7000 phone to achieve high-quality audio coverage in the room without installing a more complex ceiling microphone's solution.

Cons

Integration with other solutions, such as Skype or Teams, requires additional licenses.
We ended up using it only for meetings between conference rooms, not with individual users.

Likelihood to Recommend

Polycom is a good low-cost solution for satellite offices not heavily engaging in conference room meetings. Good quality audio and video.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Polycom Group Series - The RealPresence Your Company Has Been Looking For!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 30, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Polycom RealPresence Group Series is being used by everyone in our department but has not yet been integrated to use by everyone in the organization. We switched over to Polycom RealPresence Group Series about 3 years ago and it has made such a difference in our ability to connect to others in our department and those that we have meetings and partnerships with. Polycom RealPresence Group Series helps us to better plan meetings and conferences, determine availability of staff, and makes phone and online transactions more efficient, therefore saving valuable time throughout the day.

Pros

Polycom RealPresence Group Series allows for seamless online to phone interactions. Staff are able to listen to voicemail on their phone or through their email, which is especially important when they are out of the office.
Polycom RealPresence Group Series allows us to determine the availability of our staff, by syncing calendars and showing availability through the online messaging feature and the screen on the phone itself.
Polycom RealPresence Group Series allows us to easily set up and conduct phone and video based conference calls, with minimal interference or dropped calls.

Cons

The only issue that we have experienced with Polycom RealPresence Group Series is the speed dial functionality. When attempting to use the speed dial buttons, the system occasionally sends a call through the computer system, not the phone. While the computer call option is valuable, not everyone can answer calls that way and we have had to do a manual lookup of an extension and call back when that happens.

Likelihood to Recommend

Polycom RealPresence Group Series has been the best system I've worked with thus far. I would highly recommend it for colleges/universities, hospital or wellness administrative areas, executive/corporate companies, and businesses that employ more than 25 people. I would recommend it if a group uses the phone frequently, and plans meetings and conferences on a regular basis. It would be less ideal in a work setting with few staff or one in which a staff does not interact frequently.

Verified User

Professional in Professional Services (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Polycom RealPresence: Real(ly) good

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 13, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Polycom RealPresence Group Series codecs are being used across the organization which we support. They enable video conferencing between offices around the globe for training, client meetings, internal meetings, and interviews.

Pros

Provides high-quality video and audio during conferences.
Enables the sharing of computer content from one site to the far end participants.
Easily used in integrated Crestron-controlled rooms.

Cons

Screen layout options can be somewhat limited, particularly when sharing content.
There have been occasional issues when connecting directly with Cisco endpoints within our environment.

Likelihood to Recommend

Very well suited to an environment with an on-site Polycom bridge, as ours is.

John Featheringham

Regional Manager at Waveguide Consulting (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

A 'sure thing' for quality conferencing.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 6, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the Polycom RealPresence systems for communication both within the company and with external Partners and Customers. I work remotely, so having a system available to me not only allows the highest quality communications for day to day meetings, but a reference point for supporting users when needed. Having a system that connects to the Cloud services that we use, but is also a stand-alone H.323 and SIP system is very versatile.

Pros

Polycom are still a high-end videoconferencing manufacturer and it shows. The build quality is very high, with quality components provided. In the current environment where 'huddle-room' systems are taking over and are a mix of solutions from multiple manufacturers, you can tell the difference when you open the box and get dedicated hardware that is designed to work as a single package.
The audio quality is very good. May sound like an odd thing to consider audio quality before video quality, but if the sound is poor, it doesn't matter how good the video is - you wont stay in the meeting.
Great video from the dedicated cameras. The image quality is high and the camera is silent when it moves to presets.

Cons

Interface is good, but not always intuitive. For regular users, everything they need is instantly available.
Not 1080 out of the box, though the hardware supports it. Need a license to activate.

Likelihood to Recommend

Small meeting rooms to large board rooms - there are RealPresence Group (RPG) systems of varying sizes that have additional features to manage all room sizes. If you have a small huddle room environment and feel that the RPG is a little too expensive, then the Trio with a Visual+ will provide you with the functionality, while keeping the familiar interface.

John-James Worrall

Cloud Communications Specialist in Customer Service at ScanSource Imago UK (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

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Worth the extra cost if you use it correctly

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

The audio and video quality can not be matched.
For the most part, they are rather simplistic in their use and just work. People don't usually have a hard time operating them
They are rather versatile in that we have been able to integrate them with other applications

Cons

They are certainly not cheap.
I've struggled to come across any unified solution to manage all of our Polycom RealPresence devices instead of using the web interface of each one. It makes company-wide changes rather cumbersome
This might be an old issue but we had a really hard time pairing the RealPresence device with a Polycom conference phone and have them work together

Likelihood to Recommend

Curt Sminkey

Network Engineer in Information Technology at Southco (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

View profile