Polycom Immersive Studio Flex initial thoughts

Polycom introduced the Immersive Studio Flex today and here are some random thoughts about it based on the bullet points from their product website and literature.

The main thing that's apparent is that it looks like a combination of the OTX and the Immersive Studio.

There is still a huge camera placement problem. They went against the Immersive Studio's camera in the chest in favor of the OTX's "big camera(s) up there" approach. That being said - finally there is a logically placed camera between people screens and the content screen. I wrote about that oddity in a blog somewhere/sometime ago that I can't find. Oh well.

3d voice
I love the concept but I'm unsure how it works when you're dealing with multi-point calls or various product lines. Flex to Flex (or Flex to Immersive Studio) I'm sure works great.

Across the table experience
I've said this before, but immersive systems with the parallel table design basically make the statement that local room communication is unimportant which I disagree with.

Immersive/hardware is not dead!
There you go, I had to do it.

TIP interoperability
That's a phrase I haven't seen in a long time.

Surprisingly Affordable
I've seen no pricing, so I'll let that go for the time being.
EDIT: 2-1-17 - I saw that this was $189,000. Not sure if that's everything in the photos as some stuff is optional, but even if it included everything, it's a high price. Factor in remediation, installation and support and we're probably looking at a quarter million. This is not "affordable".

Colors
Available in Walnut, Apple and White. I think it's awesome that there is color variety. Apple wood is probably my favorite of the group.

Marketing Photo
A necessary threshold was photoshopped out or removed for photography reasons.

Room Requirements
21W x 15'3"D x 8'H That's pretty good.

Codecs
Requires one Group 700 and two Group 500's.

To wrap up:
It would be beneficial for Polycom to switch to a dual screen philosophy exclusively. From desktop to huddle space to board room to immersive "suites". With this approach, you can guarantee a consistent user experience throughout their entire product line (isn't that what it is supposed to be about?). Right now, the experience varies based on what technology is talking to what technology. Immersive to Immersive is excellent, but Immersive to desktop, which we know happens, maybe not so much. Adopting a dual screen philosophy, product line wide, fixes that completely and easily. The dual screens could be 27" each for the desktop or 100" each in the Immersive rooms and whatever in between. Dual displays can also fix the camera location issue.