Providea Named Polycom Telepresence Certified Plus Partner for Comprehensive Solution, Service and Support Capabilities

CAMARILLO, CA and PLEASANTON, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/05/09 -- Providea Conferencing, LLC, a leading provider of high-definition video conferencing, audiovisual and networked solutions, today announced it has achieved Polycom Telepresence Certified Plus status from Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), a global leader in telepresence, video and voice communications solutions. The designation, the highest awarded by Polycom for telepresence partners, recognizes Providea for its ability to deliver world-class telepresence solutions with Polycom's broad portfolio of standards-based telepresence systems, and Providea's ClearVideo Conferencing Service and extensive support capabilities.

"There is tremendous customer interest for telepresence and video conferencing solutions as they address critical issues that customers are facing today -- from reducing costs and maximizing resources, to enhancing collaboration among geographically dispersed teams, to being more environmentally responsible," said Todd Luttinger, president of Providea. "Providea's comprehensive managed service and support capabilities combined with Polycom's standards-based telepresence solutions provide an ideal platform for collaborating in our evolving business environment."

Organizations across industries are adopting telepresence and video conferencing to address the challenges of global communication and collaboration, reducing business costs, and driving corporate social responsibility. As part of a comprehensive portfolio of telepresence solutions that meet different application, space and budget requirements, Polycom immersive telepresence solutions include life-size high-definition (HD) video, HD spatial audio and HD multimedia content sharing within a highly interactive, immersive environment that helps people in different locations feel like they are in the same room. Because these solutions can be deployed alongside any call management platform, and work seamlessly with nearly two million standards-based telepresence and video conferencing systems in use today, customers have more flexibility and receive greater ROI through the ability to use telepresence with customers, partners and vendors.

"Providea and Polycom deliver complete solutions that customers are demanding for enterprise-wide and business-to-business (B2B) telepresence and video conferencing deployments," said Joe Sigrist, senior vice president and general manager, Video Solutions, Polycom.