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Business executives, hamstrung like everyone else by escalating fuel costs and what economists call a looming economic recession, say one way to save money – and do good for the planet – is to refrain from traveling to in-person meetings and rely instead on technology to communicate.

 

There are different ways to do that, and anyone reading hi-tech news knows that companies delivering services such as telepresence video conferencing are hailing themselves as cost-effective and “green.”

 

Yet if crystal clear communication is the goal of companies seeking to “meet” while saving money, there’s one Pleasanton, California-based company who says its products can deliver even without a video component.

 

Officials at Polycom Inc. (News - Alert) aren’t anti-telepresence – they recently expanded their broadcast telepresence portfolio, and the company creates and sells end-to-end applications for video as well as voice, data and Web, from desktop, mobile personal and room systems to the network core.

 

But now, company officials say they’ve developed upgrades to a widely hailed high-definition voice conferencing product that’s taking the experience to the next generation.

 

“While Polycom’s original models continue to be a staple of conference rooms around the world, they are limited to basic voice conferencing duties,” officials at the company say. “Simply put, it’s time to upgrade this voice-conferencing equipment. Over the past 15 years, Polycom has pioneered multiple advancements in voice conferencing technology, incorporating them into a new generation of phones designed for the pace of 21^st century business.”

 

The HD voice upgrades are built around Polycom’s landmark, original voice communications product, 1992’s SoundStation.

 

While that product’s microphone pickup range is about 7 feet, officials say, newer products such as the SoundStation VTX 1000 can pick up a microphone from as far away as 20 feet.

 

Generally speaking, the new Polycom products are designed to remove background noise, focus on speakers and resist interference.

 

Technical upgrades among Polycom’s HD voice analog and IP conference phones include larger phonebooks, faster audio bandwidths, higher resolution screen displays and more expansive local application support.

 

But beyond those technical upgrades, Polycom officials say, the company now offers a suite of conference phones specifically designed for different types of rooms and network environments.

 

“Conference phones designed to meet the acoustic requirements of different types of rooms, such as the SoundStation VTX 1000 for larger conference rooms, and VoiceStation products for small meeting rooms and offices,” officials say.

 

The company’s product line also includes models designed for analog, digital PBX (News - Alert) and VoIP environments, Polycom officials say, with unique features that take advantage of various telephony settings.

 

“For the ultimate in flexibility, the SoundStation2W wireless conference phone can be used in multiple offices or conference rooms, or connect it to a mobile phone for conference calls from nearly anywhere,” company officials say.