Polycom is aiming to break down barriers to videoconferencing and make video the new dial tone with the expansion of its RealPresence Platform, including a cloud solution.

The addition of the RealPresence CloudAxis Suite lets customers extend enterprise-grade video collaboration to users of Skype, Facebook, Google Talk and other business video applications via a browser.

Also included in the announcement was news of more than 20 new user innovations and features for Polycom UX (user experience), the RealPresence Collaboration Server 800s, Virtual Edition and new next-generation video endpoints.

Gary Denman, Polycom managing director, ANZ, says the announcements, which Polycom has been working on for two years, help bring the concept of video as dial tone to fruition. “This means you can have video conversations regardless of the platform you’re using, just as with telephony.”

Polycom expects the new offerings to accelerate mass adoption of video collaboration and fuel new growth opportunities in both existing and new markets. The company expects the market to grow to nearly $12 billion in 2015, at a 16% compound annual growth rate.

Denman says in order for video to become the primary means of communication, it must be standards-based and interoperable. “We realised this requires us to become interoperable with anyone.”

Polycom’s announcement was followed by news that Telecom will utilise the RealPresence Platform for both Gen-i and Telecom hosted Video as a Service offerings.