Polycom, Regus Facilitate Global Music Competition via Telepresence

LONDON/SLOUGH, UK – Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications, and Regus, the world’s leading provider of innovative workplace solutions, enabled a series of judging panel sessions to be recorded for ground-breaking new music website, YouBloom (www.youbloom.com). The sessions were held between London and Los Angeles, each one carried out via Polycom immersive telepresence, allowing the judges to interact as if they were in the same room, whilst being thousands of miles apart. The judging panel included Bob Geldof and other industry professionals. The sessions were held to evaluate the songs that had advanced through the quarterly contests to the semifinals, and the judges voted for the top songs to go into the member-voting quarterly finals.

Go to the YouBloom channel on YouTube to see the judging sessions in action: http://www.youtube.com/user/YouBloomSongContest

YouBloom is the brainchild of entrepreneur and musician Phil Harrington. “My Vision and that of everyone involved with YouBloom is to build a new global economy of artists which will change the dynamic of the industry and at last drive the internet to deliver creatively and financially for artists.”

The site launched earlier this year with the YouBloom Song Contest and Phil sought to provide support for the participating artists and so put together a judging panel of industry experts who would provide valuable and constructive critiques during the contest. He enlisted the support of long-time friend Bob Geldof, songwriter & music producer Rupert Hine and musician & record producer Pete Briquette in London as well as A&R genius Nigel Grainge and US megawatt record producer Damion “Damizza” Young in LA.

“The image quality from LA was great and the whole experience was very natural and hassle free – which meant we could focus on the music and let the discussion flow, without being bogged down in technical problems,” commented Bob Geldof.

“Customers use our telepresence suites in numerous ways but this is certainly one of the most innovative. It shows the quality and versatility of the technology that we are able to link two cities thousands of miles apart in real time, with a sound quality that allows the judges to gauge the passion and ability of the artists whose songs they are judging,” commented Paulo Dias CEO EMEA Regus.

“It is very exciting to support the competition of upcoming musical talent,” said Gary Rider, president EMEA at Polycom. “This music contest is another great example of Location Liberation that Polycom Telepresense solutions provide. The ability to collaborate real-time from multiple locations in near life-like conditions allows programmes like this competition without having to travel.”

The YouBloom Song Contest is now drawing to a close for this year, The eight songs that have qualified will again be evaluated by the judges in the Annual semifinal, and then the YouBloom members will vote on the four songs in the Grand Final to find the ‘YouBloom Song of the Year’.

Polycom immersive telepresence offer the most life-like meeting experiences and are part of the broadest portfolio of options to meet any customer requirement. Hosting up to 28 people per site, Polycom solutions enable incredibly productive collaboration sessions for all groups and needs. Built on open standard designs, Polycom immersive telepresence solutions natively interoperate with standards-based video systems to fully leverage your existing high definition and legacy video investments.

About You Bloom
YouBloom (www.youbloom.com) has been set up by artists for artists, to help up and coming musicians to develop, gain recognition and make some money from their creative endeavours. The YouBloom Song Contest – with qualifying rounds of heats and playoffs – has started to do this, with 24 songs already coming to the attention of the professional judging panels. Bob Geldof and the other expert judges have evaluated the songs and voted them through to the member voting finals. The 8 finalists, who have all won cash prizes then go on to compete in the YouBloom Annual judging Semifinal and Grand Final to win a substantial cash prize & recognition on the site.

The site now attracts over 20,000 members and continues to grow. Soon new exciting features will be introduced, to further help artists to develop and prosper.