Polycom Communicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype-Grey
by Polycom Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $106.99 You Save: $15.00 (12%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $99.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Polycom Communicator C100S USB Speakerphone for Skype-Grey
Customer Review: Helps to Deliver on the Promise of Skype
Summary: 4 Stars
Skype has been a fine product for point to point video or teleconference calls using headsets, but we had never found a solution to sharing Skype in a meeting room. Stand-alone Skype speaker phones, such as from Belkin, are OK, but the speaker phone sound quality is not very good, nor is the microphone able to pick up all voices in the room. A separate mic and speakers is no good since this creates echo.
Enter the Polycom Communicator. It seems that Polycom's drivers for Windows XP enable this device to eliminate echo and noise, while still providing microphones sensitive enough to pick up all voices in the room, AND deliver sound that is clear and loud enough for the participants to hear. As a bonus, the device is light and portable, and even comes with its own carrying case.
This is a product that is going to help push Skype more into the mainstream of U.S. businesses. It works as advertised, and makes Skype meetings simple enough for executives to use without having to worry about the technology.
Customer Review: Does not perform with Vista x64.
Summary: 2 Stars
I have had nothing but problems with this device since I purchased it. First, Polycomm has not release a Vista x64 driver for it yet. Through some research, I have found that they have a Beta program for a Vista driver. You have to email tech support requesting to be included in the beta. The current version of the beta software is 2.9 which is 8 months old. The bigger and the ultimate reason for this low rating is, the sound quality. I have used this device on multiple conference calls and almost every time I received a complaint about not being able to hear me. I have dug through sound settings, device settings, and the registry looking for anything that would allow me to increase the Mic gain and nothing worked.
Perhaps this problem will be resolved with a new release of the driver software, but until then, do not use this device with Vista x64.
Side note: I have not tried it on any other OSes and it is likely that it performs well under those that use the production drivers.
Customer Review: Great Idea, but I am not recommending this product...
Summary: 2 Stars
Just spent several hours testing the C100S and it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.
If the C100S is to be used together with Mac using OS X or a Windows Machine using Vista or Windows 7 I am not recommending the C100S.
1. The Polycom XP drivers did not adjust microphone gain properly, so when you are just 1 meter away from the unit the party at the other end would hear nothing.
2. Tried it on VISTA, under Mac OS X (10.5.6) and on Windows 7 Beta without any software where it acts like a regular microphone and the build audio software adjusted volume to reasonable level however no echo cancellation so not really usable for conference calls.
Rumors are that Polycom got a Vista Beta Driver version, but apparently one need to request the driver direct from Polycom support.
So unless Polycom starts to work on drivers for Vista, Windows and Mac OS X I cannot recomemnd the C100S to others. I am returning the device...
Customer Review: Works well with an unexpected benefit
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this product to have full duplex skype call into a weekly conference call. We disturb the boss in the next cubicle so we would go to a room with a bad phone but a network connection. The C100S works as advertised even on my Windows 7 computer. The add-on software does not function on anything other than XP but I knew that from previous reviews.
The interesting part I discovered was that this makes an excellent microphone for my laptop. This means that when I am making Camtasia screen trainings, I do not have to wear the cheesy headphones/boom microphone to dictate the instructions. I can just speak into the air and the C100S picks up my voice with great clarity. The speaker makes a better replacement for my laptop speakers too and is portable. Please notice I wrote "better" than a laptop speaker system but it is stereo and not "tinny" like a laptop.
Customer Review: Great sound quality
Summary: 5 Stars
My coworkers and I have tried every microphone option out there. We've tried desktop mics paired with headphones, multiple headsets, cameras with built in mics, etc. This is by far the most convenient and best sounding of all the solutions we've tried. The Skype integration in Windows is great. I did try it on the Mac, and it seemed to function well as a USB mic and output device. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work as well as it does in Windows, and the integration with Skype isn't there.
The hardware itself is very nice and solid. The stand pops out to reveal the integrated USB cable which wraps up nicely on the back. A travel case is also included to stow it away for trips. The only downside I can see is that the USB cable may be a bit short and you'd need an extension for certain situations, but overall it's a great product, and I highly recommend it.