New Audio Solutions Help IT Departments Enhance User Experiences through Clear, Reliable Audio and Ease of Use

UC Expo 2010 – London Olympia, Stand 306 – March 10, 2010 – Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) today simplified its growing Unified Communications (UC) portfolio and introduced new audio solutions that help IT departments deploy UC quickly and keep costs down.  The new solutions, including a USB desk phone and premium corded headsets, deliver brilliant audio, unmatched quality and ease of use across all work environments.
 
The Plantronics Unified Communications product portfolio is now organised into the following product families: Blackwire (TM), Calisto (R), and Plantronics Voyager (R) UC. The simplified product families are designed for easy IT decision making. Many products provide full call control functions for UC applications from partners including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Skype.

“Voice is paramount in Unified Communications because it enables us to be more expressive and engaged. Workers won’t adopt UC solutions if they can’t trust the audio to be clear and reliable, so it’s imperative that both IT and end users be able to quickly match an audio solution to their work style and audio needs,” said Elizabeth Bastiaanse Hamren, vice president of Product Marketing at Plantronics. “We developed our new solutions to enhance the UC experience with audio that gives the feeling of true ‘face-to-face’ conversations and the reliability that people have come to expect of Plantronics for nearly 50 years.”

Simplifying UC Deployments
The new Plantronics Unified Communications product families give IT departments a single trusted vendor for a wide variety of audio solutions. From executives in the corner office to mobile sales teams to knowledge workers around campus or in the office, Plantronics’ breadth of product options enable clear, reliable conversations across an array of environments. Equally important, the audio solutions are easy to use and install, so IT departments aren’t burdened with support requests.

Plantronics Blackwire: Corded USB Wideband Headsets
Designed for in-office and mobile PC-based conversations, the Blackwire family includes the new Blackwire 420, a foldable headset designed for a mobile worker which can lay flat next to a laptop for portability.  It has in-line controls for volume, answer/end and mute. Installation is easy via USB plug-and-play connectivity.  The Blackwire line includes five headsets with wideband audio, call control and noise canceling microphones in both mono and stereo. 

Plantronics Calisto: Wideband USB Phones
The Calisto family includes the new Plantronics Calisto 540, an Optimised for Microsoft Office Communicator deskphone.  The Calisto 540 is ideal for stationary workers who primarily use the PC for voice conversations and want the familiarity of a desk phone. The Calisto family of products also includes a USB speakerphone and a handset.
 
Plantronics Voyager UC: Bluetooth (R) USB Wideband Headset
For mobile professionals, Voyager PRO UC, introduced in November 2009, combines Plantronics’ award-winning Voyager PRO Bluetooth headset with a plug-and-play Bluetooth USB adapter to deliver richer wideband audio on softphones along with Voyager PRO’s superior noise and wind cancellation on both mobile phones and softphones.  The Plantronics Voyager PRO UC headset supports multipoint technology that allows users to switch between their mobile phone calls and PC calls with the touch of a button.

Pricing and Availability
The full portfolio of UC products is available through authorised Plantronics resellers and will be available in Spring 2010.
•   Plantronics Blackwire corded USB wideband headsets range in price from £30 to £79 MSRP.  The ultra portable Blackwire 420 has an MSRP of £69.
•   Plantronics Calisto wideband USB phones range in price from £69 to £119 MSRP.  The new Calisto 540 USB Deskphone has an MSRP of £119.
•   Plantronics Voyager PRO UC has an MSRP of £109 and is currently available.

For information on becoming an authorised Plantronics reseller, visit www.plantronics.com/partners

Plantronics – The Voice of Unified Communications (TM)
Plantronics offers the industry’s most complete families of corded and wireless products for UC. Widely recognised for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics’ audio solutions help companies broaden the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communications and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working.  On the Plantronics UC Blog, experts from Forrester, Frost & Sullivan and UC Strategies weigh in on the importance of voice communication to make UC deployments successful through human interaction.

For more information about Plantronics’ UC-ready products, visit www.plantronics.com/uc.
The Plantronics UC blog: http://ucblog.plantronics.com

This year at UC Expo, Plantronics can be found at stand  number 306.