Polycom announced new software upgrades for its iPower and ViewStation EX, FX and VS4000 systems that add support for the H.264 and AES encryption standards.

The Release 6.0 upgrades promise to increase the installed base of industry-standard videoconferencing systems, easing interoperability and helping to make AES and H.264 more widely adopted, analysts said.

"Delivering H.264 and AES encryption to the installed base of iPower and ViewStation customers creates the largest population of H.264- and AES-capable systems, an event that helps to mainstream the technology," said Andrew W. Davis, managing partner at Wainhouse Research. "Polycom's support for these industry standards will promote interoperability with systems from other vendors, thereby extending the benefits of the technology to a larger population and increasing the overall value of the standards themselves."

Plus, since the upgrades are software-based, users can get the benefits of the standard support without having to buy new hardware, which can get costly, Polycom said.

The new H.264 support enables the Polycom systems to deliver nearly twice the video quality over the same bandwidth connection, while the AES encryption lets users secure all conference information – including audio, video and rich media content -- across all Polycom group videoconferencing systems. These include all iPower models (iPower 9000, 900 and 600), the new VSX 7000 and all ViewStation EX, FX and VS4000 video systems, the company said. The software also ensures the systems will interoperate with other H.264- and AES-compliant videoconferencing systems.

The software upgrades will be available in March. For more information, visit Polycom here.