Reading my VCInsight news and found this announcement from the March 17 issue:

At VoiceCon Orlando 2008 this week, Microsoft Corp. announced broad availability of its conferencing solutions and continued customer and partner adoption of its Unified Communications platform. Polycom and TANDBERG videoconferencing systems (74% of the installed base of room systems) will work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. In a keynote address, Microsoft revealed that it has plans for the OCS Server to handle High Definition video and that the company is developing a HD videoconferencing camera with TANDBERG, priced for the masses at $300.

This sounds really intriguing. It sounds like a desktop type unit, but I wonder if it would have audio that could work in a classroom?  It sounds like it might require the OCS server, which might be a complication for schools. Still, it’s nice to know the vendors are competing over a low cost videoconference system, which should continue to benefit K12 education.