Telecom Lead Europe: Video conferencing major Polycom
said that Russian Supreme Court saves $50 million in travel costs by using the
company’s video collaboration.
Polycom has provided videoconferencing systems to equip
the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for use in trials and prisoner
sentencing.
More than 1,000 Polycom RealPresence video systems have
been installed in courts of general jurisdiction and investigative isolation
wards since 1999.
Using Polycom video collaboration, the Courts have
examined 600,000 criminal cases, an average of 800 cases per day. By conducting
examinations over video, the Supreme Court saves RUB 1.5 billion ($50.5
million) of state funds annually on prison transfers of the accused to court
and back.
The important benefits of implementing Polycom
RealPresence solutions are the significant cost and time savings coupled with
the reliability of the technology,” said Andrey German, head of the group in
charge of videoconferencing systems for the Legal Informatization Office of the
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
The Court uses video technologies for judicial sessions
including consultations, meetings with the President and Government of the
Russian Federation, and communication among lawyers and relatives of the
accused.
In addition to the 1,000 Polycom video systems, the
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation also uses the Polycom RealPresence
Platform to manage its video network. The Supreme Court’s plans of equipping
its departments with videoconferencing systems include installing more than
3,000 additional video systems in district courts all over the country in 2013-2017.
Polycom video solutions allow tribunals to solve several
important problems at the same time including accelerating the decision-making
process on any case while dramatically reducing the overall costs of running a
court system,” said Sergey Khomyakov, Russian country manager, Polycom.
In the world judiciary
practice, videoconferencing was used only for
specific applications of justice, mainly for the hearing of
witness testimonies and communication between the accused with
lawyers and relatives. But only in Russia,
in 1999, was videoconference first
applied directly during a trial.
