EC 2017 The Collaboration Industry Comes to the Sunshine State

Transcription

1 RESEARCH NOTE Visual Collaboration / AV Subscription Analyst(s): Ira M. Weinstein, Saar Litman EC 2017 The Collaboration Industry Comes to the Sunshine State Late March 2017 wraps up another Enterprise Connect (EC) in Orlando, Florida. The three-day expo attracted more than 180 large and small communication and collaboration vendors showcasing their cutting-edge products, services, and business models. Attendance was in the thousands with analysts, consultants, and press all meeting at the Gaylord Palms Convention Center. The Wainhouse Research South Florida team (Ira and Saar) hit the ground running and in the terribly short 72-hour window met with more than 25 companies across the UC, VC, AV, and ideation markets. And we even found time to host a few sessions and attend a few client dinners. This write-up represents what we saw and deemed interesting (and are allowed to talk about) at Enterprise Connect. This is not to say that other companies did not have something interesting to say. it just means that we didn't have a chance to drop by. Important Note We did our best to capture the information accurately within this note. Please let us know if there are any inaccuracies ( iweinstein@wainhouse.com) and we ll make any necessary updates as quickly as possible. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 1 of 10

2 Companies Covered (in alphabetical order) AVI-SPL... 3 Barco... 3 Blue Jeans Network (BJN)... 4 Cisco... 4 Crestron... 5 Cyviz... 6 Dolby... 6 Logitech... 7 Polycom... 7 Revolabs... 8 Shure... 8 Vyopta... 9 Yorktel... 9 Zoom Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 2 of 10

3 AVI-SPL The big news at the AVI-SPL booth was the company s official launch of Symphony 4.0 the newest version of the company s cloud platform that simplifies the monitoring and management of video conferencing and AV technology for AVI-SPL s clients. Truth be told, the WR test team has many years of experience with Symphony, and we ve watched the platform evolve and mature over time. But we couldn t resist the chance to demo the latest and greatest features at EC. Barco At EC 2017, Barco announced the release of the X20 Mobile app. For those who don t recall, X20 is an enterprise-grade visual communication platform that facilitates the creation and delivery of rich media content featuring video, 3D graphics, images, PowerPoint and more to digital displays, PCs, and most recently to mobile devices. X20 is available as a software-only solution or cloud-service. Unlike traditional rich media content distribution or streaming solutions, X2O is heavily geared toward providing employees with access to business-critical information that updates in real time (think dashboards, etc.). At the X2O booth, Barco also showcased the newest version of its wireless presentation portfolio, the ClickShare CSE-800. The 800 was first announced and shown publicly at the ISE 2017 event in February 2017 in Amsterdam, and brings various new features to ClickShare including black-boarding (white-boarding with a black instead of white background), annotation, and moderator control during sharing sessions. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 3 of 10

4 Blue Jeans Network (BJN) A key feature of Blue Jeans Network s booth was a live demo of BlueJeans with Dolby Voice (see picture at right). These AV / VC industry heavyweights have teamed up to provide BlueJeans customers with a Dolby-powered audio experience including Dolby Voice audio within the BlueJeans core, and the ability to use a Dolby Conference Phone with the BlueJeans Huddle solution. In a word, the demo was quite impressive. BJN also announced a partnership with whiteboard capture solution company Kaptivo. In case you haven t heard of them, Kaptivo enables customers to transform a traditional dry-erase board into a digital white board. Best of all Kaptivo sells for list price of only $399, which is less expensive than many dry erase boards. At the show, BlueJeans demo d the integration of its Huddle solution with Kaptivo. Cisco As usual, the Cisco Booth was packed throughout most of the event. At this year s EC, Cisco focused on the power of an all-cisco, cloud-powered (or at least enhanced) experience from the mobile device to the desk to the meeting room. For many, this was the first opportunity to see and play with the recently announced Spark Board. At its core, Spark Board is a 4K touch display available in 55 or 70 sizes. The Spark Board brings three key features to the meeting room: wireless presentation, digital white boarding, and high quality video conferencing. But unlike many competing board products (e.g. Microsoft Surface Hub), the Spark Board is a cloud-powered ideation device that is designed to be used exclusively with the Cisco Spark cloud service. Cisco also announced a new addition to its group video product line the Cisco Spark Room Kit Series. The Cisco Kits combine a video conferencing codec, one or more cameras (depending on model), speakers, and a mic array in a sound bar form factor designed for installation under or above a display. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 4 of 10

5 The Kit Series products are available in two models: - Cisco Spark Room Kit includes a single 5K camera and is designed for use in small spaces - Cisco Spark Room Kit Plus includes a four-camera array (one camera for wide angle capture, and three for close-up views) and is designed for use in room seating up to 14 people Both units offer electronic PTZ, and the Plus version automatically detects the current speaker and switches cameras accordingly (voice activation). Crestron At this year s event, Crestron highlighted solutions designed specifically for small meeting rooms. Crestron Mercury is a huddle room BYOD add-on solution that includes a 7 touch display, an integrated SIP phone / stack, integrated microphones and speaker, Bluetooth support, AirMedia wireless presentation capabilities, an HDMI input and output, an HDMI switcher, USB 2.0 (not 3.0) connectivity, and an occupancy sensor. Crestron also showed its "Next Generation Skype Room System (see image below) - a docking station that enables the permanent installation of a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 tablet running Skype Room System v2 in a meeting room. The Next Generation Skype Room System product is available as a stand-alone dock (list price of US $2,999) or bundled with one more microphones and either a fixed or PTZ camera. But this is more than just a dock Crestron s secret sauce includes a Crestron DM output (HDMI over Cat5) and the ability to switch between the Skype UI and a Crestron control UI with the press of a button on the bezel. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 5 of 10

6 Cyviz We spent a few minutes visiting with the folks at Cyviz. Traditionally a large screen visualization vendor (think command and control environments), Cyviz has slowly and quietly evolved into an AV control and end-to-end AV meeting room solution provider. At the show, Cyviz showcased the newest release of its Easy platform an upgradable and configurable AV control and management platform that integrates with Skype for Business, Pexip, and Cisco and Polycom video conferencing systems. Cyviz also introduced and demo d Easy Connect, a WebRTCpowered application that enables wireless content sharing to high-resolution shared displays. Dolby Although Dolby did not have a booth at EC 2017, the company s importance at the show came through loud and clear (pun intended). At this event, Dolby highlighted that Dolby Voice audio is now in use by five service providers (in alphabetical order) BlueJeans, BT, HighFive, PGi, and West Corporation. By partnering with Dolby, these providers enjoy the benefits of Dolby Voice (spatial audio, background noise suppression, HD audio, etc.), and the ability to integrate with and leverage the Dolby Conference Phone. Instead of having its own booth at EC, Dolby placed English-style phone booths (see image below) in the BlueJeans, Highfive, PGI, and West booths. And each phone booth was equipped with a laptop and an active call powered by Dolby Voice (see image in the BlueJeans section above). Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 6 of 10

7 Logitech Logitech highlighted two of its recently released products at EC2017. Logitech BRIO is a 4K capable webcam (captures up to 4096 x fps) with a 5x digital zoom, infrared facial recognition, RightLight technology to optimize performance in various light conditions, and an adjustable field-ofview (optional software allows user to choose from a 90 degree, 78 degree, or 65 degree FOV). In full disclosure the WR test team has been using BRIO for quite a while in our test and production environment, and most of us now consider BRIO to be our go-to USB webcam. Logitech also showcased the Logitech SmartDock - a mechanical docking station designed to securely house a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 running Microsoft s Skype Room System software. SmartDock also provides the connectivity (e.g. HDMI in/out, USB ports, Ethernet, headset jack, etc.) needed to integrate the Surface Pro 4 device into a meeting room environment. See the results of WR s hands-on testing of SmartDock here. Polycom At this year s show, the Polycom booth included demos of many of the company s conferencing solutions including Polycom Trio, Debut, and Centro (we especially appreciated the soft-chairs surrounding the Centro system). In terms of new products, Polycom showed a new version of Eagle Eye Director (version 2) that supports Polycom's new Eagle Eye IV cameras and includes a 3rd camera used for participant framing. The new Director also sports a shorter vertical microphone array and an updated look and feel. A few weeks before the show, we included Eagle Eye Direction version 2.0 in the standard design package for one of our end-user clients. This gave us the opportunity to test the system in a real-world situation. During this limited testing scenario, Director 2.0 performed quite well. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 7 of 10

8 Revolabs Enterprise Connect 2017 marked the first public showing of the Revolabs CS-700 group add-on device (see image below). The CS-700 looks like a standard sound bar and includes four speakers, an integrated mic array, Bluetooth connectivity (for use with mobile devices), and a 120-degree camera. With anticipated availability in the summer of 2017, the CS-700 product line will include several versions (some with SIP, some with DisplayLink / HDMI over USB, and one with both). Pricing is not yet available. According to the company, the CS-700 leverages Revolabs expertise in microphone design and Yamaha s (Revo s parent company) expertise in speaker design. Shure At this year s EC, audio powerhouse Shure presented an impressive shoot-out comparing the audio pickup of its MXA910 ceiling microphone array to a basic omnidirectional ceiling microphone (brand unknown). The demo was conducted on the very noisy open show floor, and the difference was nothing less than amazing (yes this coming from AV guys with a combined 40+ years of AV experience). The MXA910 was able to successfully hide most of the show floor noise, while the omni mic was basically unusable in this challenging environment. In addition, Shure demoed its P300 DSP, a Dante power Mini DSP designed for small and medium rooms with basic audio requirements. The P300 supports 8 Dante channels, 2 Analog inputs and outputs, 3.5mm audio I/O and USB audio for PC. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 8 of 10

9 Vyopta Vyopta was on-hand to show the industry the latest version of its UC monitoring and analytics platform. In its latest release, Vyopta now integrates with Zoom, offering Zoom customers information about system usage and performance. Other systems / services already covered by Vyopta include Cisco, Polycom, Microsoft, Vidyo, and Pexip. Yorktel At the event, Yorktel highlighted some key features and new additions to its Univago cloud video collaboration platform. The first was the Univago-powered Gateway Service - a globally-available offering released in August 2016 that allows SIP, H.323, and WebRTC users to connect to Microsoft Office 365-hosted Skype for Business meetings. Yorktel also announced that several new features including recording and streaming, new participant layouts, moderator controls, and Japanese language support will be added to the Univago platform in April Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 9 of 10

10 Zoom The ever-active Zoom team made a slew of service enhancement announcements at EC Zoom Rooms Scheduling Display is a conference room calendar display application that runs on an ipad placed outside the meeting room (see image below) and shows room availability and allows users to book the space quickly and easily. In addition, Zoom enhanced its touch support for Zoom Rooms that allows users to start, join, and manage meetings directly from an interactive touch display. Finally, Zoom extended its H.323 / SIP Connector capabilities to offer one-touch dialing for Cisco and Polycom endpoints, making it fast and easy to schedule and join Zoom meetings from these third-party devices. It seems our friends at Zoom never sleep. Wainhouse Research 2017 Page 10 of 10