16 True and Total Collaboration InfoComm Products You Need To Know About

Expanding the capabilities of its Span system, the Calgary, Alberta-based manufacturer showed a mobile version of the collaboration system at InfoComm. The Span incorporates a 1080p projector and a customer-supplied PC with a package that is capable of throwing images over six-feet wide. The projector features a solid-state light engine for 25,000 hours of lamp life, HDMI and USB ports, and it allows users to share and create ideas from their smart devices.

Known as a purely audio company, ClearOne is moving into the video space with its new Spontania collaboration cloud software. By implementing Spontania into a user’s data center, up to thousands of users can collaborate in real-time and share video, voice and data on any device.

Spontania is also interoperable with existing IT and communication environments including PSTN/IPBX, directory authentication and scheduling tools.

wePresent showcased its entire product line of wireless presentation products at this year’s show. Aimed at helping integrators deliver the solutions end users in the education market are looking for, wePresent demonstrated its WiPG-2000 wireless presentation model at its InfoComm booth.

“Our flagship model is our WiPG-2000 and that basically has all the bells and whistles of our wireless presentation system,” says Eva Canon, director of marketing for wePresent. “People can come in with laptops, Macs, iPads, or android devices and connect to a display or a projector and wirelessly present. They don’t need cables and they don’t need to worry about resolution.”

The WiPG-2000 integrates with any plug and play touchscreen through a USB connection, making installation simple and fast. The WiPG-2000 also features an onboard video streamer, freeing up all resources on an end-user’s device.

The Epson BrightLink Pro turns any flat surface into an interactive display. The projector-based technology, which is available now, features USB connectivity and camera connections that makes it ideal for use in corporate and higher education settings as well as in corporate training environments.

Intel Unite Version 3.0 is the first revision of the collaboration software platform that includes guest access with a one-time password that doesn’t allow network access. Meeting organizers can lock or unlock access to the session and share video and audio with all attendees as well as wireless screen-sharing because of an open API architecture. Among the 60 million conference rooms, about 40 million are considered huddle rooms or small conference rooms. Only about 9 million of those have dedicated displays, so potential is high in the corporate space, as well as in schools medical offices.

Polycom has been doing incredible things with collaboration over the past year, specifically with the release of its Trio and Centro devices. The Trio is meant for offices, huddle rooms and conference spaces, and includes full color touchscreen, world’s best audio including base, a twenty foot mic pickup, HD voice, acoustic clarity, background noise cancellation and high definition 1080 p video conferencing and content sharing.

RealPresence Centro was built with instinctual human behavior in mind - that people feel more comfortable communicating and collaborating in the round. The base unit includes four touchscreens, five 1080p cameras sewn together for a panoramic view, BYOD receiving, single-click meetings, annotation and content sharing.

Polycom has also worked closely to make sure that its system integrates with Microsoft. Engineers from both companies have worked together to integrate Skype for Business from the bottom up. Skype for Business is extended into these Polycom devices.

Trio can used as telephony instead of a service provider and registers as a Skype for Business end point. When videoconferencing, Polycom keeps the user interface consistent for each video endpoint. A user with Skype for Business will see the Skype for Business setup, while Polycom users will see the Polycom setup, even when collaborating together.

DisplayNote’s Montage is a true, all-in-one collaboration solution. Using Montage in meetings allows you to save time and keep everyone on the same page by letting up to 12 users fully participate in-room or remotely. All attendees can stream what’s on their devices to a main display at the same time. Connect via a Windows app, Chrome browser, mirror via Airplay or cast from your device. People in room or remote can file share, annotate and analyze content – all the capabilities of the system are available whether in room, working on the app, or using a browser. Remote PC control, 2-way collaboration, voice and video, and multiplatform support are all available. For security, full enterprise level encryption reaches all attendees remote and in-room. Password and PIN, 2048 bit asymmetric cryptography and 25 bit symmetric session key. Pause screen is also available for an extra level of privacy for users.

Huddlewall is a scalable turnkey display system that includes everything you’ll need in an in-room collaboration solution. The full system includes Solid State Laser projectors and mounts, automatice edge-blending, seamless hard screen with a modular design to fir room size, 10M HDMI cables and a Logitech camera powered with USB cable. The usability includes UCC, LEAN management tools, training software, tools for AEC pros, ideation and brainstorming. Various arrangements of GPU and memory as well as video capture functionality for BYOD are available, as well as digital paper interoperability and custom applications for brainstorming and multi-pen white boarding.

Prysm’s visual workplace solutions, powered by its Synthesis software, offer customers the ability to customize the collaboration experience in a number of ways. Virtually any piece of content can be sent to a Prysm display, repositioned, resized, and rearranged as the user sees fit. Features include real-time, multi-site mirroring, powerful and easy to use administrative tools and lightning fast cloud-based services. Prysm’s laser-phosphor display creates a unique advantage, as the technology creates virtually no heat while displaying what is on screen.

Prysm rolled out its mobile access features at InfoComm. Users are not able to log into the app and access all projects and content stored in the cloud using iPads, Mac, PC and iPhone. You can participate with others that might be in the conference room on a bigger screen, you can collaborate purely with people that are remote, you can add content from your device, you can edit content – you can do pretty much everything you can do on the big screen. In addition, Skype for Business has been natively integrated into the Prysm large display screens, while Office 365 has been integrated into the Prysm menu.

Oblong’s Mezzanine is a powerful collaboration system that turns the whole room into a digital workspace, in fact this year it was named a Gartner Cool Vendor 2016 for human machine interface. As of this year, the collaboration screens can be built up to two by three screens to increase collaboration even further, while in-room “corkboard” screens can be built out to offer more digital space in meeting rooms. The collaborations screens can also be daisy-chained together to build out as far as you want, but a new Mezzanine box will be needed after every sixth screen.

Also new this year is one-button VTC dialing for video conferencing from the wand, which works with Cisco and Polycom participants as well. In addition, remote collaborators can be invited to “Mezz In” to the collaboration space. The user can join through a URL, video conference and file share content so they can take it with them or send content to the Mezzanine system to be saved in the cloud. The remote user simply toggles back and forth between video and content.

Pexip Infinity is a scalable meeting platform that connects virtually any communications tool and traditional video and audio conferencing together for a seamless meeting experience. The powerful platform has been integrated into the Microsoft Surface Hub with help from Whitlock. Pexip has natively adopted Microsoft’s protocols, and it transcodes Skype protocol into H264 for conference rooms and desktops. Therefore, the meeting will pop up in native form on Cisco and Polycom protocol. Skype can also go into the Pexip VMR.

At InfoComm 2016, InFocus showed off a new version of its collaborative visualization software, Jupiter Canvas 5.0. The company’s Canvas platform is designed to deliver real-time video, data, and application screens from across the enterprise to display walls, smartphones, tablets, PCs and conference room systems including InFocus Jupiter Canvas Touch and CRS 4K systems. It enables users to share information and collaborate on this consolidated business intelligence, anywhere in the corporate or mobile network in a highly secure environment.

InFocus says Canvas 5.0 features an array of ease of use and flexibility enhancements along with upgraded security features and improved display wall control. Features include a new web-based multi-touch interface and support for Workgroup environments in addition to Active Directory environments for user authentication. Canvas 5.0 also adds support for native 4K video sources, driving Ultra HD displays through the InFocus Jupiter Catalyst 4K display wall processor, also announced today and integrated with Canvas 5.0.

The RICOH Unified Communication System P3500M enables collaboration and communication between this portable, all-in-one system and any WebRTC-compatible platform. Using the P3500M, employees can connect and collaborate with colleagues, customers and partners on the road or around the world, via real-time HD video and audio, and screen sharing, regardless of which WebRTC-supportive system they are using. Ricoh calls it a great addition to organizations that already have unified communication systems in place, because the P3500M works seamlessly within multivendor environments, adding a level of portability not often seen in a market commonly associated with high-end, room-based systems. The P3500M is about the size of a laptop. The 3.5-pound device includes an HD camera, microphone and speakers that fit inside a soft-sided carrying case. Its 2.0 megapixel camera includes a 125-degree wide-angle lens. The RICOH Unified Communication System P3500M will be available in the summer at a suggested retail price of $2,639 plus subscription fee.

At InfoComm 2016 Wyrestorm launched collaboration software for wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) network display sharing from Windows and Mac devices to its 5x1 HDBaseT and AV Over IP Presentation Switchers, SW-0501-HDBT and NetworkHD NHD-SW-0501, respectively. Ideal applications for WyreStorm ScreenLink, include large screen corporate and collaborative classroom environments. ScreenLink supports the simultaneous connection of up to 26 Mac or Windows laptops/computers to each SW-0501-HDBT or NHD-SW-0501 presentation switcher. Up to four computers can be displayed at the same time through a variety of configuration options; including single, dual, PiP and quad-view.

Logitech launched a collaboration program in July 2015 with an impressive slate of Strategic Alliance Partners: Skype for Business, Cisco Compatible (WebEx and Jabber) and Google (Chomebox for Meetings and Hangouts). It also included BlueJeans, lifesize, Zoom, broadsoft, Vidyo and C2G as Logitech Collaboration Program (LCP) partners. At InfoComm 2016 Logitech announced that it is expanding with 15 new LCP partners. Why does Logitech’s ability to strategically partner with companies and build a UCC ecosystem matter to integration firms?

What the enhanced partnerships bring, for one thing, says Joan Vandermate, head of marketing for Logitech’s collaboration business unit, is an opportunity to bundle UCC products including hardware, software and accessories and provide good price-points to customers. At InfoComm 2016 “our message is there is money to be made in sheer volumes,” Vandermate says. “Think hundreds of rooms, massive quantities of rooms. The opportunity [for integrators] is a little different and more of a managed services [play]. There’s also money still to be made doing the installations. Think of the opportunity [for an integrator ] to brand a bundle with Intel.”

Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest

In contrast to traditional single- and limited-source presentations, Solstice by Mersive allows any amount of information to be shared in an ad-hoc manner from any source in a meeting, including content in the cloud, data from a local network drive, and media saved on a user device.

By enabling information and ideas to flow freely, Solstice improves participant engagement, more informed decision-making, and higher-fidelity meeting results –cumulatively leading to real, substantial productivity gains in the workplace.

According to Rob Balgley, CEO of Mersive, Solstice enables content-based collaboration to be on equal footing with audio and video collaboration because Solstice neither limits the number of participants nor the amount of content – removing the final technological barriers from the way we naturally want to collaborate.