The MXA920 incorporates Next Generation Array Architecture for improved directional audio pick-up and clear and natural speech. It’s easy to install and use, includes onboard IntelliMix DSP and provides voice lift, sound reinforcement. It also has camera-tracking capabilities for a premium videoconference experience. The MXA920 is certified for Works with Google Meet when combined with the ANIUSB-MATRIX and the Microflex MXN5W-C Networked Loudspeaker.

The MXA902, the latest addition to the Microflex Advance line, is a conferencing ceiling array microphone with integrated loudspeaker and IntelliMix DSP. Thus, it is suitable for small and medium-size meeting rooms when combined with the ANIUSB-MATRIX. As of today, Shure’s MXA920, MXA902 and ANIUSB-MATRIX are Works With Google Meet certified, the company says.

“We understand how critical it is to ensure seamless conferencing performance, which requires solid collaboration with UC platforms. By certifying both the Shure MXA920 and MXA902 for Google Meet, we support IT and AV professionals with reliable and innovative technology for enhancing the end-user experience,” says Julie Crawford, strategic alliance senior marketing manager at Shure.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on November 10, 2023. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

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Originally a media buying agency, Adwise has since grown to offer a full range of marketing services including advertising, publishing, campaign analytics and technology solutions. This transition into a full-service digital agency has also coincided with the growth of a portfolio of local and international clients. Collaboration, therefore, both in person and virtually, has always been an important factor in the business for building and maintaining client relationships as well as staff well-being and productivity.

Prior to the pandemic, Adwise ran its business along traditional lines with most staff working full-time from the office and most meetings being conducted face-to-face, whether that was between staff or with clients. The global shutdown in March-April 2020 changed everything and the company transitioned to a remote working model, and since then, as the ‘new normal’ emerged, started (and continues) to operate with a fully hybrid workforce.

The Return to Office Problem

As staff began to return to the office, issues began to emerge around the use and layout of meeting spaces at the headquarters. The standard large meeting rooms were not fit for purpose as they were quickly overbooked and often under-occupied when in use. The reason being, since working from home people had become used to conducting virtual meetings with an element of privacy – hence the heavily booked meeting spaces. Creatively deeper work had also become more difficult for some, as more people returned to the office.

Jeffrey Oelen, workspace manager at Adwise, knew that he needed to find a solution to the problem to maintain staff productivity and job satisfaction. He began to research for a solution that could offer an innovative way to meet these, as well as the evolving needs of the business.

The Hush Pod + Avocor Desk 27  Solution

During his research Jeffrey discovered the Hushoffice range of acoustic office meeting pods. Hush pods are custom-designed, sound-proofed enclosed spaces that offer privacy and noise elimination to create a peaceful environment for productive work and virtual meetings. They also feature a comfortable bench seat and built-in desk, adjustable lighting for different tasks and because they are on wheels, can be moved around the office where and when desired. Jeffrey then had the task of finding a monitor or display that could be used for virtual meetings and videoconferences without the need for peripherals such as camera, microphone and speakers which would clutter up the space. In simple terms, an all-in-one solution.

“I was on a visit to the Google office in Brussels and I saw the Google Meet Series One Desk 27 by Avocor in action – it was then I knew I’d found the answer,” says Jeffrey. “I was inspired – the Desk 27 has no real competitors and occupies a unique place in the market. It is the perfect size for our pods and offers all the functionality we want; it’s a powerful collaboration tool for virtual meetings, a desktop monitor with touchscreen, a laptop docking station and digital whiteboard all rolled into one unit – exactly the all-in-one device we were looking for. Also, Google Workspace is our chosen software collaboration platform so adding the hardware was a seamless process with no extra training or orientation required. The units made a real difference from day one and we haven’t looked back.”

Adwise invested in four Desk 27s – one for each Hush unit in the office. With existing Google Workspace licenses in place, the pods quickly became the ‘go-to’ place for smaller collaboration meetings and distraction-free focused work for individual staff. This development also freed up the other meeting rooms for larger groups to meet and collaborate.

“I’m really pleased with how the Desk 27s have worked out,” adds Jeffrey. “At Adwise we want our workspace to continue to inspire colleagues and clients as well as excite potential new employees who visit our premises. With the addition of the stylish Hush pods and Google Meet Series One Desk 27 by Avocor, I feel that’s exactly what we’ve achieved.”

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In between calls while I’m nose-deep in a Word document, I typically throw on some tunes to put me in the zone. However, my home’s acoustics are a little wonky. Noise from my speakers travels very clearly from my home office down the stairwell to the rest of the house.

I’ve experimented with a few different headset/earbud solutions. My first experiment to equip myself for remote working was a gaming headset that I rarely used. In all honestly, it did the trick for a few weeks during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic. However, the gaming headset was huge and didn’t have the luxury of Bluetooth. I tried a few different other headsets from audio and collaboration manufacturers, which were significantly better. Despite all that, I wanted something that could transition conveniently from taking work calls at my desk, to quickly leaving the house to walk my dogs while listening to podcasts.

About the Poly Voyager Free 60 Series

Poly has an extensive portfolio of videoconferencing and collaboration devices for a variety of different scenarios, but much of the company’s new releases center around one idea: simplicity and flexibility. The Voyager Free 60 earbuds are no different.

The Voyager Free 60 series are wireless earbuds designed for work, but are equally suited to be taken on walks, bike rides, or the gym. (Poly doesn’t recommend hard workouts with these in your ears, but they seem to hold up just fine.) These earbuds are versatile enough to replace multiple sets of earbuds or headsets that hybrid or remote workers usually have for different scenarios.

The company’s newest earbuds come in three versions:

• Poly Voyager Free 60 with a standard charge chase, support for premium calls and music.
• Poly Voyager Free 60 UC with the same standard charge case but equipped with enterprise-grade audio and music and certifications for Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
• Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC with the same features as the Free 60 UC but with a touchscreen charge case.

Poly Voyager Free 60+ features

For our purposes here, we’ll focus on the Voyager Free 60+. Poly markets these as built for work, but designed for everyday life, and I’d say that is a very accurate assessment.

The Voyager Free 60+ earbuds feature a stem design with six microphones, as well as noise cancelling technologies that makes the user’s voice the focus of work calls. Specifically, they feature the company’s NoiseBlockAI and Acoustic Fence technology that blocks out unwanted noises and focuses only on the user’s voice.

The Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds come with a dongle but can also be connected to another device via Bluetooth, so users can seamlessly transition from a work call from their desktop to music streaming from a mobile device.

The company claims up to five hours of talk time with ANC on, and the charge case provides another 10 hours of talk time. I’d say those claims ring true, as I rarely need to charge the charge case itself. However, it seems to charge quickly.

With the company’s Poly Lens app, users can customize their experience with a range of tools, with the ability to change settings such as wearing sensor, active call audio, auto-answer, auto-pause, noise cancellation and a range of other settings.

For control features on the earbuds themselves, the Voyager Free 60+ UC includes gesture controls for volume, ANC, mute and more. A physical button can pause music or start and answers calls.

However, the charge case itself has a touchscreen with even more functionality, such as call control, media playback control, battery status and other features.

If you’re like me and have a few dozen pairs of airline earbuds because you live in 2023 and don’t own any wired headphones to watch in-flight entertainment, the Voyager Free 60 earbuds have you covered! The earbuds come with an option to plug the charge case into a headphone jack that will stream audio to the earbuds.

Another great feature is transparency mode that allows you to hear your surroundings without having to remove an earbud. If you find talking with earbuds or headphones weird, then this feature can help you to hear your own voice. This really does make a difference. It can be configured to pick up any sounds in your environment or just voices.

Seamless Audio Connectivity

Essentially everything Poly says about these earbuds rings true, and they could compete with other earbuds on the market in terms of sound quality. However, what makes these stand out from others is just how simple and intuitive they are in work scenarios, especially with the charge case.

I’ve had some Bluetooth headsets and earbuds that routinely lose connection and can’t easily transition from my laptop to my mobile device, but the Poly Voyager Free 60+ UC earbuds do so seamlessly. This helps me leave the house to run a quick errand with them still in my ears, but also allows me to hop on a work call when I return.

Earbuds can be uncomfortable to wear for more than a few hours. The Voyager Free 60 earbuds have three conical-shaped earbud tip sizes and are comfortable enough to use all day, if you find the right size.

The post Poly’s New Voyager Free 60+ Earbuds Fit the Bill for Hybrid Work appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The company’s release of small conference room bundles adds to Biamp’s existing conference room bundles that include solutions for both medium and large conferencing spaces.

According to Biamp, the bundles provide options for other unified communication-controlled rooms leveraging Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams, as well as bring-your-own-meeting (BYOM) scenarios in which users can manage meetings on their own devices.

Biamp’s new BYOM meeting room solution for small rooms starts with the Devio SCR family of devices for PCs running Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco Webex and other conferencing platforms. The Devio SCR devices support a single USB connection to a host computer for audio and video media using DisplayLink USB graphics technology the company says.

The company’s BYOM bundles include a range of options, such as pairing the Devio SCR-10 with a Vidi 250 camera as an entry-level solution, along with Parlé table mics, Parlé ceiling mics, or pendent mics featuring Parlé Beamtracking technology to intelligently track and mix conversations from around the room.

These systems can also be paired with the Vidi family of 4K conferencing cameras, the company says.

In addition, Biamp says the  Parlé VBC 2500a and Parlé ABC 2500a all-in-one conferencing bars will be compatible with assistive listening systems beginning this month. The bars feature a new dedicated 3.5-militeter output connector with a mono balanced line level output for users requiring hearing assistance.

Included in the room kits is the Biamp Launch software that analyzes and tunes the acoustic performance of the room, including ALS. The Parle bars can be controlled via a BYOM device or through a dedicated UC host device, the company says.

The post Biamp Launches Small Conference Room Bundle appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Microsoft to cut 10,000 jobs

Microsoft is reducing its workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of the third quarter, representing less than 5% of its total employee base.

In a blog, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella writes that the company is eliminating roles in some areas but will continue to hire in other key strategic areas. The cuts result in a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter due to severance costs, changes to the company’s hardware portfolio and the cost of lease consolidation.

According to The Verge, the immediate cuts made this week affect employees working on HoloLens and Microsoft Edge, as well as marketing teams and at 343 Industries and Bethesda.

Read Nadella’s full announcement for more information.

NSA Publishes IPv6 Security Guidance

The U.S. National Security Agency has published guidance to help system administrators at the Department of Defense and other agencies to identity and mitigate security issues associated with transitioning to IPv6.

The document, “IPv6 Security Guidance,” highlights how several security issues can impact network that are new to IPv6 or in early phases of the transition. The agency says networks new to IPv6 lack maturity in configurations and tools. Dual-stacked networks, which run on IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously, have an increased attack surface.

“The Department of Defense will incrementally transition from IPv4 to IPv6 over the next few years and many DoD networks will be dual-stacked,” says Neal Ziring, NSA Cybersecurity Technical Director. “It’s important that DoD system admins use this guidance to identify and mitigate potential security issues as they roll out IPv6 support in their networks.”

While the guidance is designed for the Department of Defense and government agencies, the corporate sector can also find it useful.

Read the document to learn more.

New MacBooks

Apple has announced the new  14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max, Apple’s next-generation pro silicon designed to provide more power-efficient performance and battery life to professsional users.

The new MacBooks also support Wi-Fi 6E, which Apple says is up to twice as fast as the previous generation. IN addition, the devices support 8K displays up to 60Hz and 4K displays up to 240Hz.

Read Apple’s announcement for more information.

Google Meet, Zoom Interoperability

Google is introducing videoconferencing device interoperability for Google Meet with Zoom, which allows users to join Zoom Meetings from Google Meet hardware devices and join Google Meet meetings rom Zoom Rooms.

The built-in interoperability was announced in October 2022, and the capability is now rolling out.

Read Google’s blog for more information.

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According to Google Cloud, the company’s Public Sector department directly assists Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)–the Navy’s largest systems command–by providing support to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center  (SRF-JRMC) in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan. Armed with the threat protection and zero trust capabilities in Google Workspace, NAVSEA uses Google’s suite of productivity tools to communicate between the SRF-JRMC and Navy stakeholders around the world.

The Tech Decision

First, the SRF-JRMC facility had to solve two unique challenges: ineffective collaboration and communication, and a language barrier.

Before choosing Google Workspace, Navy officers in Japan would need to be on-base to communicate over a secure connection, and calls were typically held late at night due to the time difference. When the COVID-19 pandemic came along, communication became even more challenging due to mobility restrictions.

The SRF-JRMC shipyard has more than 3,000 Japanese contract employees providing critical support, which presented a language barrier when communicating critical issues.

Secure, efficient and effective collaboration

Working with Google Public Sector, the Navy chose Google Workspace for the SRF-JRMC, bringing Google Voice for secure VoIP calling that allows personnel to join calls and sessions from on site or their home. And they can now reliably and securely communicate across continents.

In addition, Google Workspace includes solutions like real-time translated captions in the company’s videoconferencing tool Google Meet, which allows English to Japanese translations to help break down the language barrier.

The Google Meet platform has also proven cost effective, as it has saved the U.S. Navy “thousands of dollars a month” in phone bills by providing country-specific dial-in numbers for interviews, according to Google Cloud.

Other Google Workspace tools include Google Drive and Docs, and those help NAVSEA simplify human resource workflows by streamlining onboarding for local Japanese employees in the shipyard, according to Google Cloud. With a shared Google Drive, NAVSEA can eliminate the need to send multiple files back and forth among the team, which also helps minimize the need for on-premises storage.

Google Docs also enable Navy employees to communicate and collaborate with each other and potential candidates securely across any device, which helps SRF_JRMC CIO Peter Guo and his team ensure operational readiness and continuity of operations.

“Cloud collaboration capabilities provide us seamless and secure connectivity across continents and break down language barriers with our colleagues across the globe,” Guo says. “We’ve improved our ability to operate anytime, and anywhere and have increased our ability to securely communicate and coordinate especially during network outages and natural disasters.”

COVID-19 pandemic dashboard

Armed with Google Workspace, the SRF-JRMC created a COVID-19 Pandemic Dashboard with a Google-based site that consolidated Japanese and international open-source data on COVID-19 outbreaks and provided updated guidance, according to Google Cloud.

The dashboard, built in less than two hours using Google’s Looker Studio, leveraged an automated data collection process to track local hospitalization numbers. This allowed the NAVSEA team to access this information in real-time and shorten a process that previously took hours, according to Google Cloud.

According to Guo, the dashboard helped reduce redundant weekly meetings on COVID-19 updates and eliminated the 10 hours it took to manually gather data and present it via slide decks. This helped leadership make real-time, data-drive decisions and put necessary risk mitigation in place, he adds.

“It empowered supervisors across the shipyard to reference this website at any time and put additional health measures in place to minimize the transmission of COVID-19,” Guo says. “Every minute counts at our two shipyards in Japan, so this made a tremendous impact on our operational efficiency and ensured the safety of our sailors.”

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According to Google, this means Zoom Rooms will be able to join Google Meet meetings, and Google Meet devices will be able to join Zoom Meetings either directly from a Zoom Room or a Google Meet device calendar with the tough of a button or by entering a meeting code.

Google already has already launched bi-directional interoperability between Cisco Webex devices and Google Meet devices, and the company says it will continue to support Pexip for Google Meet to allow users to join Meet meetings from a range of third-party videoconferencing solutions.

The news comes the same week as Cisco announced an integration with Microsoft Teams that enables the Teams Rooms experience on Webex devices. Cisco is now a Teams Rooms certified partner, meaning that Teams meetings will be available natively across certified Cisco meeting devices. This allows users to configure Teams as the default meeting experience.

At launch, Zoom’s interop with Google Meet will be supported all ChromeOS-based Meet devices with support for additional products over time. Google Meet interop will be supported on all Zoom Rooms across all platforms. Administrators will be able to turn on interop for registered devices in their organization, and allow trusted devices to join cross-platform calls without knocking, according to Google.

Elsewhere in the videoconferencing industry, interoperability is somewhat mixed. Microsoft Teams users can join third-party meeting platforms with Teams Rooms via Direct Guest Join. Currently, Teams Rooms can join meetings hosted on Webex and Zoom.

According to Microsoft, a Teams meeting add-on lets Google calendar users schedule and join a Teams meeting from Google Workspace, but the kind of interop enjoyed by other conferencing service providers has not yet come to the two tech giants.

Meanwhile, Webex can interoperate with Zoom, Teams and Google Meet.

According to a early 2022 study from IT monitoring and management software company Netscout, 72% of enterprises currently support between three and nine UC&C tools. That figure is up 9% from 2020. Even new Cisco research finds that 85% of organizations use more than one meeting platform.

Google is also expanding its Google Meet devices outside of the ChromeOS platform, bringing in Poly and Logitech devices as the first two videoconferencing partners to deliver meet for Android-based appliances.

According to Google, this will enable customers to buy a device from Poly or Logitech that will run Meet, or another third-party conferencing platform, based on admin configuration. Customers with existing Poly or Logitech Android-based devices will be able to leverage their investment and move to Meet by just adding a Meet license for these devices.

The Poly Studio X family of Android-based videoconferencing bars certified for Meet will be available in early 2023, and Logitech’s lineup of Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini for Google Meet will also be available next year.

In a blog, Dave Citron, director of product for Google Workspace, says organizations need to close the gaps between people, teams and within offices to thrive in hybrid work.

“These innovations by Google and our partners can help further break down the barriers between video conferencing platforms and give greater choice and flexibility for our customers,” Citron says.

The post Google Meet, Zoom Continue the UC&C Interop Trend appeared first on My TechDecisions.

According to Poly, the Studio X lineup of video bars joins the company’s growing list of devices certified for Google Meet, Google Voice and ChromeOS. The Studio X30, Studio X50, Studio X70, and the TC8 controller will be the first Android-based appliances to offer a native Google Meet experience and provide a streamline and purpose-built experience for any meeting room.

Each bar in the product line features intelligent, broadcast-quality video for meeting rooms of any size, that include automatic framing and speaker tracking and intelligent noise blocking. According to Poly, the company is the only partner that provides people framing with advanced AI capabilities for Google Meet on the Studio X70.

Poly says the Studio X family provides a comprehensive room solution for Google Meet rooms of all sizes, featuring:

• Full HD video with Poly DirectorAI smart camera experiences
• Room-filling audio and crystal-clear microphone pickup
• Poly USB Device Mode for multi-platform flexibility
• Dual display (X50/X70) to see both people and content full screen
• One-touch click to join via TC8 controller
• Managed by Poly Lens and Google Workspace
• Highly secure with a hardened operating system, secure update distribution, and third-party testing for security vulnerabilities

Poly Studio X family certified for Google Meet will be available worldwide in January 2023.

In addition, Poly says the company offers a wide range of Google Cloud certified solutions, such as:

• Google Meet: Poly Studio USB video bar, and Poly Studio P5 personal webcam, as well as Voyager headsets and Poly Sync speakerphones are collaboration devices certified for Google Meet.
• Google Voice: Poly offers a long list of devices certified for Google Voice, and is proud to be the exclusive desk phone manufacturer certified to work with Google Voice. Poly’s Google Voice portfolio also includes headsets, speakerphones, and the Poly Studio P5 webcam.
• Chrome OS: Poly’s portfolio devices certified to work with Chromebook includes headsets from the Blackwire, Encore Pro, and Savi headset families, and also includes video conferencing gear such as the Poly Studio P15 for focus rooms and personal spaces.

All Poly devices certified for Google Meet and Google Voice are supported by the Poly Lens App on PC and Mac, which allows IT managers to troubleshoot, push software updates, and remotely manage devices. Poly Lens App support will be available for ChromeOS devices in Q2 2023.

The post Poly Studio X Series to Offer Native Google Meet Experience appeared first on My TechDecisions.

These devices, typically placed on top of a display, feature integrated cameras, speakers and microphones, taking complexity and cost out of the equation.

In this new environment where smaller conferencing spaces or huddle rooms are in demand to meet the needs of the hybrid workforce, not every conferencing spaces needs elaborate and complex videoconferencing systems. Especially as the software platforms are introducing more intelligent video and audio features, these smaller meeting spaces need only simple hardware solutions that IT can easily deploy and manage.

Rather than installing and integrating separate cameras, microphones and speakers, these all-in-one video conferencing bars do it all, and at a fraction of the cost. They are also easy to deploy and use, typically just taking minutes to set up.

Many all-in-one videoconferencing bars come packed with intelligent audio and video features that filter out unwanted noise and automatically frame in-person participants so everyone is heard equally, building upon the intelligent features already included in the software.

With many of these devices priced under $1,000, IT decision-makers should look at all-in-one videoconferencing bars to build out their organization’s smaller meeting spaces or executive offices.

Click the links included in each slide to learn more about each product, including pricing and availability.

Slideshow: 10 All-in-One Videoconferencing Bars

The post 10 All-in-One Videoconferencing Bars For Huddle Spaces and Small Meeting Rooms appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Over the next few weeks, Google will add all Meet features to the Duo app to facilitate easier video meeting schedules and instant connection with an individual or group. Meanwhile, existing video falling features in Duo will remain, including the ability to make video calls to friends and family by phone number or email address and other consumer-based features.

In addition, conversation history, contacts and messages will continue to be saved in the app, and users will not need to download a new app.

The combination of videoconferencing apps will bring new features to Duo previously only available on Meet, including customized virtual backgrounds, scheduling meetings, in-meeting chat, live content sharing, real-time closed captions, an increased participant capacity to 100 and integration with Google tools such as Gmail, Calendar, Assistant, Messages and more.

Javier Soltero, vice president and general manager of Google Workspace, in a blog, details all of the enhancements made to both apps, including 100 new features and improvements in Meet made since 2020.

The combination of apps provides all Google users with a single solution for both video calling and meetings with people across their lives, Soltero writes.

“As part of our mission to build a connected experience for all users, we’re excited to bring our video calling and meeting technologies together into a single, powerful, easy-to-use solution,” Soltero writes. “Video communications is a major area of focus for us and you’ll continue to see our investments in Google Meet to help people to connect, collaborate, and share experiences on any device, at home, at school, and at work.”

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