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 (email iweinstein@wainhouse.com) and well make any necessary updates as quickly as
possible.

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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 ........................................................................................................................................................... 10

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AVI-SPL

The big news at the AVI-SPL booth was the companys official launch of Symphony 4.0 the newest
version of the companys cloud platform that simplifies the monitoring and management of video
conferencing and AV technology for AVI-SPLs clients.

Truth be told, the WR test team has many years of experience with Symphony, and weve watched the
platform evolve and mature over time. But we couldnt 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 dont 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.

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Blue Jeans Network (BJN)

A key feature of Blue Jeans Networks 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 havent 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 demod the integration

of its Huddle solution with Kaptivo.

Cisco

As usual, the Cisco Booth was packed throughout most of the event. At this years 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.

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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 years 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 Crestrons 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.

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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 demod Easy Connect, a WebRTC-
powered application that enables wireless content sharing to high-resolution shared displays.

Dolby

Although Dolby did not have a booth at EC 2017, the companys 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).

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Logitech

Logitech highlighted two of its recently released products at EC2017. Logitech BRIO is a 4K capable
webcam (captures up to 4096 x 2160 pixels @ 30 fps) with a 5x digital zoom, infrared facial recognition,
RightLight technology to optimize performance in various light conditions, and an adjustable field-of-
view (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
Microsofts 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 WRs hands-on testing of SmartDock here.

Polycom

At this years show, the Polycom booth

included demos of many of the companys
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.

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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
Yamahas (Revos parent company) expertise in speaker design.

Shure

At this years 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.

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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 2017.

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Zoom

The ever-active Zoom team made a slew of service enhancement announcements at EC 2017. 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.

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