Business news


DSO announces new board members


The recently formed Digital Signage Organisation (DSO), an organisation to support the European Digital Signage in- dustry. announced new board members following a successful inaugural meeting at ISE. Laila Hede Jensen, Vice Presi-


dent of Sales Europe, Unilumin and Keith Dutch, Vice Presi- dent EMEA for Peerless AV, join the DSO board with a brief to develop membership and their benefits as well as support the content strategy for the organ- isation.


Simon Jackson, President of DSO, commented “We are delighted to have both Keith and Laila on board – both high profile industry figures who will offer the DSO and its members a huge amount of energy and experience.”


Laila Hede Jensen comment- ed ““I’m excited about joining the DSO board, being able to contribute with my experience over several years in the LED and Digital Signage business- es. Our goal is to connect the right people via networking and collaboration to help people get access to resources that can help with guidance and solving issues amongst others. Collec- tively our real-world experience can really make a difference.” “I’m pleased about our co- operation with AVIXA and their global and broad experience across the whole AV industry. I see this cooperation as a huge benefit for our members and look forward to working closely


Keith Dutch, Vice President EMEA for Peerless AV: “I look forward to supporting the DSO’s mission as a new member of the board.


signers, resellers, integrators, content creators and end-users alike. I join a stellar line up of board members and have confi- dence that together we will de- velop and implement strategies and standards to address the growing need in the industry for knowledge and understanding of all the fundamentals con- tributing to a successful digital signage project”


The next DSO event will be announced soon and will take place in May.


Northamber and Sapphire sign


a new distribution agreement Northamber plc has announced that it has signed an agreement with Sapphire to distribute their range of projection screens and accessories within the UK. Sap- phire projection screens are high- ly versatile, easy to operate and suitable for almost any application including classrooms and meeting rooms, large halls and auditoriums and home use. They also come with excellent availability, 3-year warranties and are built to with- stand the most demanding envi- ronments.


Peter Dosanjh, Director of AV at Northamber, said: "Sapphire provide a full range of projection screens and accessories. From the latest electric screens, ceiling mounted screens to handy mobile and portable screens for those on


the move. Sapphire have a great solution for every situation and carry a full range of accessories including sound systems, lecterns and all the hardware required for installation. Sapphire provide the perfect combination with our range of projectors".


Richard Thomas, Managing Di- rector from Sapphire said "We are excited to be working with North- amber's expanding AV division to enable UK resellers to get the best access to our projection screens and accessories. Northamber’s access to Education and SMB ori- ented resellers and their personal approach to the channel means that our products and solutions are easy to buy and easy to sell. We look forward to growing our UK business together".


with them.”


Keith Dutch commented “I look forward to supporting the DSO’s mission as a new mem- ber of the board and helping to open doors to valuable new professional development op- portunities for consultants, de-


New Zoom capabilities and integrations


Zoom Video Communications has announced new integrations and features for Zoom Phone, Zoom Rooms, and Zoom Meetings, all core services of its video-first uni- fied communications platform. Zoom brings together video, voice, content sharing, and chat across all devices and workspaces in a single cloud platform that is easy to deploy, manage, and use. With over 200 product enhancements a year, Zoom is highly focused on in- novation. Among the exciting new developments from Zoom: Zoom Rooms Hardware


Zoom provides the next genera-


tion of video solutions for confer- ence rooms and workspaces. These offerings include software-based solution Zoom Rooms, SIP/H.323 bridge Conference Room Connec- tor, as well as Digital Signage and Scheduling Display included with Zoom Rooms. At Enterprise Con- nect, Zoom will showcase various new solutions with hardware part- ners that make it easier than ever to deploy Zoom Rooms: for example, AVer EP65: A 65” all-in-one in- teractive whiteboard solution that includes all the components and software configurations you need to run a Zoom Rooms for Touch right out of the box


• Crestron Flex B Series: The new Crestron Smart Soundbar is a front of the room solution with exceptional audio and video qual- ity. Paired with an enterprise-grade Crestron Touch Screen as the con- troller, this system provides a native integration with Zoom Rooms for a great meeting experience • DTEN D7: Dual 55” display all-in-one interactive whiteboard solution that includes the complete components and software configu- rations needed to run Zoom Rooms for Touch


• Logitech Solutions for Zoom Rooms: Comprehensive, sin- gle-vendor bundles for small, me- dium, and large conference rooms. With their recently announced Logitech Tap touch controller and Logitech conference cams (Meet- Up, Rally, and Rally Plus), Logitech will now support single-SKU bun- dles that include all the core com- ponents needed to deploy Zoom Rooms for a variety of room types • Polycom Studio: A USB video conferencing bar with active speak- er tracking technology that com- bines business-grade performance with simplicity for small rooms and huddle spaces. Polycom Stu- dio consolidates a camera, micro- phone, and speaker into a single device, simplifying deployment and device management


Smart Features for Zoom Meet- ings


Zoom Meetings provide HD vid- eo, audio, and content sharing across all devices and spaces. Zoom Meetings are easy, reliable, and secure to host and join, featur- ing powerful collaboration tools and persistent, cross-platform group chat. Using AI and integrations, Zoom Meetings are getting even smarter. New to Zoom Meetings: • Real-time transcription: Start- ing in the third quarter of 2019, Zoom will provide automated re- al-time transcription in meetings. As the first to bring AI features such as recording transcription to market, Zoom is continuing this tradition with this exciting new feature


• Simultaneous interpretation: Support for interpreters via mul- tiple audio channels in a Zoom meeting will be available in the third quarter of 2019. Meeting par- ticipants can choose their language of choice among many to receive real-time interpretation of the other participants’ speech


• Meeting Notes Summary: Avail- able in the third quarter of 2019, Zoom will capture meeting notes such as a summary and action items, and make them available after the meeting to enable contin- ued collaboration


• Enhanced Microsoft Teams In- tegration: Available in the second quarter of 2019, the next iteration of Zoom’s Microsoft Teams integra- tion will focus on simplifying the user experience to satisfy core use cases. Users will be able to add a Zoom Tab and click Experience to start, schedule, and view Zoom meetings relevant to a Team • Siri Shortcuts: From your iP- hone, ask Siri to start an ad hoc or scheduled meeting, or have Siri read out a list of your upcoming meetings. This feature will be avail- able in April 2019 “After releasing Zoom Phone in January, I’m proud that we could follow on quickly with these valu- able contact centre partnerships and our phone-to-video capability - a truly unique offering that stays true to our core as a video-cen- tric platform. I’m also excited to announce the newest offerings from our Zoom Rooms hardware partnerships. We teamed up with these companies for the long-run because they share our vision for simple, versatile, and high-quality video-enabled workspaces, and these new solutions exemplify this goal,” said Oded Gal, head of prod- uct management for Zoom.


Avocor-Lenovo Alliance


Avocor has announced an alliance with Lenovo that will not only enable seamless integration of Avocor interactive displays across Lenovo Enterprise clients but also expand Avocor’s market presence. As part of the alliance, Lenovo will include Avocor in its Vendor Label Hardware Pro- gram this spring, which includes listing Avocor displays for purchase through Lenovo global sales operation. “Workplace optimization is a top priority for nearly every Enterprise cus- tomer, particularly integrating smart offices and meeting rooms. Lenovo smart meeting room solutions help conduct and manage meetings, technology and information quickly and simply, allow- ing participants to focus on exchanging ideas, being creative and effective com- munication.”


“Lenovo is committed to be a leader in smart office technology and help define these collaborative workspaces through innovative solutions that solve custom- er problems. Avocor’s strategic vision and its collaboration displays with the Lenovo Smart Office portfolio is a major step in making technology seamless to


breakthrough Windows collaboration dis- plays by Avocor. Capable of significantly enhancing and accelerating teamwork as well as room and device monitoring through its Azure IoT sensors, the Win- dows collaboration displays by Avocor features the world’s most advanced touchscreen technology and is fully com- patible with Windows 10, delivering the power and productivity of Microsoft 365 at room scale. Avocor and Lenovo are currently vali- dating equipment to provide guidance to Enterprise clients about matching the ideal interactive display with compute for each environment, from conference rooms to executive offices to huddle and casual spaces. The robust Lenovo com- pute and Smart Office portfolio combined with the precision and touch of the Avocor displays enables the most seamless and powerful collaboration experience for any size room across your Enterprise. Avocor GM Dana Corey notes: “The col- laboration with Lenovo is in line with Avo- cor’s focus to develop the most innovative products in the collaborative display and


“The Windows collaboration displays by Avocor features the world’s most ad- vanced touchscreen technology and are fully compatible with Windows 10.”


use, which enables teams to focus on driving better engagement and enabling smarter business,” says Joe Mingori, Ex- ecutive Director, WW Lenovo Smart Office Business Group. Avocor and Lenovo are working to co-develop solutions for collaboration spaces and will also include Avocor’s existing E series, F series and the new


smart office space and to get them to work seamlessly with the best and most effective UC hardware and software tools. We’re eager to work with Lenovo to enable solutions that make it possible for local, distributed and global teams to effective- ly and efficiently work together and do more.”


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