Cisco, one of the market leaders in communication and collaboration, recently announced a new acquisition. The team is purchasing the privately-held BabbleLabs brand – an innovator in using AI technology to separate unwanted noise, and human speech.
According to Cisco, the new purchase is part of a bid from the company to deliver more efficient and productive video meetings for teams. As more people continue to work from home, video conferencing is growing in popularity. Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly easy to fall victim to distractions in video meetings too. Kids running around in the background and dogs leaping into videos are easy to avoid thanks to virtual backgrounds.
So what about excess noise? That’s where the BabbleLabs acquisition comes in. Cisco’s purchase of BabbleLabs will help it to remove all unwanted noise from meetings, whether it’s a siren, or a vacuum cleaner two rooms away.
Enhancing the Meeting Experience
The addition of BabbleLabs into the Cisco Webex meeting landscape will bring native noise removal to the Webex collaboration portfolio. This new acquisition comes soon after Cisco’s global survey found that 98% of employees say that they experience frustrating distractions when video-calling from home. Two out of the top five distractions listed related to background noise.
The intelligent technology from BabbleLabs will strengthen team connections by eliminating anything in the background of your call that might detract from your voice. According to Cisco, as companies continue to return to the office, they’ll also be able to avoid any of the distractions that might happen there too, such as crunching pieces of paper or coworkers chatting.
When announcing the new integration, Cisco noted that it has been focused on building it’s talent and technology strategy for the last 3 years. The addition of BabbleLabs into the mix is important, as speech enhancement and noise removal make a big difference to the way people work.
Improving the Business Meeting
As more people work from home, and anywhere working becomes a must-have for the future of business, background noise suppression is more valuable than ever. BabbleLabs technology goes beyond alternative options by distinguishing the difference between background noise and human speech. It can remove distractions in real-time, while simultaneously enhancing voices to improve the standards of communication.
As teams of all sizes and backgrounds continue to explore the benefits of flexible working, it’s also important to ensure that video conferencing tech remains secure. Cisco announced that the BabbleLabs purchase complements the company’s existing focus on secure collaboration. Noise removal processing occurs at the source where the noise actually happens. This means that there’s no unnecessary information gathering happening on the back-end.
Additionally, Cisco reassures customers that BabbleLabs will be complying with all of the strict data policies laid out by the Cisco team. As the technology blends with the Webex portfolio, it will uphold all commitments to privacy, security, and the unique culture the Cisco team is building. This enables Webex to ensure that meeting experiences are better than ever.
