Leaders in the video conferencing and collaboration environment, Zoom, recently announced a selection of upgrades to their service, including enhanced support for SIP-based audio. The SIP-connected audio features provide a cost-effective way for telephony users to access the benefits of Zoom meetings and optimise audio spend in a competitive and agile communication environment.
Zoom’s new upgrade is intended to support larger enterprise customers, that need to manage their on-premise IP telephony costs, and access new solutions for productivity and performance in the workforce. Zoom’s target user for the upgrade is companies that do around a million minutes of conferencing per month.
Introducing SIP-Connected Audio with Zoom
SIP-Connected audio isn’t exactly a common term in the communication world, so you’d be forgiven for wondering what this new service has to offer. In simple terms, it works by allowing Zoom to create a SIP trunk private connection between a client’s network and the Zoom cloud-based VoIP service. Once you’re linked in, any meeting participants that dial into a meeting will be connected over the trunk, instead of using the standard on-premises PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Lines) of an on-premises PBX.
The idea is that SIP-Connected audio will allow enterprise companies with substantial on-premises investments to tap into the cost-saving solutions of the cloud, without giving up on their existing hardware. Zoom also provides the opportunity to combine the SIP connected audio strategy with Zoom’s PSTN call-out and dial-in services, to cover phone users all around the world. Zoom can even determine which calls should be allowed to move through the SIP trunk. For instance, users can designate that specific calls from specific countries move through the SIP trunk, while others travel on the PSTN.
The service is completely platform agnostic, so you don’t have to worry about choosing the right communications managers to take advantage of Zoom SIP-Connected audio. All you need to do is sign up for Zoom’s Enhanced Audio plan, and you’re ready to go.
Additional Upgrades with Zoom
SIP-Connected audio isn’t the only upgrade for Zoom users this week. The conferencing brand also announced another two features designed to support customers who want to use their on-premises phones for audio in an IP meeting. When you’re a phone user only, you can create meetings with Zoom that also allow other people to join from their phone. This is an entirely free feature, intended to make cloud communication more accessible to all customers.
Zoom also upgraded the back-end intelligence in their system to assist customers who want to avoid getting voicemails accidentally added into their meetings. Zoom now asks people dialling into a meeting to “Press 1” to join the conference. This helps to eliminate the risk of adding voicemails to conversations, instead of actual employees.
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