According to Research and Markets, the tabletop audio conferencing endpoint space grew by 7.8% in 2017. Though software seems to be the ultimate talking point in the communication industry today, there's still a place for hardware. Specifically, trends like huddle room use and the rise of the millennial population have driven demand for clever endpoints. Today's conference phones are earning attention for their intuition, video features, and enhanced capabilities.
Conference phones aren't just an afterthought in the office design process anymore. For today's companies to thrive, they need to build their meeting rooms around the technology that employees prefer to use. Here, we'll look at some of the trends that may impact the conference phone market in the years ahead.
1. New Android Enabled Phones Emerge
These days, employees don't want to be connected by just voice alone. A great conference experience needs to connect to the rest of the UC experience, with access to collaborative tools, file sharing, and even screen sharing solutions. Android-enabled conference phones with access to the latest API and SDK solutions mean that today's companies can enhance their conversations in a multitude of new ways.
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Yealink-CP960[/caption]
For instance, Microsoft recently opened up their Teams API so that end-users could access a native MS Teams experience across a variety of different vendor solutions. The Yealink CP960 offers Microsoft Teams interactions combined with a 360-degree voice pickup range for instance. The Polycom Trio 8500 offers a state-of-the-art conferencing experience that works seamlessly with Skype for Business. Even the upcoming Crestron Flex UC-M100-T will feature Microsoft Teams integration.
2. Embracing the Digital Assistant
In recent years, we've discovered just how much artificial intelligence can help us to accomplish in the business world. Chatbots can deliver more satisfied customers, while AI systems can automatically collect useful data and translate it into crucial insights. Now, we're seeing the rise of digital assistants in the meeting room too. Forming off the back of smart speaker systems like Alexa and Google Home, these assistants will respond to natural voice requests, making it much easier for a user to request that they take notes in a meeting with automatic transcription, or set up a new call.
The digital assistant may also be able to provide information on how conference phones are used when combined with cameras featuring facial recognition technology. Users can "check in" to a meeting, just as iPhone X customers use their faces to unlock their phone.
AI assistants even have the power to improve the experience in the conference room. For instance, they could change the level of noise suppression on your conference phone depending on how busy the space is and improve the focus on human voices. They may also be able to listen out for nuances in natural language that determine the sentiment of the people in a conference.
3. Conference Room Tech Gets More Creative
"Experience" is a big factor for all endpoint vendors of late. This trend is likely to continue in the years ahead, leading to the rise of new meeting room concepts. Many modern conference phones now come with tablet-style interfaces, like the Polycom Trio 8800. However, what if your phone also came with headsets that allowed you to view and interact with your coworkers in another dimension?
Polycom Trio 8800[/caption]
