UC EXPO 2017: What’s Next for Snom?

The next generation in IP and conference phones

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Snom D785 featured
Meeting Rooms and Devices

Published: May 25, 2017

Rob Scott

Rob Scott

Publisher

Snom are well-known as one of the industry-leading providers when it comes to phones and communication solutions in the UC space. Their VoIP phones are frequently characterised by a rich range of exceptional functions which are designed to simplify business communications, and offer a higher standard of experience and security to their users. Snom serve companies that range all the way from the large enterprise, to the single-person at home business.

During my time at UC EXPO 2017, I was given the fantastic opportunity to sit down and speak with Alison Tetlow from Snom Technology GmbH. She was keen to talk about the latest developments that have been made by the brand.

What’s New for Snom? The D785 Handset

The hottest development in the Snom environment right now, is the introduction of their new flagship phone, the D785 handset. This is an IP phone for executives, that includes everything from a much larger high-resolution monitor, to several amazing functions including a completely paperless directory, USB and Bluetooth support, and exceptional audio quality.

On the surface, the D785 handset is very impressive. It looks and behaves perfectly for the enterprise sector. However, as Tetlow explained, it’s the functionality behind the phone that’s particularly special. The D785 handset supports Snom IO, which means that customers can write and create applications that can be integrated into the phone. Those apps will be specific to whatever the company in question is trying to achieve, so different resellers will have different end experiences.

“One of our resellers, Voice Host, have written an application that works for multi-tenancy units. Basically, it’s capable of passing calls on from many different clients, which can be handed into a central switchboard with the right name. They’ve created their own software, which integrates into Snom IO phones.”

In other words, someone can write an application to send a SIP command to a Snom phone which requests that the device sends the call somewhere else, and the phone would manage that for you.

Greater Connectivity for Snom Customers

If the customisable experience wasn’t interesting enough, Tetlow went on to inform me that another benefit of the new phone, was that the connectivity options were much greater in terms of the profile available. There are USBs and Bluetooth opportunities built in, and a greater amount of capacity, because Snom knows their users are downloading bigger files than ever before.

Essentially, a user could walk into the office with their Bluetooth headset connected to their mobile, and that headset could connect seamlessly to their Snom phone. Of course, that’s not a new feature to this particular Snom handset, but it is an interesting function.

One of the elements that is unique to this new handset, is the way that it’s designed. If you look at the D785 unit in comparison to some of the older Snom handsets on the market, you should notice some subtle differences.

“We create our designs from our team in Berlin. They test each one not only to ensure that the functionality is perfect, but also that the comfort is there too. After all, one of the things that we’ve found with our customers, is that when you spend a lot of time on a phone, you can get very uncomfortable very quickly. We wanted to address that problem.”

Alison Tetlow went on to say: “We’ve actually had people sell other telephones to their customers, and those customers have come back complaining of discomfort. When a customer complains, those companies sell them a Snom phone, because they know they’re renowned for comfort. While aesthetics is always a factor in our design, we make sure to think about practicality, comfort, and usability too.”

A New Generation of Conference Phones

The other new element in Snom’s portfolio this year is the development of their new generation conference phones. The phones were announced at CeBIT, and received very well by the community. Basically, the phone comes with detachable microphones to ensure absolute comfort and optimum voice quality. By liberating users from the restrictions involved with wired microphones, the conference phone solution uses DECT technology to ensure that participants can be heard loud and clear, wherever they are in the room.

Rather than huddling around a conference phone, consumers can use the Snom conference microphones to ensure absolute comfort. Each one comes with a central mute button, which can mute the microphone, and the other microphones in the room too. It’s all wireless, and it charges naturally as soon as its placed in the docking station.

“This is a SIP conference phone, which you can connect to your smartphone, Bluetooth device, or anything else. If you have a collaboration video call going on with any platform, you can use this as your audio device.”

Considering the prevalence of Skype in the marketplace, I asked whether Snom phones could be used with the Skype platform. She confirmed that they could be connected with a laptop to run a Skype call, and explained: “The interesting thing about SNOM is that we don’t have an IP PBX that’s ours, we connect to anything that’s SIP compatible within industry standards.”

 

 

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