As businesses around the world continue to embrace the trends of remote working and globalisation, the demand for innovative technology continues to accelerate. Today's organisations need tools that allow them to collaborate and communicate seamlessly, without having to worry about switching between multiple devices and platforms.
Solaborate, a company devoted to next-level communication solutions, recently introduced the newest generation of their "HELLO" device. The HELLO 2 product combines communication and collaboration into a simple end-to-end solution for ongoing productivity in the ever-changing workforce.
I sat down with CEO, Labinot Bytyqi, to find out more.
Tell Us About the Business and Yourself
According to Labinot, "Solaborate" stands for "social" collaboration .
Labinot has an exciting history in the marketplace. He moved to the United States in 1999 as a war refugee from Kosovo and began to earn his degree in computer science and business management almost immediately. After college, he joined SAP, starting in services and moving into product management. "That's where I discovered the gap in the market for collaboration."
Labinot told me that SAP was receiving calls daily, which the company sometimes had to cancel and reschedule merely because they couldn't work and communicate at the same time.
"I left SAP and founded Solaborate to search for more than just a video and audio tool - I wanted something that could offer a collaboration tool. We started this search almost 6 years ago on the software side, and eventually moved into hardware."
The idea for the HELLO device emerged after Intel announced their "PC on a stick" technology. "I was inspired to see if I could create this all-around device for audio, video, and collaboration. That's how HELLO was born".
What is the HELLO Product?
Though stunning in its design, the HELLO device is deceptively simple at first glance. It looks like a webcam, but the truth is that it's so much more. "We created the HELLO device to truly integrate audio, video, and collaboration for the first time."
The first device launched in 2016 as an end-to-end option for encrypted video, audio, and collaboration technology. HELLO 2, the latest generation will also support new solutions such as whiteboarding, and video conferencing through platforms like Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Zoom, Google Meet and more.
HELLO works by transforming a standard business screen into a communication device that can do everything from video conferencing, to screen sharing, voice assistant support, and digital whiteboarding.
What's Going on inside of the Device?
The 4K camera and microphones are easy enough to spot on the HELLO device, but I was interested to learn more about what was happening behind the scenes from a collaboration perspective. Labinot told me that when the company created the technology, they wanted to keep it open. "That's why we decided to do it on Android. We wanted to tap into the thousands of applications that were already there and give people a chance to build their own apps too."
With the HELLO 2, you don't only get a system for an audio and video call; you also get something that can handle all your collaboration needs too, like whiteboarding and screen sharing.
