The lines are blurring between the different areas of technology. Once separate islands isolated by clear divisions the various realms of tech are now combined on a more regular basis. Audio visual technology, a once stand-alone dark art, is now so often one of the most crucial facilitators in the worlds of unified communication and collaboration. The rise of video communication and the seemingly ever growing importance of audio quality means that for a truly immersive experience all of the technology needs to integrate seamlessly. That's why you would be wrong to think that the world's largest AV and systems integrator event might hold little relevance to communication and collaboration, as that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Integrated Systems Europe, or ISE, began in nearly 15 years ago and since then has grown in to an event behemoth with over 1,500 exhibitors welcoming over 81,000 attendees to its convenient Amsterdam location. Offering an overarching view of the AV market ISE has now grown to provide insight and visibility of other related markets. Every year the Unified Communications Hall gains more and more focus and takes a more central seat at the event.
This year the UC section of the show welcomed the best and brightest communication and collaboration providers to showcase their latest and greatest innovations. As you would expect Microsoft and Cisco were highly visible but the event prides itself on diversification and the likes of Starleaf, Plantronics Polycom and Lifesize were all prominent as well as over 50 other vendors in Unified Communications Hall. Let's have a look at some of the biggest news stories unearthed at ISE 2019.
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Crestron Flex Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions[/caption]
One provider missing from the UC Hall was Crestron. Their extensive portfolio covering domestic design systems through to enterprise communication and collaboration means they can't be pigeon holed into one section of the show. Their huge and impressive stand took up a huge central location and on show were some of their most innovative solutions in each of their focus areas. When it came to collaboration and communication Crestron Flex Communications & Collaboration Solutions were on show. Flex delivers a native Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, and Zoom Rooms experience across an entire portfolio of devices including their P100 Phone Series, M100 tabletop solution and the B100 Series Smart Soundbar with Video. Offering a remarkably comprehensive set of solutions Flex undoubtedly demonstrates Crestron's leading role in the hardware integration aspect of the most popular collaboration solutions. Crestron also used ISE as the platform to announce the winners of their 2019 Integration Awards.
Back to the Unified Communications Hall and the Logitech booth where they used the opportunity to demonstrate their latest innovation in the form of Logitech Tap. Tap is Logitech's latest solution to reduce complexity in the realm of video conferencing. The new touch-screen control Tap unit redefines previous Logitech solutions to control a variety of conference solutions from the likes of Microsoft, Zoom or Google. Offering simplicity with the principle of one button to join, Logitech Tap offers organisations the chance to radically improve the process of joining and managing video meetings.
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Logitech Small Room Solution for Microsoft Teams Room[/caption]
