Video conferencing is a big deal these days and as technology continues to evolve, more and more businesses are communicating through this format than ever before.
Following on from the rising trend of consumer video calling apps such as FaceTime, Facebook Chat and Skype, many SMEs and larger enterprises are now communicating through video calling on account of its ability to build more natural working relationships through face-to-face conversations.
As the saying goes: ‘the eyes are the window to the soul’ and, until recently, the power of facial expressions and their ability to address points with clarity and conviction has been largely overlooked in conference meetings that can span across multiple sites, cities and even countries on opposite sides of the world.
It is this for this reason that, according to a recent survey carried out by Powwownow, as much as 70% of SMEs would rather have a video conference than travel to meetings, while 75% of people in senior management positions claimed that video conferencing would replace audio conferencing calls entirely at some point over the next few years.
However, as with any rising trends, the competition between rival brands and the products they develop is fierce, and many businesses looking to invest in a video conference calling solution can feel a tad overwhelmed when trying to decide which one is most suitable for their company.
With this in mind, we have decided to write a review on the Cisco Spark Room Kit Series, the flagship product from one of the industry’s leading brands, in the hope that it may help potential buyers decide if this solution is right for them.
What can it do?
With its discreet integrated cameras that provide ideal framing of speakers’ faces and an active speaker tracking system installed that uses highly advanced audio recording technology to capture the voice of each individual speaker, Cisco Spark gives users a truly lifelike conference calling experience that oozes clarity.
Installing the system is a breeze and the intelligent built-in sensor that activates the device when people enter the room means that no time is wasted switching the system on and off manually and conference meetings can get underway within minutes of walking through the door.
Moreover, Spark continues to save company time by allowing users to control the device directly through their smart device, thus adding much greater efficiency to the meeting and creating a hotbed environment for collaboration that enables all active members to easily share information. directly from their phones, tablets and laptops effortlessly.
Displayed in stunning 4k resolution, video clarity is second to none and presentations can be given with crystal clear quality, with added support for dual screens that can share two separate content resources at once.
As well as this, Room Kits also count the number of people participating in the meeting and provides useful analytics for resource planning while the automatic screen integration and in-room control allows video meetings to be set up quickly and be easily controlled from the palm of the hand.
Seeing as Room Kits works in both cloud platform as well as on-premise environments, businesses are given much more flexibility with hosting options and able to choose a solution that works with the company and meets their requirements perfectly.
In terms of scalability, businesses can choose from either the standard Cisco Spark Kit which offers support for rooms that seat up to 7 people (ideal for SMEs), or the Cisco Spark Room Plus that supports larger, deeper rooms with a capacity for as many as 14 people (more suited to larger enterprises).
What do we like?
One feature that really stood out from the rest for us was the walk-in activation sensor that cleverly switches on the device when people enter the meeting room. As well as drastically reducing meeting start-up times, we found that inclusion this bit of tech was a really cool touch that gives the device a very modern, advanced feel and shows how much thought has gone into the design.
Another feature that impressed us was flexible hosting options that give companies the choice to decide whether their Room Kits hardware runs on-site or in the cloud. This way, businesses have more freedom to choose a solution that is right for them and are not restricted to a ‘this way or no way at all’ mentality.
Who is it for?
As we’ve mentioned already, Cisco Spark Kit users can choose from two models, each of which offer solutions for businesses of different sizes, and the deployment options cater for both cloud and on-site environments. For this reason, we feel the Spark Kit is an ideal choice for many businesses.
UC Today Opinion
As we’ve already mentioned, video conferencing is a fast-growing trend that will continue to rise well into the future, meaning all businesses will have to invest in it at some point just to stay ahead of the competition.
With the Cisco Spark Room Kit, users are given a highly flexible and fully scalable video conferencing solution that offers a wide variety of cutting-edge features that can really help boost productivity and generate a much richer collaborative working environment when group meetings take place.
Well-designed and simple to deploy, we would strongly recommend the Room Kit to any business wanting to improve the overall quality of their conference calls and give their teams the tools needed to perform to the best of their abilities within a collaborative working environment.
Have you used Cisco Spark at work? What’s your verdict on its collaboration capabilities? What are your thoughts in general about the distinctions drawn between collaboration and other areas of UC? As always, we would love to read your thoughts in the comments section below, and why not share this article on social media and invite friends and colleagues to join in too?
