Big UC News from Microsoft, Zoom, Webex, and Logitech

Some not-to-miss highlights from the last week in unified communications

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Published: September 23, 2022

Ryan Smith

Technology Journalist

From breaking down language barriers to a new product range designed for the hybrid working era, here are extracts from popular news stories this week.

Microsoft Breaks Down Language Barriers in Teams Meetings

Microsoft has confirmed that language interpretation is generally available for Teams meeting participants.

The feature will allow professional interpreters to translate the speaker’s message into another language without disrupting the original speaker’s flow or delivery.

The company has designed the feature to support its customers who must communicate with users worldwide.

Shalendra Chhabra, Principal PM Manager in Microsoft Teams Meetings,” commented: “Here at Microsoft, we serve a diverse set of global customers, including governmental institutions that hold parliament meetings in multiple languages, multinational and multilingual corporations, businesses that work with vendors around the world, and “many more.

“This feature was built to support customers and users who need to communicate in the virtual world across languages.

“Our language interpretation feature will allow professional interpreters to convert the speaker’s message into another language without disrupting the speaker’s original flow or delivery.”

Microsoft states that the simultaneous interpretation will allow for more inclusive meetings and allow all participants to collaborate fully, despite language barriers.

Zoom Launches ‘Survivability’ Offering to Combat Outages

Zoom has launched a hybrid survivability solution for Zoom Phone to enable businesses to continue providing core phone features during an outage.

The company states that the Zoom Phone Local Survivability (ZPLS) module is designed with large companies in mind.

The solution ensures that organisations can minimise revenue loss, maintain internal communications, and establish on-site safety if the Zoom Client cannot access a Zoom Phone data centre.

It means that in the event of an outage, Zoom clients who have ZPLS enabled will have continuous access to core phone functionalities such as making and receiving both internal and external calls.

Sonali Karnik, Product Marketing Manager, Zoom Phone, commented: “For certain business locations, maintaining essential telecom services in the event of an outage is crucial to provide mission-critical services to their users.

“To minimise downtime, businesses need a reliable cloud system that’s equipped to prevent failures.

“While the Zoom data centre components are designed to be fully redundant and resilient, the last leg of network connectivity from the customer premises to the cloud also needs to be reliable. “

ZPLS works with an on-site, small-scale server which provides failover capability and an additional layer of protection to the solution.

Teams Adds Apps to Calls Amid Hacking Concerns

Microsoft Teams is adding a number of Meetings features to its VoIP calls at a time the security of video conferencing platforms has been thrown into question.  

According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap, tabs, bots, in-meeting dialogues, and meeting stages will be available in Teams VoIP calls. All the functionalities of a Teams Meeting can be enjoyed in Teams VoIP Calls.  

The meetings and calls may not be so enjoyable, however, if you are having to worry about being hacked through the unusual means of your glasses.

Strange New Hacking Technique  

By spying on the reflection in your glasses, hackers are able to steal private information from your computer screen while you are connected to video conferencing solutions, like Microsoft Teams, Webex by Cisco, and Zoom.  

A report from researchers at the University of Michigan and Zhejiang University demonstrated how the reflection in glasses could be the source of a data hack.  

According to the report, on-screen texts as small as 10mm can be viewed with over 75% accuracy via a 720p webcam.  

The experiment was done under controlled laboratory conditions, and results may be affected by real-life variables, such as the skin colour of participants, display brightness, room lighting, the contrast between the text and background, plus the glasses themselves.  

Logitech Releases Webcams and Headphones for Hybrid Work

Logitech’s Brio 500 webcams and Zone Vibe headphones are designed to meet the evolving needs of hybrid workers.

The company says the new webcams and headphones bring “quality, style, affordability, and sustainability” to employees who are working in a remote environment.

The products follow a recent Logitech survey that shows more than 89% of work-from-home employees struggle with camera angles, poor lighting and field-of-view limitations due to built-in laptop cameras.

Scott Wharton, general manager of Logitech Video Collaboration, said: “Many remote and hybrid workers are still underequipped and grappling with pre-pandemic era solutions.

“Our innovative new genre of Brio webcams and Zone Vibe headphones answer the call of modern workers who need business-grade quality, style, and affordability for work and play.

“Transformational features like Brio’s Show Mode open up new sharing opportunities for teachers, designers, and architects to easily present physical objects, notes, and sketches remotely over video.”

The Brio 500 series comprises of the Brio 500 and the Brio 505, which aim to solve the most common video conferencing challenges.

Webex and Instant Connect Link Frontline and Remote Workers

Webex and Instant Connect’s push-to-talk application can connect frontline workers to their colleagues in the office or remote working.

The solution is designed to improve communication for fast-moving workforces and improve day-to-day operations.

The companies have developed the app for industries such as manufacturing, mining, energy, sports, events, utilities, and more.

Wes Wells, Product Director at Instant Connect, commented: “The key is any device, any network interoperability, our automated talk channels can run on virtually any voice-enabled device, operating system, or network: LTE/5G, Wi-Fi, radio, IP.

“This unified voice environment gives Webex subscribers a direct, unbroken line of communication with frontline workers for the first time.”

The app works by connecting an unlimited number of subscribers who can use any device that they wish to create group talk channels within the software.

 

 

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