Facilitating a safe Return to the Office and creating an Inclusive Hybrid Work environment with Webex Devices

When the world went remote, companies were tasked with equipping their workforce with the collaboration tools they needed to work from home. However, we are slowly returning back into the office, and companies are now faced with another task – supporting a hybrid workforce.

Facilitating a hybrid work environment is no longer an option, but essential for a successful business and a thriving workforce. We need to ensure that remote workers feel included, and that office workers are able to collaborate just as well with their remote counterparts as they are with their colleagues in the office. Here at Webex Devices, we are always striving to create inclusive collaboration experiences for all – whether you are at home, in the office, or anywhere in between.

Making sure everyone is seen and heard with the Webex Room Kit Mini

The Webex Room Kit Mini is our entry level room device perfect for pervasive video collaboration in the hybrid workplace – already equipped with Webex Assistant for a touchless meeting join, and facial recognition to count the amount of people in the room, so you can ensure that capacity limits are being withheld.

Now, we are making the experience for the people on the remote end of the Room Kit Mini even better! We’ve added 5x manual zoom, making it easy for remote participants to see what matters; perhaps you want to show an early prototype of a physical product, or zoom in on a detail. This ensures that everyone can have a say regardless of their work location.

In addition to this, the audio pickup from the internal microphones will now be able to pick up audio clearly up to 4 meters from the device. At a time where there are strict distance requirements, this will make sure everyone in the room is heard clearly for the remote participant. The Room Kit Mini is now also shipping with the award-winning Webex Room Navigator touch controller with environmental sensors that helps ensure the wellbeing of your employees.

We are all adjusting to new cleaning schedules and many environments have heightened cleaning requirements. This is why we are now also offering the Webex Room Kit Mini with a metal grille. This new version makes it easier to clean the device, and for it to stay clean. Please follow our Cisco Guidelines for cleaning products to ensure correct and safe cleaning.

Bringing the new immersive into more meeting rooms

In the era of hybrid work, screen real-estate is a precious commodity. The majority of communication is non-verbal, and for collaboration to be truly efficient one needs to tune into facial expressions and body language. In addition to this, people need to have the same frame of reference – they need to view the same content! This is where multi-screen devices come in. Take for example the Webex Room Panorama. The Webex Room Panorama provides the ultimate immersive videoconferencing experience, built for the modern c-suite.

The Panorama is not only built for the modern C-suite, it is ideal for the hybrid workplace. With two screens for video and one screen for content, The Panorama allows for a rich hybrid collaboration experience – the people on the remote end can see everyone in the room and whatever content is shared, and the people calling in from the Webex Room Panorama can view people spread across the two video screens, and content from the content screen. We believe that everyone deserves to experience beautiful design and powerful functionality, so we’ve now made a low ceiling height version of the Room Panorama! This allows you to equip more of your meeting rooms with immersive video – the new low ceiling height version comes with two 82” screens for a fully panoramic video experience.

The Room Panorama now comes with the new, award-winning Cisco Microphone Array for crystal clear, directional audio. The Cisco Microphone Array recognizes which side of the table the speaker is on and uses advanced audio cancellation techniques to deliver clear audio to remote participants. Deployed together, Webex Room Panorama and the new table microphone helps create the best possible meeting experience for both in-person and remote participants.

Every meeting participant should be a first-class participant, no matter whether they are joining from home, the huddle room or the board room. Webex Devices provides inclusive experiences for everyone.

Learn more

What’s new in Webex: May 2021

Hybrid working: three tips to keep it safe, healthy, and productive

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