Sennheiser’s new unified communication solution, the TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker for Microsoft Teams Rooms is the ultimate audio solution for smart, focused, and inclusive meetings.
The unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we look at the role of digital technologies and tools in our lives. The restrictions on travel and physical interactions forced us to rethink the way we live, learn and work, and to get used to new ways of doing things that we never thought were possible.
It is not farfetched to say that we will not be going back to pre-pandemic times in the foreseeable future, where commuting daily to our workplace and sitting in crowded meeting rooms used to be the norm. The hybrid work model is here to stay and more so than ever, businesses have realized the importance of investing in technologies and tools to support this new way of working and to digitally enable employee interaction and collaboration.
Sennheiser recently introduced its new TeamConnect Intelligence Speaker (TCISP) to its industry leading business communication product portfolio at a live seminar. This is Sennheiser’s first 100% unified communication product, and it is the ultimate audio solution optimized for mid-sized Microsoft Teams Rooms for up to 10 people, regardless of whether participants are physically present or connecting remotely. With the TCISP, team meetings can now be smart, focused and inclusive, and it changes the way teams can collaborate in hybrid meetings.
With a sleek design and finish, the TCISP has 7 beamforming microphone array with powerful speakers that can cover a radius of 3.5 metres with excellent speech intelligibility and double-talk performance. It has a lacquered surface that is easy to clean and sanitize which is an extremely important attribute in today’s climate.
The TCISP also features a single button for mute and unmute – a capacitive touch button with no clicking sounds as well as a LED ring light that will indicate whether the device is muted, unmuted or if participants are interacting with Cortana.
The setup and installation of TCISP is flexible and straightforward. It comes with multiple mounting options, long cables and a variety of country-specific power plug adapters.
But how exactly is the speaker intelligent?
Hybrid meetings do come with its own set of challenges. Remote participants in hybrid meetings may have difficulty identifying who said what in the meeting room, which affects their ability to understand, follow the discussions and feel involved. Through TCISP, Microsoft Teams is able to transcribe meetings in realtime, identifying up to 10 different voices in the room by name. This gives remote and hard of hearing participants a seat at the table for inclusive and supportive collaboration without limitations.
While the hybrid work model has helped employees save time and money on commute, it has also caused our schedules to be packed with more meetings than before.
Through the TCISP, the transcription function of Microsoft Teams will also be useful for people with packed schedules and overlapping commitments to choose which meetings to participate in, while still having an opportunity to catch up on other meetings later in a productive way. Rather than spending the same amount of time watching a recording, they can use the transcript, which is available immediately after the meeting, to identify who said what during the meeting, go specifically to where their names are mentioned in the notes or when specific topics of interests are mentioned. With the TCISP, fumbling around with equipment and dealing with technical difficulties have also become a thing of the past.
The TCISP understands voice commands and responds seamlessly to them with Microsoft Cortana voice intelligence. Users can interact with Cortana to control the microphone verbally, enabling a touchless meeting experience.
“The impeccable audio quality and solutions like the integrated Cortana voice recognition software and automatic transcription has made meeting experiences in real time and after much better, more inclusive, and more intelligent. We are proud of this new addition to our TeamConnect family which enable us to expand into a different sized meeting room, at a price point that some might not expect from Sennheiser,” said Petteri Murto, Vice President of Sales, Business Communications at Sennheiser Asia Pacific.
For larger meeting rooms, Sennheiser recommends its industry leading TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC2) microphone which features its patented adaptive beamforming technology and TruVoicelift. These features significantly increase speech intelligibility in a meeting for conference room. TCC2 is also certified with Microsoft Teams.
“At Sennheiser, we want to create products that are easy to set up and use so that people will have more time for collaboration and productivity. We will continue to push boundaries to create innovative products for the workplace of tomorrow,” added Petteri.
As we look towards hybrid being the new normal, there is no doubt that besides immaculate sound quality and touchless solutions, corporations are also increasingly looking towards smart and inclusive technologies that can keep their hybrid workforce productive, engaged and connected.