Zoom’s much-anticipated Smart Gallery view is now available for Zoom Rooms customers. 

The new feature takes a single camera view and uses AI to transform it into multiple video streams for each participant in a conference room, enhancing the face-to-face meeting experience.  

The aim of Smart Gallery is to focus more closely on groups of participants in a Zoom Room and display these people more clearly to remote attendees, ensuring equity and inclusion for remote meeting attendees.  

Gallery View works by using both a physical, or “logical” camera and, as Zoom calls it, a virtual camera. The virtual camera pinpoints a specific area from within the view and extracts it as a separate video stream. 

These individual video streams can then be pieced together to create the Gallery View that we have all become familiar with over the last year. 

For example, if three people are sat in a room next to each other, a fourth participants who is joining the meeting from home can see the three other participants in separate tiles, as if they had all dialled in remotely. 

Zoom explained exactly how Smart Gallery View will work for remote participants: “Remote attendees will be able to access all the available video feeds from the Zoom Room if they are using the Gallery, Side-by-Side, or Thumbnail views, or if they decide to pin a specific video. 

“Each Zoom Room video feed is displayed as a distinct meeting participant with full resolution. These same meeting participants are named after the Zoom Room itself followed by a number: “Conference Room – 1”, “Conference Room – 2”, etc.”  

Smart Gallery is currently available in public beta on Neat and Poly products, with support set to come for Logitech and DTEN D7 devices later this year. 

Users need to be using Zoom Rooms Appliances running version 5.7.0 or higher. Account owners or admins may have to enable the feature for some users. 

Smart Gallery View can also be enabled by default. To do this, users should log in to the Zoom web portal, click Room Management and then Zoom Rooms. The Zoom Rooms location hierarchy can then be used to enable Smart Gallery View from account, location, or room settings. 

You can view more details on how to enable Smart Gallery View here. 

Zoom has also announced further updates for Zoom Rooms. 

Native Voice Commands now are in public beta, with participants able to use commands that will, for example, start meetings, leave meetings or check in – using the phrase “Hey Zoom” to get started. 

In-meeting chat is now available for meeting participants joining from Zoom Rooms, using the room controller or touchscreen. Users also have more control of webinars, attendees and panellists with Zoom Rooms, allowing them access to features such as locking the webinar and muting panellists. 

Meanwhile, device management of various Zoom devices has now been unified. Phone Appliances, Room devices and Digital Signage is now available through a singular device management section, making it easy to manage multiple devices. 

 This article has been reposed from UC Today’s Blog. See the source article here: https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/video-conferencing/zoom-introduces-smart-gallery-view/

The vendor said the appliances are a new category of hardware, designed for hybrid workforces across home offices and huddle spaces, addressing use cases across industries. 

The hardware will simplify licensing, installation, use and management, and will benefit both end users and IT departments, it added. 

Graeme Geddes, Head of Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms, said: “The traditional workplace is evolving and adapting, and our goal is to empower the workforce to accomplish more by blurring the lines between voice and video. 

“The new Zoom Phone Appliance programme boasts a selection of purpose-built Zoom Phone hardware from Poly and Yealink, enabling people to streamline communications, removing friction, and replacing it with a powerful communications experience”

Zoom Phone Appliances are all-in-one desk phones that combine Zoom’s platform with hardware from Yealink and Poly, and are capable of HD video meetings, phone calls and interactive whiteboarding.  

Zoom said that the devices don’t require any additional licences, giving users a full-featured desk phone for always-on communication, meaning users can easily start ad-hoc and scheduled meetings; make and receive calls; check voicemail; and collaborate through virtual whiteboards. They’re also easy to set up and maintain, Zoom said, featuring simplified onboarding for IT support with zero-touch provisioning and centralised management through the Zoom Admin Portal.  

Users can personalise their experience by syncing calendars, status, meeting settings and phone for integrated video-first experiences. 

The products will launch with two handsets from Poly – the CCX 600 Desk Phone and the CCX 700 Desk Phone with integrated camera – and Yealink’s VP59 Smart Video Phone. 

John Lamarque, General Manager of Voice Collaboration at Poly, said: “We are excited to be among the first to integrate a native Zoom experience into our Poly CCX family, as Zoom Phone Appliances. 

“This brings the Zoom platform that we all know and love front and centre on the device’s touch display, providing a powerful and immersive experience.” 

Alvin Liao, Vice President of Product at Yealink, said: “We are delighted to unveil the new, reliable, and cutting-edge VP59 video phone, a Zoom Phone Appliance. 

“The VP59 video phone’s touch display will be powered by Zoom’s industry-leading video communications platform, providing customers with a user-friendly interface and intuitive experience.”  

Zoom said that more handsets are set to be added to the category over time, with the inaugural devices available through Zoom’s hardware-as-a-service programme and via Poly and Yealink resellers. 

Zoom Phone Appliances are the latest addition to Zoom Phone, continuing its relentless growth since launching in January 2019. 

Eric Yuan, CEO at Zoom, recently revealed that Zoom Phone had sold 1.5 million seats at the end of April. Earlier in the year it had been called “absolutely the fastest growing product” in Zoom’s portfolio by CFO Kelly Steckelberg.

Commenting on the Zoom Phone Appliances launch, Elka Popova, VP of Connected Work Research at Frost & Sullivan, said:  

“Zoom continues to demonstrate the fast pace of innovation and ability to scale globally with its robust cloud phone offering, Zoom Phone. 

“Zoom Phone has always been a disruptive alternative to legacy phone solutions and the new appliance program further enhances its value proposition by enabling businesses to video-enable workspaces with purpose-built appliances that are easy to procure, deploy, and manage.” 

This news item has been reposted from UCToday. See the source article here: https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/zoom-launches-zoom-phone-appliances-with-poly-and-yealink-empowering-the-hybrid-workforce/

UK-based Videocentric has developed Focus Arena which combines Teams and Zoom Rooms and other cloud-based apps into a single package, allowing users to select their preferred mode.

Cloud collaboration and videconferencing solutions integrator Videocentric has developed a new hybrid solution which combines Microsoft Teams and Zoom Rooms into one installed package, allowing users to select their preferred mode. The Focus Arena solution also allows for alternative apps such as Webex, BlueJeans, Lifesize, Pexip, GoTo Meeting and Google Meet to use the same room camera and audio system.

Launching Focux Arena, Videocentric explained that collaboration bars supporting multiple applications were launched in 2020 but users’ expectations were dashed when they found that they were focused on futureproofing an investment and needed to be reconfigured by the IT department, as opposed to allowing a user to walk into a room and simply select the required mode to join a Zoom or Teams conference call.

The Focus Arena solution uses one PTZ Camera (with either 5x or 12x zoom), one set of wireless microphones and one speaker, changing seamlessly between platforms on demand. A single touch controller is switched between Microsoft’s MTR interface and Zoom’s Room interface and allows for integrated camera control.

David Shimell sales director at VideoCentric, commented: ”Users don’t care what is going on behind the scenes, as long as it works. They get invited to a Teams or Zoom meeting and simply want to join it; not to be told they don’t have the right licences, or they need to contact IT, or wait for two or three restarts to occur. So, we set about developing a single solution based on components that were already certified by Microsoft and Zoom and where we could add our little bit of magic, based on a simple 1-2-3 approach.”

The three-step approach is:

1. Power ON Displays
2. Select MODE (e.g. Teams, Zoom, BYOD or Interactive Whiteboard)
3. Press JOIN

The new solution is named Focus Arena because it offers a focus on Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) and Zoom Rooms capabilities for primary meeting room usage, while its arena offers a wide selection of desktop apps that employees or guests might wish to use instead, such as Webex, GoTo Meeting, Lifesize, Google Meet, BlueJeans, Pexip, Teams desktop, Zoom desktop or others, whether they be pre-installed on a meeting room NUC, an interactive whiteboard or brought into the room by participants on their own Windows laptops or Macbooks.

Two camera variants are offered at launch but others will follow in 2021, together with a wireless BYOD option. With only one Cat 6 cable to the table plus wireless microphones and wireless presentation sharing, cable management is already minimal but for those with solid floor or glass tables, VideoCentric will install a completely wire-free solution at the same price.

VideoCentric’s Thames Valley showroom is already demonstrating the full flexibility and ease of use of Focus Arena to remote participants. From full Teams Room and Zoom Rooms focus, to a wide arena of desktop capabilities on NUC and portable BYOD, orders are now being taken for installations during March 2021.

For more information:

• https://videocentric.co.uk

At Zoom, ensuring the privacy and security of our users and their data is our top priority. We want to address recent concerns about Zoom’s privacy policy.

We want to emphasize that:

• Zoom does not sell our users’ data.
• Zoom has never sold user data in the past and has no intention of selling users’ data going forward.
• Zoom does not monitor your meetings or its contents.
• Zoom complies with all applicable privacy laws, rules, and regulations in the jurisdictions within which it operates, including the GDPR and the CCPA.

We are not changing any of our practices. We are updating our privacy policy to be more clear, explicit, and transparent.

Today’s Update to Zoom’s Privacy Policy

Zoom takes its users’ privacy extremely seriously. Zoom collects only the data from individuals using the Zoom platform required to provide the service and ensure it is delivered effectively under a wide variety of settings in which our users may be operating. This data includes basic technical information, such as the user’s IP address, OS details, and device details.

Zoom has implemented safeguards to protect our users’ privacy, which includes robust and validated controls to prevent unauthorized access to any content that users share during meetings, including – but not limited to – the video, audio, and chat content of those meetings. Unless a meeting is recorded by the host, the video, audio, and chat content is not stored. Moreover, participants are notified through both audio and video when the host is recording a meeting through Zoom and have the choice to opt in or leave the meeting. When the meeting is recorded, it is, at the host’s choice, stored either locally on the host’s machine or in the Zoom cloud. We have access controls to prevent unauthorized access to meeting recordings saved to our cloud.

Importantly, Zoom does not mine user data or sell user data of any kind to anyone.

Zoom’s Privacy Policy

Third-Party Advertising 

Like most technology companies with an online presence, on our marketing websites, such as zoom.us and zoom.com, we use third-party advertising service providers (like Google) to deliver tailored ads to our users about products visitors may find interesting. (For example, if you visit our website, later on, depending on your cookie preferences, you may see an ad from Zoom reminding you of features that Zoom has to offer.) However, this only pertains to user activity on the zoom.us website. No data regarding user activity on the Zoom platform – including video, audio, and chat content – is ever provided to third parties for advertising purposes. If you do not want to receive targeted ads about Zoom after visiting zoom.us, simply click the “Cookie Preferences” link at the bottom of any page on the zoom.us site and adjust the slider to “Required Cookies.”

Protecting the Privacy of K-12 Students 

We are particularly committed to protecting the privacy of our K-12 users.

We have established guardrails to protect K-12 students using our services through their schools for their education. We have a special policy that describes how Zoom handles personal data of K-12 students using Zoom through their schools, who are signing up for Zoom services for their students. This special policy is designed to reflect our compliance with the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and other applicable laws. If you are a school administrator or teacher, please refer to this important policy: Zoom for K-12 Schools & Districts Privacy Policy.

Aside from providing services to K-12 students through school subscribers as discussed above, Zoom does not knowingly allow children under the age of 16 to sign up for their own accounts.  If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe your child has given us information, you can contact us at privacy@zoom.us, and we will take appropriate steps to investigate and address the issue.

Complying with Law Enforcement 

We comply with our legal obligations. This includes responding to valid legal process, including jurisdiction. We also comply with the legal obligations of our customers.

Our Commitment

As always, we will continue to monitor and evolve our approach to privacy to ensure we are doing the right thing for our users. We stand by our commitment to protecting the privacy of our customers’ data, and we consider privacy to be a core part of our company values — to care for our community, our customers, our employees, and our company.

Zoom is pleased to announce that we’ve been recognized as one of the best solutions for product managers at this year’s 2020 Product Awards!

Presented by Products That Count, the Product Awards celebrate the tools that help product managers build the next great innovation, and the awards honor solutions at every stage of the product life cycle — conceive, collaborate, design, build, and operate — that help make product managers faster and more efficient in their roles.

Zoom earned a 2020 Best Product Award in the “operate” stage for its ability to connect teams, and Zoom Product Manager Deepthi Jayarajan accepted the award on March 12 in San Francisco.

“Zoom is extremely honored to be a resource for all the builders and innovators out there, and it’s humbling to know that Zoom’s unified communications platform plays even a small role in helping product managers bring amazing innovations to the world,” Jayarajan said.

Winners are selected with the help of an Awards Advisory Board comprised of industry-leading experts with comprehensive knowledge of product management. This year’s board included Credit Karma’s Associate Director of Product Management, Christina Lucey; Twitter’s Senior Product Manager, Laura Burkhauser; ClimateAI’s Head of Product, Anthony Atlas; Prezi’s Director of Product, Neha Taleja; and Gameclub Chief of Operations Britt Myers.

To learn more about how Zoom helps product managers develop the next great product and keep teams connected, sign up for a 1-on-1 demo with a Zoom product specialist today!