[cisco-voip] room kits - smartnet or not?

[Lelio Fulgenzi]

This is great feedback Adam.

I like the fact that the Room Kit mini operates as a USB camera so that you can plug it into your PC and use it with any software based solution. I'm hoping this plug and play option will be available with other Room Kit models soon.

I'm realizing that the CMR equivalent that supports SIP dialing is not an automatic thing with other solutions. And those are expensive to add. Case in point, SIP endpoint dialing support for Teams is provided by a third party partner and can cost around $2500/year per endpoint.

There are some up and coming vendor agnostic solutions that we're keeping an eye on. Some require a PC, some do not.

I tested out Solaborate Hello2 and had high hopes, but they disappointed on several levels. Most importantly, although they advertise 4K _everywhere_ it seems they have not worked with vendors to make sure the android apps they run recognize HD camera input. Webex was maxed out to 360p. Same for Jabber. They had no interest in resolving this issue, saying it was the vendors fault, not theirs. I tried working with their live support but they pointed to policy. Yikes. Missed opportunity there for sure.

One department has tried out https://www.owllabs.com/ 360 degree camera. They seem to like it. I'm going to try it out with Webex when I have some time.


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Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. | Senior Analyst
Computing and Communications Services | University of Guelph
Room 037 Animal Science & Nutrition Bldg | 50 Stone Rd E | Guelph, ON | N1G 2W1
519-824-4120 Ext. 56354 | lelio at uoguelph.ca<mailto:lelio at uoguelph.ca>

www.uoguelph.ca/ccs<http://www.uoguelph.ca/ccs> | @UofGCCS on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

[University of Guelph Cornerstone with Improve Life tagline]

From: cisco-voip <cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net> On Behalf Of Pawlowski, Adam
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 8:33 AM
To: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] room kits - smartnet or not?

Our telepresence "pilot" or build out pretty much flat lined due to perceived demand to support Zoom, GoToWhatever, etc in spaces where we'd install this equipment which is not reasonably possible without added expense. Vaddio/Extron usb bridges added too much cost, and the room kit mini is not suitable to most spaces.

That being said we would work with the customer to ensure they are ordering first-party, and not amazon grey market. We would put it on the customer to maintain smartnet or budget to replace the device as needed. We would also have a conversation regarding the longevity of this equipment. Once it is no longer supported by Cisco and no longer received software update, we would no longer support the equipment.

That is a departure from PC based peripherals that sit behind a PC and are "not our problem", and from the way we've treated the IP Phones in the past. This sets up the stage for a reasonable expectation that the customer can budget to replace it, or not - but it has a limited lifespan so we are not sucked into something where we can't upgrade due to an endpoint having been installed in a "critical" area with no money to replace it.

Conference telephones are similar, they're expensive and we consider them one-time special order. We don't offer a smartnet purchase on them, as they've historically not been an issue, but we do not allow anyone to order the equipment other than ourselves so we do not have to deal with trying to support half broken used equipment, grey market, or stolen parts.

Adam


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