Lifesize Unveils New Intelligent, Hands-Free Video Meeting Experience with Alexa for Business Integration

Alexa voice commands on Lifesize meeting room systems allow customers to collaborate more efficiently and safely, enabling seamless work-from-anywhere options

Lifesize, a global innovator of immersive enterprise communication solutions, announced a new native integration with the Alexa for Business intelligent assistant from Amazon Web Services (AWS), empowering Lifesize customers to tap into a wide range of productivity-enhancing, voice-activated controls via their existing Lifesize meeting room systems, without requiring additional hardware. As part of the launch, Lifesize and AWS will offer 90 days of complimentary service for joint customers to trial Lifesize with Alexa for Business.

“We recently polled meeting room decision makers in North America to understand what they are considering in their meeting rooms to meet safety concerns when employees return to the office,” said Craig Durr, senior analyst at Wainhouse Research. “Our research indicates that in the next 12 to 18 months, voice-based controls will be a top technology of interest, potentially leapfrogging alternative solutions that require touching a remote control, room-based PC or some other piece of shared equipment.”

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“Advancing our development efforts with AWS unlocks boundless productivity potential plus increased efficiency and safety for in-room meetings as organizations introduce touchless computing as part of their post-COVID-19 return to the workplace,” said Bobby Beckmann, chief technology officer at Lifesize. “Alexa for Business’ security, privacy and automation controls are unparalleled, and we look forward to building on them to empower our customers with all sorts of skills and features.”

Lifesize is the first video collaboration provider in the industry to integrate an organization’s directory with the Alexa for Business address book, enabling hands-free, name-based calling that makes meetings more streamlined and productive.

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Lifesize with Alexa for Business carries a host of other benefits, including:

• Make in-room video meetings even easier and more intelligent. Use Alexa voice commands with Lifesize Icon meeting room systems to check in and claim rooms, dial directory contacts, start meetings in seconds and activate other room automation and controls like smart lights and power shades.
• Engage in high-definition, secure video conferencing with hands-free voice control. Equip teams or an entire organization to meet, collaborate and be productive without requiring additional Amazon Echo devices to be deployed and managed or potentially compromising meeting participants’ health by touching screens.
• Ensure every meeting room is utilized to its full potential. Check availability, manage and reserve meeting rooms through standard calendar integrations, automatically release unused rooms, and analyze and report room utilization metrics in the Alexa for Business dashboard.

Organizations can also create custom Alexa skills that fit their business, workflow and room management needs, from providing the guest Wi-Fi password to creating a virtual help desk that contacts IT and reports issues instantly.

Lifesize devices are Alexa Voice Service (AVS) certified, ensuring the highest levels of compatibility, security and data privacy for the integration. An icon and button on the Lifesize Phone HD that is part of all room systems indicate when Alexa is enabled and allows users to disable Alexa if they prefer. Audio is only sent to the secure Alexa cloud when Alexa is invoked through the wake word and can be deleted with a simple voice command.

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