Poly’s Voice-Activated Zoom Rooms with Alexa

Poly announced Alexa for Business for Zoom Rooms, to provide customers with a hands-free, voice-activated, control experience for new-wave meeting collaboration.

This new offering enables Poly customers to set up Alexa for Business with just a few clicks. Once enabled, Zoom Rooms’ users can ask Alexa to join meetings and book rooms, without having to purchase additional Alexa-enabled devices.

With this integration, Poly, Zoom and Alexa for Business are simplifying the enablement and management of Alexa for Business by building it directly into the Zoom Management Portal.

As companies plan for a return to the office and strategize how to safely bring employees back into shared spaces and meeting rooms, touchless voice control has never played a more critical role. Alexa for Business improves the overall meeting experience, for rooms of any size, by offering customers the ability to start a Zoom Rooms meeting using voice commands.

Poly Zoom Room users can ask Alexa to assist with tasks like starting their online meeting, booking a meeting room, and alerting participants with end-of-meeting reminders to keep everyone on task.

Installation takes just a few clicks, and once installed, a Poly Zoom Rooms device can detect an employee’s voice to jumpstart the meeting experience. Poly’s lineup of pro-grade devices are certified Zoom Room Appliances, and feature advanced speaker tracking, Acoustic Fence and NoiseBlockAI, so you can crush every meeting, while blocking out distracting background noise.

“Our goal is to bring peace of mind as employees begin to return to the office, through integrative technologies designed to minimize contact with high-touch surface areas,” said Beau Wilder, vice president and general manager of video collaboration at Poly.

“We continue to see the need for highly imaginative applications of AI, especially when it comes to voice-activated commands like Alexa for Business, and further enable employees to remain agile, with the ability to easily connect, so they can do their best work from anywhere.”

Poly Studio X series with TC8 touch interface, Poly G7500 video conferencing system, and Poly Trio C60smart conference phone are the latest Zoom Room Appliances to support the Alexa for Business offering available now, in the United States.

The Poly Studio X series and Poly G7500 are both certified Zoom Rooms Appliances, as are the Poly Trio 8500 and Poly Trio 8800 smart conference phones, which all feature Alexa for Business capabilities. Alexa can also help employees check the weather, stay up-to-date on the news or listen to their favourite podcast.

Alexa has more than 100,000 skills to help make their lives easier, more meaningful and more fun by letting them voice-control their world. Poly is the only Zoom hardware provider and partner that delivers certified solutions across Zoom Rooms, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Personal Workspace.

“Voice assisted technology is stepping in to address new ways of working,” said Jeff Smith, head of Zoom Rooms at Zoom. “Zoom Rooms Appliances like the Poly Studio X series and Poly G7500 that support Alexa for Business are changing the game for organizations who are planning to return to the office safely, while also catering to employees who want to stay connected and join meetings quickly from home.”

For more information about the Poly and Amazon Alexa for Business integration

For more information on Poly solutions for Zoom, click here.