SMART Technologies Upgrades its Room System for Lync

SMART Technologies Inc. has added new enhancements and capabilities to its SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync. Unveiled at the Microsoft Lync Conference 2014, the enhancements are designed to improve the ease and efficiency of collaboration through the inclusion of new features and software integration. 

In order to provide an improved user experience, SMART has integrated the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync with the SMART Meeting Pro PE (Personal Edition) software. This extends the collaboration experience by enabling users to make notes on any software application, rather than just PowerPoint or the Lync whiteboard.

Among the new features added, the most interesting is interactive sharing that enables touch and inking into any software application, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF files. The annotations and additions can be saved directly into the files for future reference or editing. The new edition also provides “unbound workspace” whiteboard application, which allows viewers to pan and zoom to any level of detail.

According to Blair Pleasant, co-founder of UCStrategies, “As more and more teams and workgroups become virtual teams, working in various locations, the need for interacting and collaborating using video technologies is increasing rapidly.” She added, “At the Microsoft Lync conference I was able to see the SMART Room System demo and the ability to do interactive sharing in a natural way, making it easier to collaborate with colleagues in various locations.”

Scott Brown, President of Enterprise for SMART Technologies, stated, “We have seen tremendous market response to the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync and demand is growing from business users around the world.” He added, “We have taken customer feedback and expanded collaborative capabilities both in-room and with remote users, and introduced new sizes so there is a SMART Room System for virtually every size of meeting room in an organization. These additional features demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Lync users and reinforce our position as the leading provider in the Lync Room System category with a customer-first approach ensuring meetings are intuitive, productive and collaborative.”

Additional displays were added to the line up, including single and dual 55” displays, and a new range of options for different room sizes. SMART hopes that the new features, as well as the new available sizes, will make the systems more accessible to users, and provide a more effective collaboration experience.