Cisco Business Edition 4000 (discontinued) vs. Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice)

The availability of numerous subscription options is one of the most impressive features of Cisco Business Edition 4000. Businesses can purchase prepaid subscriptions for 1, 3, or 5 years, depending on their needs and budget. The Cisco Business Edition 4000, which is cloud-managed, is the phone system that the small-scaled industry has been waiting for. It seamlessly blends the old and modern, allowing [organizations] to meet their conventional communication demands while remaining compatible with cutting-edge communication technology.

Incentivized

Implementing these units within our business reduced the number of support requests to our internal IT support desk. This was simply because these units are so simple to use. The user books a video conference meeting within Outlook and includes the meeting room they wish to hold the video conference in. Within five minutes, their meeting is recognized on the Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice). Their meeting is also shown on the TV screen within the meeting room so that other people can see who will be using the room. On entering the room, the user simply touches the Join button next to their meeting on the Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice), normally in the middle of the table, and within a few seconds, the meeting room has joined the video conference meeting.

• Call routing
• Voicemail
• SIP Trunking

Incentivized

• One-touch easy-to-join meeting
• Supports two TV screens
• Supports laptop screens on two TV screens without joining a video conference
• Reduces mess of cables In the room
• Dolby audio sound quality
• Speaker and microphone within the same unit on the table
• Supports wide range of cameras, including their own cameras
• Easy to clean
• Robust

• Integration with other vendors
• More suitable GUI for newbies in IT
• Integration with other Cisco products in term of WAN connections

Incentivized

• Support of three TV screens would be nice In some rooms

This rating is given because it is simple for us--a no-brainer to replace these units with a new Dolby video conferencing device. The fact that these units make the room neater and make it very easy for a user to onboard and use, just makes it a must-have item. The Linux version of these units is also easier to use with a little software patching required. For us, we can also use the Microsoft Teams gateway.

As it is a completely cloud-based product this is easy to access. We easily manage or access it from anywhere. It is very easy to deploy and easy to manage and use. Its mobile device integration feature is very good and we loved it. It is ideal for remote access.

Incentivized

That this unit is so easy for users to use. To join a meeting is a simple one-touch join. If they have not added the meeting room to their invite, then entering the meeting ID into the unit via the touch screen on the flying saucer is very easy. The mute button is on the top of the unit and shows a red LED circle when on mute.

The support once you have been able to actually connect with someone is great. The challenge is that it is very difficult at times to get someone from support at short notice to work with you, especially when you have a production impacting issue. I had a licensing issue that took me about 1 week to get support attention, once connected with them was resolved with two days.

Incentivized

When we have asked the question to either BlueJeans or Dolby, we have been given the answer quickly. To be honest, the number of times that we have had to go to support on these units has been very low--maybe once a quarter.

We did not have any key issues during the implementation. The units are very easy to configure for BlueJeans. When you first turn on the unit, you select the video conferencing platform that you are using. The wizard will then request various information (e.g., IP address, network) and then look for software updates. Once completed, the unit can be installed in the meeting room. The unit will run off a PoE network lead, so one lead to the unit.

Cisco Business Edition 4000 is an simple to use, cloud-hosted system based on Cisco's IP telephony technology. It is a optimal solution for for SMB businesses and supports up to a maximum of 200 IP Phones. For customers looking for larger user group, Cisco BE 6000 or BE7000 would be a better option.

The biggest issue with others that we find is that no one has a simple one-touch method for users to join a video conference meeting. With most others, we found you either have to find your meeting or manually enter your meeting. With Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice), you are straight into the room--one touch and in the meeting.

• Optimal solution for small/medium organizations.
• Lowers cost with reduced IT overheads and cloud management.
• Rapid deploy model helps for fast setup.

• 95% reduction in IT support desk requests for help with the equipment
• High-quality microphone and speaker
• Robust, smart, clean looking.
• Supports two TVs
• Supports a number of cameras