Name: Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice)
Rating: 10 (6 reviews)
Author: Dolby

May 14, 2021

Simple One-Touch Join for Video Conference Meetings

John Gaskell

Director of IT

Kingspan (Construction, 10,001+ employees)

Score 10 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice) units, or flying saucers, as we call them, have been used across the whole of our division from the UK and Ireland all the way down to Australia and New Zealand. Some sites have a number of these depending on how many meeting rooms they have on site (we try to provide the unit for every meeting room within the divison). We also have some VIP users who have the unit set up in their office due to a large number of vIdeo conferences that they do throughout the day.

Pros and Cons

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

Support of three TV screens would be nice In some rooms

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Most Important Features

Simple to use, one-touch join
Robust, strong, and neat with one unit and one cable
Microphone and speaker quality is first class; will suit most meeting rooms--even large rooms

Return on Investment

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

Alternatives Considered

Polycom Trio

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.

Other Software Used

BlueJeans Meetings

Users and Roles

1800

I represent all of the IT functions of our business, from the systems that the business uses to the IT infrastructure. I am responsible for ensuring that my divisional IT team provides the highest quality IT services for the business. I also ensure that our IT services provide value for money to ensure that we are not wasting more on poor IT services.

Support Headcount Required

To say one person is not correct, as the support we have to provide for these units is very low. So to say we have one person is high, as we do not have one person dedicated each day. Once these units are installed, they just work!

Business Processes Supported

Making meeting room less cluttered
Making meeting rooms more interactive
Users are empowered to get on and use the system themselves

Innovative Uses

Speed of users able to use the hardware
Amazing audio quality
First-class picture quality

Future Planned Uses

Use in more offices and meeting rooms
Reduce travel

Likelihood to Renew

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.

Products Replaced

Yes

We had a number of the Polycom video conference units on most sites. Users used to find it hard to work out the remote control unit with the Polycom unit, press a button, and then found themselves stuck on something that they did not need, losing their picture, etc.

I would also add that these Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice) units are the first thing we give a business we have acquired, as they are very simple to install in any meeting room and it's important for the managers to have good technology to communicate.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation

Product features are high on the list rather than price because we know that if the features are simple to use for any type of user within the business, then we have a winner for our users to be confident using. A number of times, users who thought the new device would be hard to understand have found that it is simple to use, with praise coming our way from the users as to how good the unit is.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

To be honest, the process will be different next time, as the focus will be to reject any device without a one-touch join feature since we 100% know that we will be wasting our time to consider anything else that does not meet first that requirement. Then we would look at the quality of the audio and microphone.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Yes

Implementation was in phases only due to rolling across the division into different countries.

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal

We covered all the bases, to be fair. We ensured that users were aware of the change to the meeting room. We provide a simple card to explain how to use the system. We then did a card on the TV with instructions so the user read the TV to understand how to use the device. We also did some short video tip features.

Implementation Issues

Distance of our sites from the UK (i.e., get the unit to the site; time)

Implementation Rating

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.

Support Rating

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.

Premium Support

We did not purchase any premium or extra support because we knew we would get support on the units from BlueJeans with support included within their service. We have been lucky to have access to Dobly direct with a connection via our vendor. This extra channel give us more knowledge about these units for us to be able to configure the units ourselves--which is very easy to do--and support any issues.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice) Support

The best moment for us with support was when they told us about their web portal that would allow us to access the extra layers of config on these units in addition to the config options provided by BlueJeans. This was just fabulous, and finding the portal easy to use was also very good.

Usability

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.

Easy Tasks

Options clear on the touch screen
Volume button very clear to find/see and use
Mute button clear to see and use
Looks elegant
Cable hidden underneath
Main unit hidden behind TV

Difficult Tasks

Hard to see power on/off button when the unit is behind the TV

Operating Systems	Unspecified
Mobile Application	No

Dolby Conference Phone (Dolby Voice)

Lifesize Video Conferencing

Zoom

GoTo Meeting

Cisco Desk Series

Pexip

Zoom Events & Webinars

Cisco Board Series

Poly Studio Series

Cisco IP Phones

Polycom Trio

Cisco Room Phone

Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series

Cisco Business Edition 4000 (discontinued)

Yealink Conference Phones

Mitel 6900 IP Series

Poly SAVI Headsets

Jabra Evolve2 Series