Josh Blalock: Now let's say you go with a, a cart mounted Avacor VBS. Instead of the all in one and your needs change down the line. You're like, Hey, I really would like to put that bar in this new board room. We're making, and this display actually is going to go well. You can separate them out. You know, that, that investment can be versatile as well as being the best in class for each component.
And, and then you get to use it in that way.
Tom Arbuthnot: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Excited to have Josh on the podcast. We're going to get into. What's going on with Josh and what's going on with Jabra and some of the kind of, uh, video bar solution stories of Jabra. Uh, first off, Josh, for the few people in our space who don't know you, can you give us a little bit of an intro?
Josh Blalock: Sure, of course. Thanks for having me on, by the way, Tom. It's awesome to be sitting here chatting outside of our normal monthly, uh, Thing on UC Today where I get to be a panelist on there. But, um, yeah, Josh Blalock. I'm a chief video evangelist for, at Jabra as the day job. Right. But, uh, the probably area that I've been most involved with the community for quite a while as, as a Microsoft MVP and.
Going back to Lync, Skype for Business, Teams Days, and uh, and now it's Teams, Copilot, everything that manages to touch UC.
Tom Arbuthnot: The weekly YouTube show back in the day, that was, uh, you had a long run of that weekly show.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, the little Skype for B recap, and it eventually became Teams recap, and it's really hard doing a weekly show, uh, as it turns out.
So, uh, yeah, it had its heyday, and that was, that was about it, uh, long enough to unseat. The, uh, UC Architects Podcast, as Pat likes to remind me, so, but, uh, yeah, that's been, been involved in the community for quite a while there, Microsoft MVP program, and these days, like I said, it's, uh, I get to do a lot of that evangelism on the, on the Jabra side, talking about our solutions in the, in the Teams and space and, and beyond.
Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome, and you're just literally a few days back from Gitex. Tell me about that, because that is a huge show.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, that was that was an experience like no other conference I've ever been to, right? I've been to a good handful of conferences, big ones like Ignite. I should say pre COVID Ignite. Yeah, yeah. But, uh, from events like that to smaller community based events, some in the middle, like, uh, European Collab Summit and, uh, in August was out at Integrate in Australia.
I've been to a lot of different ones. Uh, ISE, another big one. This was very, very unique and different. Um, for starters, just the sheer size of it, right? You, you think it's a regional event. It's, it's central to the Middle East. They're pushing from what I heard about 100, 000 people and that just boggles my mind for a conference.
Um, you felt it. You felt it walking through the hallways, walking through the expo floors, you're shoulder to shoulder trying to get yourself through it. It was packed, uh, and it was a very, for being a regional event, um, it's a very international place, Dubai is. And so you have just this large cross section of cultures and, uh, solutions.
Just it was a very, Experience like no other. Um, and so
Tom Arbuthnot: it's one of the, one of the big shows I haven't done. So it's definitely on my hit list to go at some point. I love to buy. So it'd be a really good excuse to get out there again.
Josh Blalock: Yeah. Yeah. And that was my first time out there. Right. So I did, of course, Check the box on world's tallest building, world's biggest mall, went and saw those things.
I rode a camel. There was that too. But, uh, yeah, it was, it was, it was a good time. I'm, I was glad to be out there. Glad for the experience. Uh, should be back, I think next year as well, but we'll have to find a way to get you out there this time.
Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah, definitely. I'm up for it. I'm up for it. So obviously Jabra, amazing headset story.
Like I was just filming with Nigel in the UK on the Evolve 10, kind of 10 year anniversary of that piece, but you're more focused on the video side. So let's recap the what you've got in the portfolio because we've got Android and Windows, haven't we?
Josh Blalock: We do. Yep. We've got, so, you know, the, the original, if people recall, Panacast that came to market was actually a smaller, almost web, webcam looking device. Um, but that's where we kind of introduced the whole three camera system of 180 degree field of view, real time stitching of three images together to create that. Um, and that was our entrance into the market for video. Uh, from there, the larger brother came out, which would be the PanaCast 50.
Uh, very similar to what you see right behind me, because that's the PanaCast 50 VBS, which is the Android version. Looks exactly the same, except it's slightly wider, right? Um, but the, the PanaCast 50 USB peripheral for your Windows based or BYOD solutions, and then the VBS came out in September of last year, so it's a little bit over a year on the market, and, um, and it, it really has undergone a lot of change recently, actually, as well, uh, but those are the three, uh, Uh, video devices that have been in the space and, uh, and I will say that I'm excited about 2025 and I'll just leave it there, but, uh,
Tom Arbuthnot: yeah, yeah, I'm excited too.
I'm looking forward to the news, but, um, I mean, one of the things that's great about Jabra is you continue to invest. In the solution, so it's not ship and buy new hardware. I'm fortunate to have the PanaCast 50 and the VBS and it like you still call it the value packs. The kind of firmware updates like there's that there's stacks.
I mean, let's talk about the PanaCast 50 first, because you've had a whole bunch of firsts on that.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, it's and I gotta be honest. I've lost track. We were going with value packs for a while. Then we were going from we're upd.... I don't know, they're updates right there. Updates to the bars and they bring new value
Tom Arbuthnot: I'm glad I'm not on my own here, that makes me feel better.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, it's not just you, Tom. Yeah, it's the reality there, though, is that they're updates. But we like to we like to underscore and highlight that. These are, yes, they include things like bug fixes and improvements in quality, things like that. But we go a lot further with them. And the idea there, why they were called value packs at one point, is that they were bringing new value outside of the incremental updates.
They were bringing entire new features to market. That when you looked at our competitors, these were actually new devices. In many cases, right? You have a content camera. That's a whole separate device in most other, uh, most other OEMs. For us, we brought that to the bar that was already at the front of the room.
Same with intelligent speaker from Microsoft. Intelligent speakers were separate devices that came to the market. We brought that to the PanaCast 50 front of room. So that's what we mean when we say value pack is that there's a very real ROI story that happens when you get the PanaCast 50 because to the point that Thomas Bowman on our team made, uh, at, at, uh, at Gitex on one of our videos, if you had bought the PanaCast 50 in the very first batch that came out, you'd still be getting new devices today.
And chances are, if you had gone a different route, you'd You'd have e waste happening over every couple of years, uh,
Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah, and it shows you
put the hardware and the chipset in there in mind of futures, which is cool.
Josh Blalock: Definitely built for the future, right? That's what the whole idea there. Put a ton of chipsets on there and just like go to town with bringing new capabilities to market.
In terms of new updates with the PanaCast 50, like you said, um, what's not as new was the intelligent speaker capability, and that story isn't quite as snazzy anymore because Microsoft came out and said, Hey, pretty much anything that sits in the room now can be an intelligent speaker, and that's great.
That's good. That's equitable, right? Uh, the point we would love to make there is that. But they still recommend that you have a certified device for the best quality and for getting the most out of think about what's on the other side of intelligent speaker. On the other side of intelligent speaker is Copilot is intelligent recaps.
You want crystal clear data on that side. Otherwise, Copilot can crank out some funny things if it's not crystal clear data, right? So you want to make sure you're giving it the best. And that's where we say it's still important to
Tom Arbuthnot: consider
Yeah, Microsoft say
this themselves as well is like, you're still going to get a better experience with a better microarray.
So they've got to the point where they think the AI is good enough, that even if you don't have the extra microarray, they can get away with it, but it's still better is still better,
Josh Blalock: right? It is. If you're, if you're planning for the best experience, then you're going to want to consider that. On top of that, though, we just brought multi stream capabilities.
When you're thinking the Intelliframe world, right? You want, you want to be able to. Optimize the layout of the boxes on the screen for the far end users, for people that are in that room. And if you're just sending one stream from the room, even if that one stream is chopped up in a bunch of cool little ways, it's still one stream, one box.
And the more people that are in that meeting, the smaller that box gets on the screen, right? And trying to see 20 people in a room in that one little box gets complicated. So being able to send. Multiple streams from the room is a big deal, and we brought that capability recently because it's a more equitable experience.
The most recent speakers in a room are going to be better represented in that meeting for remote users. And on top of that, we included Microsoft's new people recognition capability. So, if you've chosen to enroll your voice for Intelligent Speaker, you can also choose to enroll your face. And if you enroll your face through Microsoft Teams, our device is capable of picking that up, sending the data back to Microsoft appropriately, and then that person can be, when you have those individual streams come up, instead of it saying Meeting Room 1 or Meeting, or Participant 1, Participant 2, it actually says the person's name that's enrolled themselves.
Uh, so those are the newer, uh, Copilot AI integrated features that I would like to highlight as far as the PanaCast 50 goes.
Tom Arbuthnot: That's cool. And from a PentaCast 50 point of view, you can obviously run it with a Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows. How does that work? Do you, do I buy a bundle from you? Do I buy a bundle from an OEM?
Lenovo OEM the device, for example, I've seen that on their stands. How does that work?
Josh Blalock: Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, Lenovo's got a. A co branded option, right? Which you, you, you'd see very similar to that, but you'd see two logos on it and it fits in with their ecosystem. It's nicely integrated into their, uh, ThinkSmart, uh, manager, uh, for management purposes.
So that's a good thing to note. Um, But in terms of using it outside of that co branded opportunity, again, it's, it's a USB bar, right? So, theoretically, you can go and plug it into whatever Windows based room system, uh, or, or your computer at home if you wanted to have one at home in your, in your own, uh, Workshop, but it's USB based.
That's it. It's bringing audio video via USB. However, we do go to market, uh, strongly partnered with the Lenovo ThinkSmart Core as, uh, as the delivery for the Windows operating system as well as Crestron. Um, so we've partnered closely with both those, uh, those partners in different regions, some stronger than the other within different regions.
Um, but those are in general where you're going to see the PanaCast 50 alongside. A certified Windows based solution for a Teams Rooms on Windows, uh, Windows setup.
Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. And you recently, well not so recently, I guess start of the year now you jumped into the Android bar. So same form factor, but now you've managed to put the Android Compute into the form factor.
And it's a kind of all in one bar Android Compute ready
to go.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, exactly. The thing with it too is it's, It can be tempting, especially since we made it look exactly the same, right? It can be tempting to think, oh, it's the exact same experience both ways. Now, by far and large, it is. It's what we like to label the PanaCast experience, but kind of like you've seen with Microsoft, right?
Where certain features come to Windows before they do Android, and Android seems to be in a perpetual state of catch up on that side. Uh, there's a little bit of that with us as well. Um, you've got things like, Intelligent meeting space, which is something we brought to the PanaCast 50 a while ago. It's where you define room boundaries from a visual standpoint so that you're not auto framing when someone walks behind a glass wall in your meeting room, right?
You're ignoring that person because they're far enough back. That's what intelligent meeting space is. That wasn't on the PanaCast 50 VBS for a while, that just was released there, but that's kind of something to keep in mind, right, is that like people have gotten used to with Microsoft, the Android iteration seems to come out a little bit afterwards on certain key features, but outside of that, it is very much the PanaCast experience with the same types of video, video modes, intelligent video capabilities that you expect on across both bars. It's, it's in both places. It does look the same. It, uh, it is a little bit wider, uh, but same mounting options, table mount, wall mount, display mount. Um, and it, it is a, it's comes with the control as most. Android solutions do, right?
You've got your touch control in the center of the table. Yep. 10. 1 inch HD. Um, but one of the things that we're kind of excited about is that we've recently made it possible to ship that with just the bar, no control. Um, and then you can pair it alongside something like what you see behind me would be the Avocor touch display.
And, uh, and that's, that's a great new partnership that is very expansive. They got a massive portfolio in that regard, but. As customers talk to us about all in one options, we kind of like to turn that around and say, Well, instead of all in one, what about the same solution, but best in class of each of those components?
Best in class audio, video, best in class display. So that's kind of another area that we've begun to deploy and position the Android bar with.
Tom Arbuthnot: :Yeah, that was cool. I didn't realize until you explained that to me. It makes perfect sense. Obviously, it's running the Android OS that's touch capable. So if you pair it with that touch screen, then you can have that touch experience even with the bar.
Josh Blalock: The other kind of maybe not realized benefits to that right away are. As everybody's wading through the buzzwords of back to work, back to office, all that stuff. The real estate naturally seems to be constantly changing, right? The physical rooms that we're working in. This room is being used in this way right now, but later on we might divide that room up.
It may turn into an open office environment. A whole bunch of things could change and shift. With an all in one, It is truly all in one, so all the components are baked into one unit, right? You want to reuse that space or do something different with it or repurpose the camera, mics, and that solution you've purchased?
You can't. It's an all in one. You can't separate them out. Now let's say you go with a cart mounted Avocor VBS. Instead of the all in one and your needs change down the line. You're like, Hey, I really would like to put that bar in this new board room. We're making, and this display actually is going to go well.
You can separate them out. You know, that, that investment can be versatile as well as being the best in class for each component. And, and then you get to use it in that way. So. Wall mounted, cart mounted, display mounted, whatever works out best. Um, but yeah, it's in a partnership we're excited about because it, it approaches the idea of an all in one from a whole different angle.
Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. And again, same kind of tight working relationship with Microsoft and you're bringing updates regularly. So I saw BYOD come in as a, A new supported feature on the VBS and I think you said publicly before as well, you're, you're on the list for one of the, I think you were the first announced for the MDEP partnership as well.
So continuing to innovate on that hardware.
Josh Blalock: Yeah, we're at the relationship with Microsoft has been. Really tight for quite a while, right back to our audio days, as you mentioned earlier, it while my main focus is video, um, I'm taking more and more of a focus on the solution as a whole, and we have a very strong audio background that that innovation with Microsoft goes back into that background and extends into the video space where we're at, and that has led to some firsts, like, uh, being, you know, one of the first bars to come to light with MDEP running on it.
We were happy to be able to bring a beta unit to InfoComm this last year, and there's not a lot to see with it. It's MDEP, right? It's an operating system underneath the hood, so you can reboot the system and see that it says MDEP on there, but, um, that is, you know, we're coming, that's coming to market pretty soon.
A couple other options out there, OEMs out there are also coming to market soon.
Tom Arbuthnot: And for those not
familiar, this is Microsoft baking their own. Flavor of Android operators, so it will be the Android open source project. Microsoft will bake their own variants and then they'll let OEMs use that. So the theoretical benefit there is you're getting a Microsoft blessed approved operating system that they'll take responsibility for patching, updating, and the hardware from your favorite OEM.
Josh Blalock: And it's not just rooms, right? It's your phones, it's Android devices, it's truly ecosystem in nature. So, from our side of it, we don't make phones, so we don't care about the other stuff right now. But from Microsoft's perspective, yeah, you've got this ecosystem that is unfolding. There's constantly new news coming out with that.
I've been watching Yoav Barzilay pretty closely as he continues to announce the expansion of this ecosystem beyond rooms and into phones. It's, it's, it's, I'm, I'm excited to see Microsoft going down the path. IT admins have some work to do, uh, getting there in various ways. But, it's, it's, um, it's something definitely to research before you just say, yeah, head, head first into it.
Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah, it's exciting. And talking of Yoav. We're only a few weeks out as we record from Ignite as well, so I guess I guess you'll be there as
well.
Josh Blalock: I will. The Jabra team will be there. Bells on and I will be there as well. I'm sure creating some content and gotta kind of craft that plan now that I'm decompressing from Gitex, but, uh, I'm looking forward to it.
As I mentioned earlier, uh, the whole pre COVID Ignite notion, Ignite has not been the same since it came back, uh, after COVID, the years of COVID. And so, this is that first one where they're kind of getting back to not being in Seattle, a big venue, a big event, a lot more people. Um, I'm excited about that, right?
As a Microsoft MVP, that's kind of exciting.
Tom Arbuthnot: Yeah,
I don't know what the final numbers are, but it feels like the olden days in terms of it sold out really fast. People clearly want to be there. There's a lot of hype around the AI conversation, which is getting everybody excited. So I think it hopefully will have some of that old, uh, kind of big event getting
together vibe around it.
Josh Blalock: That's, that's what I'm hoping too. I'm hoping to see some of that. The initial numbers I heard was that it would be about Half the size of what it was pre COVID, right? So even that though is significantly bigger than what's been happening in Redmond the last couple of years. So. Um, I'm, I'm very much looking forward to it.
It's, that was kind of where I started to get deeper into the community. Those, those first few Ignites, and I was at every Ignite after Chicago and until COVID hit. And so I kind of broke that streak after that. And, uh, yeah, the geek in me is excited for it. But Jabra will be there. So you want to see some of the stuff in person.
That's a good place to come say hi. Yeah.
Tom Arbuthnot: Awesome. Well,
thanks Josh. I appreciate you on the personal level, the community stuff you do is super, super useful and uh, yeah, good. Thanks for keeping us up to date with Jabra and as and when we can talk about the new super secret stuff, we'll have to get you back on the pod and uh, we'll do some, some reveals maybe.
Josh Blalock: Definitely. Let's uh, let's plan something right around the time of ISE. Somewhere in there, should I say? So, yeah, good stuff coming up.
Tom Arbuthnot: Good stuff. All right. Cheers, Josh. Talk soon.
Josh Blalock: Cheers. Thanks, Tom.