What's New

We're excited to announce the General Availability of Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway Bulk Sign-In Onboarding, in collaboration with our alliance partner, Microsoft. This enhancement initially launched in preview, is a testament to our commitment to empowering enterprises on their journey to a more efficient and collaborative future. With this advancement, we've helped to facilitate the migration process from 3PIP platform for over 500 enterprise customers and tens of thousands of SIP Gateway-compatible Poly devices helping them make the most of Microsoft Teams.  

How This Benefits Your Organization​

This capability streamlines the onboarding of large number of SIP devices, paving the way for a smoother and more efficient transition to Microsoft Teams for enterprise communication. Organizations can save valuable time and resources while delivering an improved user experience. See Teams SIP Gateway-compatible Poly devices here.  

How to Get Started  ​

To leverage Bulk Sign-In Onboarding with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway, consult our documentation in Poly Lens here and Microsoft's updated documentation here. These resources provide step-by-step instructions, best practices, and tips to get your large-scale migration underway effortlessly.

Feedback​

For any comments or suggestions on this release you are welcome to provide your Feedback from Poly Lens using the Feedback tool in the bottom right corner of the Poly Lens portal. Your input is highly appreciated.

Last year marked a significant milestone for the Poly Lens platform as we introduced the Poly Lens Developer Portal and made the Poly Lens APIs accessible to all. This move opened up exciting opportunities for our developers, our customers, and our partners to create unique collaboration experiences. Since then, the Poly Lens community has been busy building innovative solutions, and today, we're thrilled to announce a new addition to the Poly Lens ecosystem – the AVI-SPL Symphony platform. AVI-SPL Symphony is an award-winning user experience management platform designed to administer, monitor, control, and analyze multi-vendor AV, UC, and meeting environments. AVI-SPL Symphony and Poly Lens creates a powerful toolset focused on asset management, cloud migration, centralized monitoring, incident management, workplace management, and success metrics.

Asset Capture​

In the world of technology, managing assets is the first crucial step in ensuring a seamless experience. AVI-SPL Symphony and Poly Lens have streamlined this process, making it easier than ever. With Poly Lens, you can capture information about your devices and structure them efficiently. This not only provides a clear view of your technology assets from a global perspective but also allows you to delve into specific rooms or spaces. This newfound clarity enables organizations to understand their deployments, track works in progress, and prepare for budgetary planning effectively.

Cloud Migration​

In the era of cloud migration, integrating legacy and modern technology can be challenging. AVI-SPL Symphony and Poly Lens simplify this transition. The integration of Poly Lens APIs and Symphony allows you to schedule meetings through Outlook, monitor live meetings in Symphony, and gain a deep understanding of technology utilization. This collaboration ensures a smooth transition, regardless of the mix of legacy and newer devices.

Centralized Monitoring​

Monitoring the health of your deployment is paramount for ensuring uninterrupted technology experiences. Symphony, with its 24/7 communication capabilities, monitors your AV, VTC, and UCC systems even when you can't. This proactive approach ensures that issues are identified and addressed before they escalate. Symphony consolidates performance data, room information, and meeting statistics from various devices and aggregators, such as Poly Lens, into a single platform for seamless centralized monitoring.

Incident Management​

In the unfortunate event that something does go wrong, Symphony is always ready to step in. Whether it's a loss of communication with a device or a critical temperature alert, Symphony can automatically create a ticket for your technical resources based on predefined values. Furthermore, if you use an ITSM system like ServiceNow, Symphony can create a twin ticket, streamlining the incident resolution process. This approach not only ensures swift issue resolution but also provides valuable insights into trends, aiding in future issue prevention.

Workplace Management​

Workplace management takes a strategic view of your space, technology assets, and resource utilization. Bringing this data into a single platform alongside Symphony's other functionalities offers a data-driven understanding of your environment. This holistic perspective empowers organizations to optimize their spaces, troubleshoot issues, and make informed decisions.

Success Metrics​

Data is a valuable resource, but its true potential lies in its analysis and visualization. Symphony provides interactive dashboards that transform raw data into digestible success metrics. These visual insights enable organizations to make data-driven decisions and leverage historical data for future planning, ensuring continued improvement and excellence in collaboration experiences.

The partnership between AVI-SPL Symphony and Poly Lens brings a new level of sophistication and ease to the management of AV, VTC, and UCC environments. This collaboration empowers organizations to streamline asset management, monitor their technology health, manage incidents efficiently, gain a strategic understanding of their workplace, and utilize success metrics for informed decision-making. The Poly Lens ecosystem continues to evolve, and with AVI-SPL Symphony onboard, it's safe to say that the future of collaboration is looking brighter than ever. Visit here to learn more about AVI-SPL Symphony.

At the heart of our mission lies a commitment to providing the tools and flexibility needed to enable the best collaboration experiences. In line with this commitment, Poly Lens Integrations just went through an overhaul to make it easier than ever to explore all the possible ways Poly Lens and our ecosystems of partners are able to provide solutions to some of the most challenging issues in today's hybrid work environment.

What's New​

A Fresh Approach to Key Integrations​

We understand that collaboration is at its best when it's seamless and efficient. Today, we've introduced a brand-new way to explore key integrations developed by HP | Poly. These integrations are meticulously designed to amplify your Poly Lens experience. Notable applications to this roster include integrations with Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active Directory. These integrations are geared to supercharge your reports and streamline your onboarding experiences.

Partner-Powered Enhancements​

In the spirit of enhancing collaboration on all fronts, we're delighted to introduce experiences brought to life by our esteemed partners. These collaborations harness the power of Poly Lens to its fullest extent. With AVI-SPL Symphony, Neowit, Ubiqisense, and Vyopta, there is likely a solution that caters to your unique needs. Discover a world of possibilities as you explore these cutting-edge integrations.

Important Changes​

We've also streamlined the location of some critical features. Power BI and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) have found a new home in our Integration section.

Check it Out​

Poly Lens Integrations revamp isn't just an update; it's a leap forward. With these integrations, we're making your Poly Lens experience more intuitive, more efficient, and more powerful than ever. Go to the Admin menu > Integrations to explore the new Integrations page.

We have added more than 50 new officially supported APIs to the Poly Lens API Portfolio. There are now almost a hundred Poly Lens APIs that are available publicly and are officially supported by Poly.

In December 2022, we opened the Lens Management & Insights API to our developer community. And now, we have taken our API portfolio to the next level by adding several highly useful APIs for:

• Inventory Reporting & Management
• Device & Room Insights
• Platform Management
• Device Control
• Device Software

The guiding principle of the Poly Lens Management and Insights API is to provide our developer community with opportunities to innovate and create in ways that continue to build new experiences, making collaboration easier for everyone by leveraging our platforms. Whether you are an independent developer, enterprise developer, solution provider, or system integrator, you can take advantage of the intelligent insights and management capabilities offered on the Poly Lens platform to optimize your workflows, build custom applications, or extract the data from Lens in a way that works for your organization.

The new APIs not only cover several new use cases but also enable developers to dive deeper into those covered previously. Here are all the use cases covered by the officially supported Poly Lens APIs:

Use Case Category	Use Cases
Inventory Reporting & Management	- Notifications Center - Custom Devices Tags - Inventory Reporting - Room & Site Management - Subnet Management
Device & Room Insights	- Call & Meeting Records - Device Utilization - Room Occupancy & Utilization
Platform Management	- User Management - Tenant Management
Device Control	- Device Logs - Software Updates - Reboot & Reset Device - Call Control - Device Registration
Device Software	- Device software

All the APIs are documented at the Poly Lens Developer Portal. The depth and breadth of covered use cases showcase the power of the Poly Lens Management & Insight APIs - enough to hopefully get you started with exploring these APIs on the Poly Lens API Playground. To make it easier for you to spot officially supported APIs, we have highlighted the officially supported APIs as such on the Poly Lens GraphQL Playground. See the screenshot below.

We'll continue to expand our portfolio of supported APIs to cover more & more use cases. In the meantime, if you have specific content requests or questions, reach out to DL-DeveloperSupport@poly.com.

Until recently, devices had to be assigned to a particular Site and Room within the Poly Lens portal. If there was no assignment, they were associated with an Unassigned Site and Unassigned Room. While this system had its merits, it also led to an unintended consequence: a proliferation of unassigned Rooms and Sites cluttering the Poly Lens portal. This not only impacted the user experience but also created complications with various policy management tools, device actions, insights and reports.

Today, we're proud to share that we have removed the mandatory requirement of devices being assigned to a Site or Room. This change has been implemented to make the Poly Lens portal more flexible and user-friendly than ever before.

Here's what you need to know about this improvement:

• Removal of Mandatory Site and Room Assignment: The mandatory requirement of devices being assigned to a Site/Room has been entirely removed.
• Elimination of Unassigned Rooms and Sites: All unassigned Rooms and Sites have been removed from Poly Lens, decluttering the portal.
• Simplified Assignment: A device can now be assigned to a Room without needing to associate it with a Site. However, if the Room is already associated with a Site, the device will automatically become assigned to that Site.
• Explicit Configuration: Devices will not be assigned to a Site/Room unless explicitly configured by an authorized Poly Lens user or as part of the device onboarding/provisioning process.
• Poly Lens as the Source of Truth: Poly Lens Sites and Rooms will no longer be auto-created based on fields set locally on the device. When an authorized Poly Lens user assigns a Site or Room to a device in Poly Lens, this assignment will flow down to the device during the next polling cycle. Once that happens, Poly Lens will become the definitive source of truth for the assigned Site and Room for each device. Any local updates will be overwritten by Poly Lens during the next polling cycle.
• Enhanced Device Action Feed: The Device Action Feed has been updated, removing the Unassigned Site column. Instead, it has been replaced with a Devices without Sites feature for your convenience, allowing you to easily access a simplified list of devices that are not associated to a Site, giving you the option to disregard them if needed.
• Room Insights: For the best Room Insights experience, we recommend removing assigned Rooms from personal devices such as headsets and desk phones.

In line with our commitment to providing a seamless and integrated experience on ChromeOS, we are excited to announce the General Availability (GA) status of the Poly Lens Web App. Having initially launched as a Public Preview in March 2023, the Lens Web App represents Poly's first progressive web app for ChromeOS, Google Chrome, and Chromium browsers, including Microsoft Edge.

The Poly Lens Web App is crafted to offer you unparalleled control and settings customization over your preferred collaboration tools from Poly. This includes an array of devices such as headsets, speakerphones, and personal video conferencing systems, all accessible directly from your web browser. With the official GA release, the Poly Lens Web App supports many popular headset models, including the Poly Voyager Focus 2 UC, Poly Blackwire 5200 series, and Poly EncorePro HW520. It also extends compatibility to some of the most popular personal video solutions, including the Poly Studio P5 and Studio P15.

For a comprehensive rundown of all supported devices visit: Lens Web App - Supported Devices.

Use the Poly Lens Web App today by visiting: Poly Lens Web App. Note: Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge is required. Visit HP.com - Poly Lens App to learn more.

On August 24th, Poly released our new Poly VideoOS software version 4.1. This release includes several new features, as well as updates and improvements to existing features, that are designed to optimize the hybrid meeting experience by addressing common challenges that our users run into.

How Poly VideoOS 4.1 Helps​

Defeat the Glass Wall​

Poly VideoOS 4.1 introduces new features designed to help you overcome challenges that glass walls present when video conferencing. Beyond rooms with glass walls, these features can also be beneficial in other challenging environments that you might encounter while hybrid working.

• Poly DirectorAI Perimeter (Preview Feature): We know that a glass wall represents a boundary, but our cameras might not. With DirectorAI Perimeter, you can provide important context to Poly VideoOS devices about what area should be included in framing decisions for your meetings. Just input the dimensions of your conference area, and only faces detected within that perimeter will be used for framing. This is also useful in conferencing “areas” that don’t have any walls, or rooms with monitors on the walls that show pictures or videos of people.

• Sound Reflection Reduction: Glass walls might look good, but when it comes to audio conferencing—they don’t sound good. These hard surfaces create significant reverberation of sound, which comes across to the far end as echoey, hollow, and generally hard to understand. Sound Reflection Reduction removes those strange audio artifacts caused by reverb so that speech comes across as natural and clear. This reduces the need for complex, expensive microphone arrays or significant acoustic paneling.

Improved Speaker Framing Experience​

Different types of video productions can deliver different types of experiences. The type of experience that is needed in the modern hybrid meeting is one that is predictable, even in uncontrolled environments, and non-distracting, so that the focus is always on the conversation.

In order to deliver this within Poly DirectorAI speaker framing mode, we’ve implemented a few updates:

• Looser Framing: When it comes to reducing distractions during a meeting, limiting the number of reframes is crucial. One scenario where we can do this is when there are several people sitting close together. By providing a looser frame in situations like this, we eliminate the need to reframe if someone else already within the frame starts to speak, while still providing an up-close shot of each speaker.
• Deliberate Framing Decisions: Hybrid meetings are generally considered uncontrolled environments where anything can happen; but we know from experience that there are patterns in the way people communicate. Considering those patterns, we’ve created very deliberate framing rules for most scenarios that are designed to mitigate unnecessary reframes and encourage a productive meeting.
• Non-Distracting Transitions: There are some things we can do to reduce the number of reframes, but of course there are many situations where a reframe is necessary and contributes positively to the experience. In those cases, the transition should be quick, simple, and predictable so that meeting attendees don’t have to spend time thinking about what is occurring with the framing and can use the energy instead to focus on the communication.

Flexibility and Scalability with IP-Connectivity​

We love to see more and more video-enabled rooms in the workplace, but what this means for our users is that they need solutions that are flexible, scalable and cost-effective to satisfy a large range of meeting spaces. IP-connectivity of conference cameras is a great way to provide that, and is now available for Poly Studio E70 when connected to G7500 running the Poly Video or Zoom app.

Other Updates and Improvements​

• SCEP: Support for Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol to help admins manage deployments.
• Scheduled Auto Restart: Ability to schedule your systems to automatically restart on a weekly or daily interval can reduce the workload for IT administrators.
• Studio X30 2nd Camera Support: Studio X30 now supports selecting USB cameras as secondary camera for Studio X30, which can be particularly beneficial for more flexible health care deployments.
• Zoom Recertification for Studio X-Series and G7500: As part of our ongoing partnership with Zoom to provide the best experience to our users, we have recertified our products.
• G7500 Audio Output Updates: Users can now choose a specific audio output configuration for G7500 HDMI and 3.5mm audio output, providing them with more flexibility and customization.

Touch Controller Updates​

• Microsoft Teams on Android controller support on TC10: Our newest touch controller, TC10, is now available for use with our Poly VideoOS devices in Microsoft Teams mode.
• Platform update to Android 11: Following the Poly VideoOS platform update to Android 10 in our previous 4.0 release, our touch controllers TC8 and TC10 have been updated to Android 11 to provide users with the most modern, up-to-date Android experience.
• Camera Control Button on Touch Controllers in Device Mode: To ensure our devices provide the best experience, however you choose to use them, we have added a camera control option to the touch controller screen when in Device Mode.

For more information and technical details regarding the Poly VideoOS 4.1 release, see the PolyOS Release Note.

As part of our ongoing initiative to transition customers from the 3PIP Gateway to Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway, Microsoft collaborated with HP Poly to facilitate Bulk Sign-In, an enhancement to Teams SIP Integration in Poly Lens. This capability enables Administrators to remotely provision up to 100 common area desktop and conference room phones simultaneously, in just a few steps.

Poly Lens has introduced two additional Lens settings: Bulk Onboarding and Tenant GUID. This updates the device provisioning information to Teams SIP Gateway service which can be applied to any of the following Policies - Device/Device Model/Device Group/Site. We continue to include support for compatible devices with Teams SIP Gateway such as VVX, Trio, CCX series, and Edge E series just certified by Microsoft for compatibility. For more information, please see Microsoft - Plan for SIP Gateway.

With this enhancement and SIP Gateway compatible Poly devices, organizations can save valuable time and resources while delivering a better experience for the end user. This feature is currently released with a Preview tag as we coordinate with Microsoft to promote to Generally Available. You are welcome to provide your Feedback from Poly Lens using the Feedback tool in the bottom right corner of the Poly Lens portal. Be sure to select Preview as we track this release.

To get started, go to Manage > Policies > Individual Device/Device Model/Device Group/Site.

Select Integrations > Microsoft Teams.

Then Enable Lens Assisted Provisioning Feature and set your SIP Gateway Region and Device Language.

Lastly, enable Bulk Onboarding and enter your Tenant GUID (Office 365 Tenant ID) from Microsoft to enable PowerShell commands to remotely deploy to Common Area Phones. Note: For detailed information see Microsoft Teams - Bulk Sign-In on Adding Public IP Range(s) as Trusted IPs at Teams Admin Center.

Note: The Clear Cache button that will allow you to start the integration over with the Teams SIP Gateway platform. A new deviceID and provisioning URL will be sent for authentication.

Teams SIP Gateway Troubleshooting: When a device is signed out or getting the following error from PowerShell Device not found with Bulk Sign-In use Clear Cache starting from the Individual Device Level and then expand to additional device policies experiencing this issue. This Clear Cache process will assign a new device ID that will be pushed back to the device. The device will sign back in on the next provisioning cycle (typically every 24 hours) unless you explicitly reboot.

For more information on Teams Admin Center pre-requisites, Lens assisted provisioning with Bulk Onboarding and Tenant GUID, and Microsoft PowerShell commands to remotely deploy to Common Area Phones, see Poly Lens Help - Bulk Sign-in.

We're excited to announce a significant upgrade to our Poly Lens Visual Analytics with Power BI integration, empowering businesses with even deeper insights into their communication and collaboration environments. Experience the future of data-driven decision-making with the newly enhanced Poly Lens Power BI integration. The integration offers customizable dashboards, interactive visualizations, and the ability to combine Poly Lens data with other business metrics for a holistic view of your organization's performance.

Call Detail Records (CDR) - Uncover Actionable Insights​

Gone are the days of making decisions based on guesswork. The new CDR reports provide a comprehensive view of call data, enabling you to analyze call patterns, duration, participants, and more. By leveraging this data, you can fine-tune your communication strategies, identify where issues occurred, and enhance your organization collaboration experiences. The new CDR reports embedded in the updated Power BI integration empowers you to make data-driven decisions that truly impact your bottom line.

Key Benefits of the CDR Reports Feature​

• Call Pattern Analysis: Gain a clear understanding of peak call hours and days, allowing you to allocate resources effectively.
• Call Duration Trends: Spot trends in call durations and identify the most popular device models to help plan your next investments wisely.
• Performance Metrics: Measure call quality metrics to ensure optimal communication experiences for all participants.

Efficient use of meeting spaces is crucial in today's dynamic work environments. With the new Room Utilization Reports support with Power Bi, you'll gain valuable insights into how your meeting rooms and collaboration spaces are utilized. Make informed decisions about space allocation, optimize room configurations, and eliminate underutilized areas to foster a more productive workplace.

Key Advantages of Room Utilization Reports​

• Space Allocation Optimization: Understand how often meeting rooms are booked and used to optimize room allocation.
• Resource Planning: Plan maintenance and upgrades based on real usage data, preventing disruption to critical meetings.
• Collaboration Trends: Identify preferred rooms and layouts to enhance collaborative experiences.

With the addition of Call Detail Records (CDR) and Room Utilization Reports, Poly Lens continues to revolutionize how organizations optimize their resources and enhance productivity. These new reports are just another example of our commitment to providing you with the tools you need to optimize your communication and collaboration environments. Stay ahead of the curve, enhance productivity, and make informed decisions with Poly Lens. Setup is easy, and you'll love the newly expanded starter dashboards designed to get you started with instant visualizations of your Poly Lens inventory, CDR, and Room Utilization Reports. Don’t use Power BI? No problem, you can connect your preferred analysis tool to your Poly Lens Visual Analytics database to gain access to your device telemetry data and visualize it in a supported tool that works for you.

Ready to explore these new groundbreaking reports? To get started, find the new tool by going to the ACCOUNT menu > Manage Accounts. Select an Account from the list. Select Integrations > Visual Analytics. For more information on how to get started, data organization, and schema diagrams, visit Poly Lens Help - Visual Analytics.

Note: The Call Detail Records (CDR) and Room Utilization Report features are available with Poly+ Enterprise and Elite services. Please refer to our documentation for more details on feature availability.

Ubiqisense & Vyopta Integrate Poly Lens APIs with their Platforms​

As the hybrid work model continues to evolve, companies are on the lookout for insights to improve the workplace experience to entice employees to the office. Workplace cubicles are no longer the norm, and employees’ preferences are various. While some might prefer open & informal huddle workspaces, there are a few who prefer the quiet offered by small rooms & individual desks. There is no one-size-fits-all. According to research by Gensler (a global architecture, design, and planning firm), organizations are realizing the need to make the workplace into a destination rather than an obligation.

Right-sizing office space can help companies reduce their carbon footprint and achieve compliance with environmental sustainability goals. And lastly, companies are also realizing that there are enormous savings to be made by optimizing real estate utilization. Whatever the case, to make effective decisions, companies would need data & insights into how their office spaces are being utilized. Which is why Poly has partnered with Ubiqisense and Vyopta.

Ubiqisense​

Ubiqisense is a leader in space utilization analysis & insights. Through its solution, it can provide insights into occupancy, usage patterns & footfall across office floors, meeting rooms, open spaces & shared desks.

 

Vyopta​

Vyopta is a digital collaboration experience management company. It provides insights into room utilization, helps identify inefficient meetings, and enables you to take action to prevent costly repetition, repurpose existing resources, and plan for new build-out.

The Poly Advantage​

Through its hardware & software innovation, Poly continues to go the extra mile to bring unique value to its customers. People counting sensors can cost anywhere between USD 1K- 3K. However, Poly’s Studio X30, X50 & X52 have these sensors built in. That’s a direct cost saving for customers. People counting data from these devices is readily available via Poly Lens APIs. This data is quite helpful for analyzing office space utilization on platforms such as Ubiqisense & Vyopta.

Through Poly Lens APIs, you can take advantage of the intelligent insights and management capabilities offered on the Poly Lens platform to optimize your workflows, build custom applications, or extract the data from Poly Lens in a way that works for your organization. The Poly Lens APIs are documented at the Poly Lens Developer Portal.