Fuze Redefines Video Conferencing Across Devices and Rooms

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Fuze today announced Fuze for Rooms, extending its award-winning video collaboration service from smartphones, tablets and desktops to offices, huddle spaces and meeting rooms, giving companies a more flexible and cost-effective way to video-enable their workplace.

Fuze is a cloud-based service that combines high-definition (HD) voice and video communication and content collaboration, allowing remote workers and virtual teams to stay better connected face-to-face. Fuze for Rooms is a new subscription license that allows companies to video-enable any room using off-the-shelf hardware, providing an immersive video experience. New features tailor the experience for group meeting spaces, including the ability to join or launch instant meetings from a welcome screen and optimizing the visual layout across two monitors. Users can see a room's availability via presence and instantly add it to a discussion from Fuze applications.

Fuze for Rooms is compatible with all Fuze applications and shares a common user experience with Fuze for iPad, Fuze for Mac, Fuze for iPhone, Fuze for Windows, etc. An optional Fuze Telepresence Connect service provides interoperability with traditional video conferencing and telepresence systems from Cisco, Polycom, LifeSize and others, making it easy to connect with internal and external third-party video systems.

In addition to voice and video conferencing, Fuze supports sharing of dynamic content like images, animated presentations and videos in real time, and allows for annotations by multiple participants. Users can upload content into Fuze from their device, add content from Dropbox and Box, or simply share their screen. Users can launch instant meetings or add Fuze to meetings scheduled in Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar with one click.

Fuze for Rooms reduces complexity for administrators, allowing central provisioning, updates and management, including support for directory integration and single sign on and integration with Okta. The Admin Console features usage and engagement analytics for all Fuze applications, giving IT administrators a dashboard for measuring user engagement and business value across their organization.

Comments on the news:

"Groupon is a highly collaborative company and we think a lot about how to best enable employees within physical and virtual environments. Fuze adapts to the various devices employees use and the different environments in which they work. Fuze for Rooms will allow us to video-enable more meeting rooms and connect our existing telepresence systems at less than half the cost of previous solutions," said Tim Sheff, Global Manager of Multimedia Technologies, Groupon.

"An initial bid for installing telepresence on our St. Louis and Madrid campuses came back at nearly $1 million. Using our standard classroom technology design and leveraging Fuze with off-the-shelf hardware, we were able to deliver a higher quality experience with greater flexibility for faculty and students at less than 10 percent of the estimated cost," said Kyle Collins, Director of Academic Technologies, Saint Louis University.

"The tools you use to get work done should move with you across devices and environments, including meeting rooms. Fuze powers video collaboration everywhere, from the device in hand to the TV in the room," said David Obrand, Fuze CEO.

"The conversation around video communications is changing. Major disruption is coming from a combination of cloud and real-time collaboration across devices, giving way to smaller, more flexible providers, such as Fuze, that can deliver web and video conferencing capabilities to any device or conference room set-up at a fraction of the cost of a traditional room-based system," said David Smith, Collaboration Research Director at Aragon Research and author of Web and Video Conferencing: The Hidden TCO Goldmine.

Availability
Fuze for Rooms is now available for early access customers and is planned for general availability this month. List pricing is $240 per year, per room for customers with a minimum of 25 Fuze Enterprise licenses. See fuze.com/plans for more detail.

About Fuze
Fuze is redefining video communication and collaboration in the workplace. Experience it for yourself at www.fuze.com.

Read the Fuze blog: blog.fuze.com 
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Visit Fuze on Facebook: Facebook.com/fuze

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SOURCE Fuze