snom UC Edition 8.8.3: BTOE, Contact Photos, Conferencing, BusyonBusy & More Goes Live

snom is readying their snom UC Edition 8.8.3.x firmware release that brings some interesting new features to their phones which includes:

• Lync Server based conference
• Callback on Busy (CoB)
• On busy forward to target number
• Automatic Busy Redialing
• Conference Roster
• Boss/Admin Stay in Conference
• Ad-hoc Conference from Contact Group
• Contact Search with AD images (color phones)
• Call Pickup on Ringing (BLF – snom to snom)

In this article we will go over the experience to install and pair BTOE,

Installing BTOE

There is a 32 and 64bit MSI provided.

Click Accept agreement | Accept Install Folder | Install

After installation the snom BtoeManager will run. For me the driver install failed because it needed to run as Administrator. This was resolve by running BtoeManager as Administrator as shown below:

Next

on phone

on phone

Now pair

Now phone and PC will connect and the Lync device driver will be loaded.

Now Lync 2013 will request credentials for snom phone (which will allow the phone to show Exchange Calendar and upcoming Lync Meetings.)

After you provide the credentials the pairing will complete.

Done! That was efficient and simple!

Lync Pictures in Directory Search

The new snom UC firmware show picture in Directory Search screen. (not in Lync contacts screen). Press the Directory button on the phone and type in a search. Now in the results you will see the lync contact phone as shown below:

Press the “I” softkey to see the AD card

More modern looking presence

NOTE: Photos are shown during a search, but not in Lync contact cards.

Conference

Currently adhoc meetings can be launched only from a pre-made Lync group.

Very basic roster on phone…

You can scroll between the users using the right and left softkeys (in photo above you see the right softkey)

What the Lync client looks like during a meeting initiated from the phone.

At the moment it doesn’t seem like you can adhoc add a new contact from the phone.
What happens if someone starts showing video? the call is transferred/moved off the snom phone to a headset.

Lync Meeting Notification and Join From snom Phone

The snom phone will indicate upcoming meeting (lower left of main scren of phone) that can be joined by clicking. (photo to come later)

Busy on Busy

On snom phone: Menu | 2-Call Features | 3-Incoming Calls | 2-Call Waiting |

And you now have the following “Call Waiting” options:

• On = incoming call will ring normally
• Visual Only = will receive silent, visual indication of incoming call
• Ringer = will receive notice of incoming call with double beep
• Off = calls will be sent to voicemail

 

Summary

A nice set of new features and many will greatly appreciate the addition of BTOE.

#Lync User QuickTip #32: How to Keep Sounds at a Minimum When on a Call

 

Use the Brute Force Method: Turn Off All Ringtones

Options | Ringtones and Sounds. Now you need to set ringtone for the various ways you might receive a call to “None”. But remember with this method you will not get an audible ring on any incoming call.

Turn off the Lync 2nd Incoming Call Waiting Tone

Options | Ringtones and Sound and Check “Keep sounds to a minimum when my Status is Busy”. This will make it so that a 2nd (or more) incoming call waiting tone will not be played.

My Headset Is Still Playing a Call Waiting Tone (beep-beep-beep on a 2nd call)

Check with the headset settings, most of them can be configured. You may need to install the vendor specific tray application to change the settings.

Lync 2013 Basic Gets New Features: Gallery View and Recording

This weeks Lync client upgrade brought some more features to the free “Lync 2013 Basic”. We also saw a new Devices report added to Lync Online in Office365. Both of these upgrades seem to be tailored to Office 365 users.

Stale Hansen has a good blog demonstrating the new functionality here:
http://msunified.net/2014/10/23/lync-2013-basic-with-gallery-view-and-recording/

With the new functionality Stale notes, Lync 2013 Basic is getting closer and closer to Lync 2013.

Lync 2013 Basic Update:
http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2889929

Bill Gates Imagines Future Meeting Room Application With Office Fully Integrated Into Experience

Microsoft keeps working toward the ultimate meeting experience. From the enterprise side we have Microsoft Lync meetings in the desktop app, browser or mobile to the full Lync Room System. On the consumer side Skype now has Group Video and Group Screen sharing.

But according to a recent VanityFair interview, it sounds like Gates and Nadella are still envisioning a better meeting experience in the form of a new “meeting-room application” that does everything from sharing notes to videoconferencing inside one application:

“If the Gordian knots that lie ahead faze Gates at all, he doesn’t show it. He says his next meeting is with “one of the genius guys who’s really pushing this idea that when you write an application you don’t write an application for this thing and then another application for that thing and another application for this thing. When you fire up the meeting-room application, everybody’s machine has a part of this meeting-room application.” His idea is that once you’ve launched—call it Meeting Room Plus—you can do everything that needs to be done, from sharing notes to videoconferencing, without having to pause to open something else up. “On that one, I think we’ll take the lead,” says Gates. “That’s a very cool thing, and it does kind of trump what’s come before.”

“I think that’s a great way to think about it,” says Nadella. “Let’s say we walk into this room. There are cameras there that recognize each one of us, automatically log us into a shared whiteboard, rendezvous the machines you have, a phone or a tablet, so that you can share things.”

Does this mean that Microsoft Office will get integrated into a Microsoft Lync and/or Skype meeting experience? It does sound like this what is being envisioned. And considering Office Web App PowerPoint functionality is already surfaced inside Microsoft Lync meetings this certainly is the current trajectory and even more integration that includes things like OneNote and beyond is easily imaginable. This is also one area that Microsoft has the ability to differentiate unlike some other vendors in the meeting space.

And walk into the room and have it recognize and join you to the shared meeting and whiteboard? Sounds like Nadella is suggesting a kind of “No-Click Join” experience that could make a very natural meeting join experience and shave off those couple minutes fiddling around joining a meeting when you are standing right in front of the meeting you want to join.

Obviously this is all ideas on the future, not any concrete products, but still interesting to see the future envisioned.

Read the whole Vanity Fair interview here.

Vanity Fair (page 5 of 6)
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/11/satya-nadella-bill-gates-steve-ballmer-microsoft#
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2692978/bill-gates-microsoft-is-developing-a-killer-meeting-room-app.html
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-continues-its-quest-for-the-perfect-meeting-room-bundle-7000034516