Highlights:
- Rooms Controller: Hosts can now control meeting rooms from their smartphones, including microphone muting and camera controls.
- Voice commands: Hosts can now start meetings with a simple voice command from up to 30 minutes before the scheduled meeting time.
Fifteen months after the COVID pandemic forced businesses to send workers home, we’re finally seeing a return to the office. But despite a remarkable vaccine rollout, many workers still have lingering fears about the safety of returning to communal workplaces.
About half of respondents in a recent US poll said they wanted to be fully vaccinated before returning to the office. Nearly a third said they would like to see additional precautions such as social distancing to feel fully comfortable coming back to work.
In-person meetings, which will see numerous people coming together in one room and sharing high-touch items such as tablet room controls, will likely be among the scenarios to cause apprehension for some employees. But these new RingCentral Rooms™ touchless features address these issues and help to enable a safe return to the office.
1. Rooms Controller: Control the room from your own mobile phone
Meeting hosts can now control the meeting room from their own personal device. Currently available for Mac Rooms, with Android support coming in July, RingCentral Rooms lets you connect your mobile phone to control the meeting settings, bypassing the need to use a shared tablet controller.
Using your phone as a controller means not having to disinfect a shared device before the meeting and no worries about infection from these high-touch surfaces. At the same time, you can use your phone from anywhere in the meeting room—allowing meeting hosts to choose the best position in the room for being seen and heard and also allowing for greater seating flexibility for social distancing.
2. Voice commands for RingCentral Rooms
Now you can launch a meeting with only your voice. Supported for both Mac and Android Rooms, our new voice command allows you to begin a meeting simply by saying “Hi RingCentral, join meeting.”
Voice commands are available starting 30 minutes before the meeting time, and you’ll know it’s active from the microphone icon on your RingCentral app. And there are more enhancements and voice command capabilities on the way. This currently only works for scheduled meetings.
These new commands will make hosting a meeting with RingCentral Rooms even more seamless and intuitive while improving confidence in workplace safety. Like our other touchless features, they help reduce contact with surfaces and improve distancing ability by removing the need to be tethered to a physical controller.
Get started with touchless features
We’re excited about bringing these two features to the market to help make coming back to the office safer and more comfortable for all. You can see our touchless controls in action and learn more in this video.
We also know that setting up a video conferencing room can be confusing, especially when you’re outfitting multiple rooms with multiple components. We can help. Visit ringcentral.com/office/rooms or contact an account manager to learn more.
Originally published Jun 21, 2021, updated Jul 11, 2021
