Oblong and Cisco to Bridge the Aisle at #ISE2019

Russ Curry, Ministry of New Media

Oblong Industries, Inc., maker of multi-stream meeting applications and pioneer of interactive spatial computing environments for the new era of collaborative work, is pleased to announce a first-ever initiative for its fifth year at #ISE2019. In coordination with Cisco, Oblong will show how organizations can improve workflows for distributed teams with a product demonstration that spans the aisle of Hall 11.

In this unique demonstration, a Mezzanine 200 Series system for multi-stream collaboration in Oblong stand 11-B140 will connect in a Webex Teams session, demonstrating interoperability with Cisco Webex endpoints, with Cisco in stand 11-C130. In addition, a Cisco Webex Board will be featured in the Oblong stand to show the ease of bringing a popular touch screen for ideation and collaboration into the Mezzanine meeting environment. Due to the proximity of these two stands, visitors to Hall 11 will be able to witness both ends of the meeting session from a single vantage point.

This bridge is a new high water mark in the relationship between Oblong and Cisco.

Since the introduction of the Mezzanine platform in 2012 for multi-device, multi-screen, multi-location, multi-screen immersive visual collaboration, Cisco video teleconferencing codecs have been common in Oblong’s “device agnostic” approach to seamless computing environments. The Mezzanine platform has continued to evolve to offer a wider range of form factors plus swifter installation to better serve more teams in more spaces, and to support new computing devices and operating platforms. In 2017 Oblong was awarded the designation of Cisco Solutions Integrator, and in 2018 the two firms joined with LG to create a bundled offering to ProAV market in the USA via ScanSource. With that offering – Cisco Webex for virtual meeting excellence, LG for visual display excellence, and Oblong Mezzanine for a content-rich and immersive experience – collaborators in enterprises around the globe are set to be more productive and engaged.

Justin Ramirez, Head of Ecosystem Business Development for Cisco Webex said “We’re making it easier for our customers to understand it’s not Cisco solutions OR Oblong solutions, it’s Cisco PLUS Oblong to create the most productive and collaborative work environment.”

Oblong’s VP of Business Development, Steve Vobbe told us “In almost every business vertical, there is a need to escalate desktop discussions into full fledged meetings and gather stakeholders around critical information for decision-making Clearly Mezzanine is ideal for these moments, and access to it is obvious when it’s embedded in the enterprise ecosystem. As a Cisco Solutions Integrator it was natural for us to unite Mezzanine with the Cisco ecosystem to maximize meeting engagement and outcomes.”

Mezzanine is a flexible solution that scales up to large architectural spaces with the Mezzanine 600 Series, and down to conference rooms and huddle spaces with the Mezzanine 200 Series. It’s perfectly suited to be the standard for content-rich, real-time collaborative work across the enterprise. Collaborators in all Mezzanine-enabled workplace settings can see and control all the content and data streams that are essential to the task at hand. By uniting the benefits of persistent messaging with immersive meetings, Mezzanine takes teamwork to an entirely new level.

Mezzanine meetings are easily triggered in Webex Teams, creating a link between the Webex Teams space and Mezzanine. Any content shared in either space are synchronized immediately so teams can easily access and utilize content that is shared after the meeting ends. Mezzanine + Webex delivers the ultimate collaboration platform to bridge the virtual and physical workspaces with a content-rich shared experience for stakeholders in the room, in connected rooms, and in remote locations. Everyone can contribute as equal participants in shaping decisions in real-time.


Leave a Reply