Avaya on Wednesday introduced new video collaboration offerings designed for smaller meeting spaces.

They are: Avaya IX Collaboration Unit, which doesn’t require a laptop connection and provides a wide field of view for huddle spaces; IX Huddle Cameras, which can be used with IX room video solutions or connected to a laptop, to deliver HD video; and a “Huddle as a Service” monthly subscription, which allows businesses to purchase all elements of their huddle room on a monthly basis.

Avaya’s Steve Brock

Steve Brock, director of Avaya IX devices marketing, tells Channel Partners that partners are excited about the new huddle room products and service plans.

“The market opportunity is tremendous — as these new huddle solutions are relevant for every business in the world,” he said. “The openness of Avaya solutions means that partners can target existing Avaya UC customers; in this case, installing the solution is as simple as installing an Avaya desktop phone. Partners can also target non-Avaya customers since our solutions are interoperable with existing video infrastructures – in this case our solutions provide a lower price point and provide cloud-based applications flexibility – which reduces business risk. Partners can also add these to their existing UCaaS offerings – and with Huddle as a Service, their customers can subscribe to their UCaaS offering and the room devices all in one monthly bill.”

Frost and Sullivan estimates there are more than 32 million huddle rooms in offices globally, of which a very small percentage are equipped with video collaboration technology. Huddle room meetings will surge from 12 percent to 70 percent of all video conferencing by 2023, it said.

“We have been discussing these solutions with our customers for about a year, and we have held focused meetings with partners all over the world — Toronto, New York, Milan, Shanghai [and so on],” Brock said. “We wanted to get these solutions right and we knew that working with our partners would help with this. These are great examples of partner-led solutions. We are walking hand-in-hand with our partners as we work together to move the huddle room experience beyond the status quo.”

In many cases, Avaya is leveraging existing customer investments, whether their UC platform or their video infrastructure, he said.

“And we are providing them with a lower price point and with a solution that gives them the freedom to use the cloud-based app of their choice and that is future-proof because it is applications-driven,” Brock said. “This lowers the cost and reduces risk for our customers over alternative solutions and it moves their huddle rooms into the cloud.”

“VideoGecom is very excited to be able to offer Avaya’s next-generation huddle room solutions to our customers,” said Pierfrancesco Coluzzi, the company’s CEO. “In our experience, it is by far the easiest huddle room solution to set up and use. It is a cloud-centric world and the Avaya IX Collaboration Unit takes full advantage of all the cloud has to offer for businesses.”