Zoom Updates Rooms Software to Address Employee Health, Safety

New Zoom Rooms software enhancements will help organizations safely re-enter the office and sustain an everywhere workforce.

Zoom announced the following Zoom Rooms software innovations Wednesday:

• Pair a Zoom Room with your mobile device. This provides access to all room controls. Users can start or join a meeting with full audio, video and participant controls. This eliminates the need for users to touch the shared in-room controller.
• View real-time people count data. With supported cameras, users can ensure social distancing mandates are met and meeting spaces aren’t overcrowded.
• Monitor a room’s environment and air quality. Neat Bar Pro, a Zoom Rooms appliance, lets users monitor their meeting rooms for things like air quality, humidity, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds. They can view this environment data for real-time feedback on the safety of their meeting rooms.
• Virtual receptionist/kiosk mode. This provides a contactless entry experience for building guests.
• Control shared desktop from Zoom Rooms for Touch. Users can control, right from their device, the desktop of the person sharing their laptop screen. This streamlines collaboration.
• Save whiteboard to chat. This helps streamline content sharing outside the meeting room, improving cohesiveness in the new hybrid workforce.

Virtual Receptionist Provides Partner Opportunities

Jeff Smith is head of Zoom Rooms.

Zoom’s Jeff Smith

“One feature specifically will create new opportunities for partners — virtual receptionist,” he said. “This feature opens Zoom Rooms to a whole new set of spaces both externally facing for welcoming guests into facilities, but also for internal spaces for actions like ‘call security’ or ‘call IT.’  As a fully configurable interface, there are a number of use cases that are completely new for Zoom Rooms.”

Last spring, Zoom’s customers were concerned about enabling their remote workers with equipment to be consistently productive in remote working, Smith said. Zoom then introduced Zoom for Home last summer.

Now customers are preparing for a return to the office, he said. And Zoom’s focus has pivoted to empowering users to operate Zoom Rooms safely and efficiently.

“With our focus on customer happiness and ability to deliver what they need quickly, we feel the Zoom Rooms platform gives our partners the tools to be competitive in the market,” Smith said. “While we can’t share details of future releases, we are hard at work continuing to deliver an innovative platform for our customers.”

Businesses need to address their employees’ top three concerns about reentering the office. Those are others coming to work sick, an overcrowded workplace and proper ventilation.

“Employees are at the heart of every organization, and keeping them safe, connected and productive is a top priority,” said Oded Gal, Zoom‘s chief product officer. “As the world plans to safely reopen business, educational institutions, health care facilities and government entities, we are focused on innovating across our platform to support their needs.”