In the course of my job assisting companies with Microsoft UC, I've been personally using and demoing many devices that work with the Microsoft stack. These "Optimized For" Microsoft Office Communicator or Lync client devices have gone through extensive testing and are certified to work properly and provide excellent voice quality. I can't stress enough to customers that I speak with the necessity to use a certified device in their UC pilots or deployments of Microsoft Voice. Often, the reason poor experiences are sited is because uncertified devices are used. Look for the logos below when choosing devices that work with Microsoft OCS or Lync Server. You can find the full list of devices here:
I recently acquired the Plantronics Voyager PRO UC Bluetooth over the ear device and wanted to write about the experience I've been having with it.
First off the device is small and comfortable over my ear. I wear glasses and the design seems to be forgiving of this fact. It came with a few different ear buds and I choose the one that was most comfortable for me. It offers a tiny Bluetooth USB adaptor that I can leave plugged into my laptop at all times which is convenient.
I also like this device because I can pair it both with my PC and my mobile device making for a seamless experience when I'm in the office or away from my computer. Plantronics did a good job in the design in that the device "speaks" to you letting you know things like "Power On", "Power Off", "PC connected/disconnected", Mobile Phone connected/disconnected" and how much battery life I have left in hours. This is a far better user experience than counting the number of blinking lights when you power it off (something most people would not have known to do in the anyway!)
Another stellar feature is the device's ability to sense if you are wearing it or not. Plantronics calls this Smart Sensor. This comes in useful in couple of ways. For example, I may have the headset on my desk and a Lync call comes in. I can see the toast notifying me of a call and I simply slip the device over my ear and it tells me "Answering Call" and connects the call. Brilliant. Another great innovation is incorporating Presence Awareness into the device. For example, I've configured my device to show that "I'm available" when its on my head and when its off my head to say "Be Right Back" The device does a good job of recognizing when I'm actually wearing it. The normal rules of Presence will still work so if I lock my PC my status will correctly be set to "Away" even if I leave it on my ear.
The Smart Sensor comes in very handy when with your Mobile device. I can't tell you how many times I've been out at lunch or at a client site and my bluetooth earpiece was in my coat pocket and I've answered my phone wondering why I can't hear anything only to realize that my BT adaptor is in my pocket. The Smart Sensor detects its not on your ear and the call routes to your mobile saving you the embarrassing experience. Wonderful! Of course of you are adept enough to realize the Voyager Pro is in your pocket simply put it on when the call comes in and it will automatically answer just like when using OCS or Lync.
In terms of answering a call when you are already wearing the device you can do this by simply tapping the earpiece when you are notified of an incoming call. Tapping it twice allows you to call back the last caller which is a nice feature. If your mobile supports voice dialing you can initiate this by pressing and holding the earpiece button for a couple seconds until you hear your mobile's "Say an command" option.
Plantronics did a nice job on the GUI and control panels. For instance I can quickly see how many hours of talk time I have in the system tray.
The Control Panel allows me to setup all the preferences with respect to the device:
Support is included for many popular soft phones, including Lync, OCS and Skype which is great. The control detects which are running allowing for proper integration with that application.
Here is where I can set my presence options:
The device comes with an impressive 6 hours of talk time and can be charged fully in 90mins using a standard micro-usb cable or the provided wall outlet charger.
Overall I'm very impressed with this unit and am excited vendors are upping their game in terms of making their devices more UC savvy.
In the coming months as time permits I will post some reviews of other devices I have used so stay tuned.
Please note that this review consists of my personal opinions only. I am not affiliated with Plantronics.
Question: what was the install process like? I'm helping a person troubleshoot Lync integration. Did you just run an install CD and select the device in Lync, or was there more to the process?
Posted by: Jack Logan | October 24, 2011 at 03:30 PM
Thanks for the comment Jack. The install process was very straight forward. I just choose the typical installation which installs support for all major clients including Lync. You can customize the install and remove the support for the clients you don't need. Either way once you run the Plantronics installer I would restart the PC before testing.
The latest software can be downloaded here:
http://www.plantronics.com/us/support/software-downloads/?WT.svl=primNav
They now call their software Plantronics Spokes.
I found their support to be good when calling their supportline as I was dealing with a pre-release version. Hope this helps.
Dino
Posted by: Dino Caputo | October 24, 2011 at 03:47 PM