Much attention to the “BYOD style” and trust in the rapprochement and integration between the IT world and the AV world: these are the cornerstones of Lenovo’s thinking, in the words of Andrea Recupero who we recently interviewed
Sometimes, it is inevitable to regret because the time available is not enough to do everything you would like to do. This is the case of this interview given to us by Andrea Recupero, EMEA Smart Collaboration Director of Lenovo, who we would have liked to meet on the occasion of the last ISE, in Barcelona, to get from him a general overview of the innovations of this important brand, but which we had to settle for hearing later. Andrea was very kind and helpful and gave us a fruitful chat.
C – Let’s start again from ISE: can you tell us something about the products you presented and launched?
AR – Very willingly. These are essentially two solutions that embrace the need for meeting rooms in Lenovo’s vision. First of all, ThinkSmart Tiny Kit is designed for an entry level scenario, with the idea of accelerating the process of transforming sharing spaces, without giving up secure and centralized management. And then we have the ThinkPad Universal USB-C Dock, which fits perfectly into Lenovo’s Smart Technology Call philosophy. ThinkSmart Tiny Kit is ideal for small to medium-sized meeting rooms, and also makes sharing via HDMI possible. The basic concept is modular, so users can add peripherals, such as the ThinkSmart Cam already on the market and the ThinkSmart Bar 180, a camera demonstrated at ISE for the first time, developed in collaboration with Jabra. Obviously, Microsoft Teams Rooms always acts as a common thread for our way of understanding the meeting room.
As for ThinkSmart Dock, however, it is a product focused on the BYOD world, an intelligent dock station that allows the IT administrator to have typical functions of a meeting room managed even in much smaller contexts. Worth highlighting is the advanced cable management system to improve setup and visual appearance, with a single cable that connects to your PC. Obviously it is possible to work with various platforms, Zoom, Webex etc… These new solutions will be on the market starting from the second half of 2024.
C – Can you tell us about your vision as Lenovo? What characterizes you?
AR – The idea behind our vision is to transfer Lenovo’s IT expertise to the world of Collaboration, offering technological solutions for meeting rooms that combine practicality with quality. Another important factor on a strategic level are the services, which differentiate us from many competitors: three years of Premier Support warranty by default as an after-sales offer on ThinkSmart Collaboration solutions, extendable to five years. In short, we want to unite and make the two worlds, IT and AV, communicate. The challenge is to make Collaboration a tool for everyone.
C – How do you see the Italian market? What is its evolution, from your point of view?
AR – The Italian market is showing a clear interest in Collaboration. We work a lot with Microsoft and there is also significant growth in the BYOD scenario, as well as an increase in equipped rooms, with a preference for small spaces. Huddle rooms are a real trend, which we have already seen in the past and which is driving the market a lot. Also interesting are the individual or two-person workstations, the so-called phone booths. At ISE, in fact, we presented a phone booth solution designed for our ThinkSmart View Plus, with advanced acoustics and total integration towards BYOD and collaboration scenarios.
C – Can you confirm that there is a sort of rapprochement taking place between Control Room and Collaboration?
AR – This is a very interesting thing, we absolutely confirm it. It is no coincidence that we have established collaborations with Q-Sys and Biamp precisely for these applications, they are two very strong players for Control Rooms. Integration is increasingly required. Today customers ask for a single, intuitive and simple interface that allows them to manage the entire room.
C – Two months have passed since ISE: what feedback do you report?
AR – It was a very interesting fair, historically linked to AV. Many end users who I was pleased to be able to listen to to understand future scenarios. We offer a lot of technology but we need to build an offer that can be understood and used by companies. At ISE, partnerships and strategies are always strengthened.
C – Last question: what convergence do you see between Collaboration and the Educational world?
AR – The world of Education is very interesting for us. Covid has given a very strong boost to the adoption of technologies for teaching, even remotely. Educational is a vertical market in which we believe a lot, also in perspective, with augmented reality and virtual reality. At the moment, however, the integration of Artificial Intelligence is the most current topic. And finally, IoT is also an interesting idea.
