Huddly and Lenovo enter partnership to build smart collaboration solutions

Huddly and Lenovo today announced at InfoComm 2019 a new partnership to build intelligent collaboration devices and platforms to enable more collaborative and productive organizations. Both companies share a vision for the modern workplace focused on simplicity and a positive employee experience. The combination of Huddly’s edge-based AI cameras with Lenovo’s industry-leading Smart Office solutions will ensure end customers have access to state-of-the-art collaboration solutions for years to come.

Joseph Mingori, general manager, Lenovo Smart Office Business comments: “With work and workplaces transforming, optimizing the employee experience with collaboration solutions is crucial to increased engagement and productivity. Together with Huddly, we are building collaboration tools for the workforce of tomorrow. High performance, highly distributed virtual teams need collaboration tools that support their workflow, and our partnership with Huddly will help us deliver best-in-class solutions to do just that.”

Fraser Park, VP Strategic Alliances and Partnerships at Huddly adds: “Our partnership with Lenovo is designed to deliver our edge-based AI camera experiences to the Lenovo Smart Office meeting room solutions. The combination of our leading-edge AI camera and the intelligence available from Lenovo devices and software platforms will enable unique and powerful user experiences for end users. To begin with, our focus is on using machine learning models in our cameras to manage simple tasks like auto-framing, people counting and content sharing, but because our cameras are software-upgradable with new AI features and analytics, the capabilities of our cameras will expand over time. Lenovo Smart Office customers have a lot to look forward to.”

Huddly CEO Jonas Rinde comments: “This new partnership is terrific news for end users. The Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 has proved extremely popular since it first debuted at Microsoft Ignite and we are delighted to help provide an even higher quality video experience for Lenovo customers on both the Zoom and Microsoft Teams platforms.

“We are particularly excited to bring our AI-powered features like Genius Framing to Lenovo users. An important part of Lenovo’s vision for the modern workspace is to eliminate the hassle associated with video conferencing and that’s central to what we are doing when we develop our onboard smart features. Genius Framing is a perfect example – it automates the manual process of pan-tilt-zoom to fit people in the frame so teams can concentrate on working together, but there is a lot more to come. We see a bright future for our partnership and, more importantly, for Lenovo and Huddly users”.

The new partnership will begin with the bundling of the Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 with the award-winning Huddly IQ intelligent collaboration camera. The Hub 500 is a dedicated all-in-one meeting room device which supports both native Microsoft Teams and Zoom environments. It is the first of many solutions by the Smart Office team designed to tackle conference room complexities and help companies embrace the digital transformation of modern workspaces. Following the announcement of our new partnership, Hub 500 users can now enjoy the high quality, wide-angle video Huddly is renowned for, as well as the AI-powered features that come as standard on the Huddly IQ camera.

The Hub 500 and Huddly IQ will be available as a single SKU to Lenovo customers from the end of June 2019, starting in the US with global availability during Q3. For more information contact Fraser Park, VP Strategic Alliances and Partnerships at Huddly, at fraser@huddly.com.

You can experience Lenovo’s and Huddly’s smart technology at InfoComm 2019. Drop by Huddly’s booth (#4087) and Lenovo’s booth (#5073) and learn more about how our collaboration tools can simplify your workday.

About Huddly IQ

Huddly IQ is the first of its kind – an AI-powered collaboration device that delivers a video meeting experience like no other, with;

• 150° wide-angle 1080p video,

• an embedded mic array,

• automated AI features

• Huddly InSights analytics API.

The multi-award-winning Huddly IQ ensures everyone is seen and heard, in a wide variety of meeting spaces. IQ’s 150° wide-angle lens and studio-quality embedded microphone array deliver an immersive video meeting experience, giving everyone a voice and a seat at the table.

USB-powered and compatible with any platform, IQ is perfect for small huddle rooms, medium size meeting rooms and open collaboration spaces.

About Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500

Easy to deploy and use, the all-in-one, Zoom- and Microsoft Teams-enabled Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 is the key to more efficient meetings. Start on time, every time with one tap of your finger. Hear what everyone has to say, loud and clear. And see the difference this makes to your productivity—and bottom line.

About Huddly

Founded in Oslo, Norway in 2013, Huddly combines Scandinavian-designed hardware, software and AI to create cameras that bring artificial intelligence into the meeting room. Huddly’s compact, wide-angle, USB conference cameras deliver a high-quality video conferencing experience, straight out of the box and on any platform. Thanks to an onboard neural engine, they can see, understand and respond to their environment. The Huddly Genius features intelligently automate manual processes, removing the need to control the camera. With the InSights analytics API, Huddly cameras provide organizations with high-quality meeting room analytics to help them make better-informed decisions about how they use their meeting spaces. Huddly is headquartered in Oslo. Learn more: www.huddly.com

About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 57,000 employees and operating in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the world’s most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, we are also leading an Intelligent Transformation – to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Weibo and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.