October 9, 2017 — Crestron, a global provider of technology solutions that enable people to work more productively and live better lives, recently announced the widespread deployment of the Crestron Mercury tabletop conferencing system, a complete tabletop meeting and collaboration system that’s easy to provision and manage. Its unified communications (UC) and audio/video (AV) all-in-one solution supports any Web collaboration.
Crestron says the sleek, all-encompassing console is the single tool needed to transform any space into a highly effective collaboration area — at an affordable price point. Powered by Microsoft Azure, Crestron Mercury combines all the must-have scheduling, conferencing, and collaboration features employees need with the fast, secure cloud provisioning and management capabilities required by information technology (IT) managers.
Mercury also reportedly helps solve common interoperability challenges, serving as a compatibility gateway for existing in-room conference systems. Crestron Mercury uses Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Fabric clusters, and Azure Cosmos DB SaaS.
Brent Daniel, UCC Solutions Engineer for Unum Group, commented on his company’s use of the product:
On average, we host about 8,000 video conferences per month, but it’s usually tough to conduct those in the smaller huddle spaces our employees sometimes prefer. Mercury’s flexibility in sharing AV data allows us to quickly expand the types of spaces that can accommodate video calls with minimal effort from my team.
Ted Colton, VP of UC Strategy at Crestron, remarked:
We designed Mercury to address common meeting-related headaches in today’s increasingly mobile workplace. Companies need to walk into a room and get to work — not waste time fumbling with technology. Because of Mercury’s price point, a seamless meeting experience is accessible for businesses of all sizes, regardless of their existing Web collaboration setup.
Sam George, director of Microsoft Azure IoT, Microsoft Corp., added:
Microsoft is committed to supporting partners that are addressing the evolving needs of the modern workplace. Crestron’s use of Microsoft Azure services like Azure IoT Hub ensures not only the performance businesses need, but also offers global scale and support for Mercury devices.
According to Crestron, additional product details include:
- Present: Crestron Mercury enables users to instantly and securely present content wirelessly on the room display from a laptop, smartphone, or tablet using the built-in Crestron AirMedia wireless presentation gateway.
- Call: With Crestron Mercury, it’s easy to make exceptional-sounding phone calls from mobile devices or standard SIP phone systems using the built-in, high-performance speaker and microphones.
- Collaborate: Knowledge workers can easily collaborate with colleagues via Crestron Mercury from a laptop or dedicated in-room PC using any soft phone, or Web conferencing or UC application, such as Skype for Business, Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting, or Slack.
- Manage: Crestron Mercury consoles are easy to provision and manage from the cloud, and they leverage standard network security policies. A built-in occupancy sensor supports energy-saving automation as well as collection of room-usage data.
- Schedule: Crestron Mercury connects directly with Microsoft Exchange Server, Exchange Online or Crestron Fusion Software to make room scheduling easy. The built-in graphics engine generates an on-screen display of the room calendar and simple instructions for starting a meeting. The native PinPoint Proximity Beacon adds additional convenience, enabling mobile room searching/scheduling using the PinPoint app.
For more information about Crestron Mercury, including specifications, photos, pricing, and accessories, visit the Crestron Web site.
Crestron building automation and control solutions let people control entire environments with the push of a button, integrating systems such as AV, lighting, shading, security, BMS (building management systems) and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) to provide greater comfort, convenience and security. All Crestron products are designed and built to work together as a complete system, enabling you to monitor, manage and control everything from one platform.
