Billed as a break-through wireless presentation display, the Cisco Spark Board is a digital whiteboard, and a next-gen video conferencing system. As an all-in-one device, it provides everything you need to collaborate with your teams in meeting rooms. Launched on January 24th, the board was subsequently shown in a live demonstration at the Cisco Live keynote in Berlin.
It integrates with Cisco’s Spark ecosystem to provide telepresence and sharing (including of mobile devices) to meetings, both locally and across sites. It has a large touch-sensitive screen, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity to link it to the local network. Wi-Fi makes deployment easy, and an Ethernet port exists on the device for wired connectivity. Provided with a 4K camera, it has a matching 4K UHD display. Two models will be available, a 55″ version available now and a larger 70″ model available later in the year.
Sharing from tablets, laptops and mobile devices occurs through the Spark ecosystem, and not locally. That means a lot of extra traffic on the connections out to the cloud if you invest in Spark, with shared content sent out and back into the organisation for each meeting attendee. According to Cisco, the Spark Board has a maximum transmission rate of 4.3Mb/s, and a maximum receive rate of 10Mb/s, reducing to a 768Kb/s data stream at 720p30 when necessary.
Cisco claims that you only need a single cable in the Spark Board to give it power. With no on-premises infrastructure (that’s all in the cloud courtesy of Spark); setup and configuration are easier compared to needing to configure your meeting infrastructure. (A dig a Microsoft’s Skype for Business platform, perhaps?). The Spark platform requires a subscription, completing another step for Cisco on the road to regular subscription income.
One point I picked up from the demonstrations is it works best when the displays are at the same eye-line. It reinforces the fact that you are looking at each other, rather than just avoiding eye contact. (Consider the people on your next video conference who are watching the screen and don’t even glance at the camera just above.)
Pricing is $4,990 for the 55″ version, increasing to $8,990 for the 70″ version, with Spark Flex plans running at $199/month.
Here’s the original launch video for the Cisco Spark Board.
Data Sheets are available for the Cisco Spark Board 55 and the Cisco Spark Board 70.
