Webex Certifications — The Gold Standard for Video Conference Experiences
With so many 3rd party integration options for Cisco Webex Devices hardware, it can be hard to know at a glance what the best product integrations are. What are the best room booking applications? What is the best LCD display that works well with Webex Devices?
Oslo, Norway, is the headquarters where our Red Dot, market-leading video conference devices are built and we are focusing on providing the gold standard when it comes to delivering premium meeting experiences. A great example of defining the gold standard is this demo of our Webex Panorama Room. This product is an example that involves several 3rd party vendors to provide that quality experience.
Last week at WebexOne, we announced a new Webex Technology Ecosystem program, Webex Certification for Devices. Our open ecosystem allows vendors to create integrations to the Webex Platform to solve customer use-cases.
For over 17 years, we have been developing software integrations to 3rd party vendors through xAPI. Now, we have a technical program that validates third-party providers that their integration is adhering to our security, user experience, quality, and supported API methods.
Cisco Webex Certified & Approved Products
We award vendors two Webex logo tier designations:
· Webex Certified — Vendors that have achieved the most stringent of all testing by our Cisco engineers and our 3rd party test vendor.
· Webex Compatible — Vendors that meet the minimum requirements for interoperability.
The last tier for certification is a self-supported knowledge base community which is soon to launch on the Cisco Webex Communities portal.
Below is the list of vendors that have achieved certification status. Currently, there are only two Webex Certified logo use case categories: Displays and Room booking. The other categories will only have the Webex Compatible logo status. As we ramp up operations, we will open up to include more Certified categories.
Webex Device Certified and Compatible Categories
Cameras
Content Experiences
Collaborative Workplace
Displays
Easy Join Services
Intelligent Workplace
Room Booking
Team Communications
Workplace Analytics
Vendors shown with an asterisk are also Cisco Solutions Plus partners.
To learn more about the certified vendors and the categories, please visit: http://cs.co/certifiedvendors
Certification Process
Below is a multi-step certification application journey for vendors.
The certification program is invite-only. However please apply so we can add you to our backlog as we continue to ramp up our operations. If you are a vendor seeking to join, please visit this link.
Why Webex Certification Matters?
Customer Benefits
• Catalog of certified use case integrations and vendors
• Provides the best Webex experience
• Online Community Support
• Tested and Verified by independent 3rd Party Firm
• Proven integration & set up, useability, and security
• Drives costs savings
Vendor Benefits
• Access to Webex Customers and Community
• Access to Webex Certification Logos
• Access to Customers, VAR, Channel Partners
• Access to Webex for Startups Program
• Products listed on Webex.com
• Access to Webex Developer & EFT Hardware
• Access to Product Managers, Engineering and Design Team
• Access to Cisco Marketing
Webex Certified Categories
Displays
The Webex Certified logo for Displays is our first step to ensure the viewing and listening experience has passed critical industry standards.
Our certified display vendors such as LG, Samsung, and Panasonic adhere to the strictest video conference standards in the industry. We have 37 points we test ranging from CEC compliance, picture settings, system settings, auto-setup, and security. A test we include also is to make sure that the display is Enterprise grade where we turn it on and off 20,000 times.
The test goals are:
· Best image quality possible
· Correct color reproduction
· Low latency while maintaining audio-video synchronization
· Always correct input, even with 3rd party devices connected
· Robust standby handling
· Connect and get the display configured automatically
· Establish best security practices to protect the customer’s privacy and network integrity
On average, it takes vendors at least 6 months to pass our specifications.
Below are some of the many benefits of why Webex devices provide the best meeting and IT enterprise-grade experience.
Zero Touch Auto Setup — When the display recognizes it is connected to a Cisco Webex device, it triggers the auto-setup routine and sets a table of settings as agreed upon by the vendor's firmware. Imagine installing 100 displays, without having to go into the menu settings to optimize the color, refresh rate, scaling, enabling the CEC setting, setting to Game mode for low latency, and more. Another good example of this innovation is in a dual-display video conference setup. Here we fix the issue where you can notice various picture specifications are not synced between the two screens. Welcome to plug and play, out of the box, zero user intervention.
This saves you ~4 minutes per display. Saving you on average 15 menu steps that are triggered automatically.
HDMI CEC Innovations — Consumer Electronics Control or CEC is a feature of HDMI designed to control HDMI connected devices by using only one remote controller, in this case, the Webex Device without user intervention. For vendors, instead of using expensive hardware with our certification tests manually, the Webex Devices Business Unit has created open-source automated test tools and has been contributing and freely giving away this to improve the display ecosystem.
For several years, our engineers have created a standard framework for the Linux kernel to support the functions of HDMI CEC. Cisco created three open-source compliance utilities to verify EDID and CEC.
Why does this matter? One use case is if someone is watching in another HDMI source, like an Apple TV, and someone is calling your Webex Device, the display will switch to the correct HDMI source automatically.
EDID Conformity — EDID or Extended Display Identification Data is a metadata format for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source that is part of HDMI CEC. We developed a tool to analyze and check that vendors conform to the standard in order for the display to communicate the capabilities and specifications from the display to the Webex Device. It will set a table of parameters via the HDMI cable to ensure proper operations.
“We are impressed with the innovations that Cisco Webex is doing with the display vendors and what they are doing with HDMI-CEC and CDC protocol. This saves time per device in both the setup and install process.” -AVDR
Webex Certified Displays
LCD Displays
· Samsung QMR & QBR
· Panasonic EQ1
Interactive Displays
· Samsung Flip 2.0 — An interactive display that works with our Webex Room Kit Mini. The partnership unites Cisco’s innovative Webex collaboration platform with leading Samsung signage technology, providing a seamless, integrated meeting experience.
Room Booking
The Webex Navigator’s web engine allows a room booking application to run on the tablet. To be certified, all room booking vendors must pass our user experience, security and include Webex Skills where users can use voice to book meetings. This new feature will come in Q2/CY21.
· Appspace — provides integration to the Webex Navigator to deliver a room booking integration.
Webex Compatible Vendors & Use Case Categories
We are excited to welcome the following vendors to these categories.
Cameras
o Sony SRG-120DH is a pan tilt zoom camera that works with Cisco Webex Devices Room systems.
Content Experiences
o Oblong Mezzanine, is a Cisco Solutions Plus vendor that enables multiple, concurrent pieces of content to be shared, manipulated, created, and captured across distance.
Collaborative Workplace
o AVTEQ is a mobile cart vendor for Webex Devices
o Vitra is a furniture vendor delivering premium experiences for Webex Panorama Rooms
Displays
o LG UH5F-H and UL3G are LCD displays that integrate to Webex Devices
Easy Join Services
o Mividas ROOMS provides one button to push functionality and is designed to give administrators better support for managing their video conferencing systems and at the same time add extra value to all end users.
o Synergy Sky is a Cisco Solutions Plus vendor that provides one button to push or single join services to join meetings.
Intelligent Workplace
o Appspace, is a Cisco Solutions Plus vendor that provides room availability for an office floor map.
o Mazemap, a Cisco Solutions Plus vendor, provides room availably and wayfinding services.
Room Booking
o UMA Workplace Pro provides an end-to-end Room license for booking rooms on the new Navigator panel, from Webex Teams Bot and using the Webex Device sensors to automate booking and releasing Rooms with no shows.
Team Communications
o Appspace gives executives, departments, and regional offices an easy way to share critical information, recognition, and alerts across personal and Cisco devices with services like digital signage.
Workplace Analytics
o Synergy SKY, a Cisco Solutions Plus vendors, offers software solutions that integrate with Cisco Webex Room Devices and your existing calendaring system to simplify the scheduling and joining workflows of your multivendor environments.
o Vyopta, a Cisco Solutions Plus vendor, helps how conference rooms and huddle spaces are actually used. Gain actionable insights to free up resources, curtail inefficient booking behavior, optimize real estate spend, and intelligently plan build-outs and post-pandemic office returns.
Here at Webex, we are continuously pushing innovation through joint R&D with our vendors and it shows. Congratulations to all our Webex Certified vendors. Stay tuned for more exciting news over this Webex Technology Ecosystem Program in 2021.
Additional Resources
For Customers
Cisco Webex Integration Partners
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collaboration/webex-rooms-integrations.html
Webex Devices Certification Vendor List
https://cs.co/certifiedvendors
For 3rd Party Vendors
Webex Devices Certification Application
http://cs.co/webexcertapplication
Webex for Startups Program
http://cs.co/webexforstartups
Developer Resources
https://developer.cisco.com/site/roomdevices
https://developer.webex.com
xAPI Webex Teams Space
https://eurl.io/#rkp76XDrG
HDMI CEC & EDID Github
EDID parser and compliance tester
https://git.linuxtv.org/edid-decode.git/
HDMI CEC compliance tests for (utils/cec-ctl, utils/cec-follower, utils/cec-compliance)
https://git.linuxtv.org/v4l-utils.git/
Linux kernel userspace CEC API documentation
https://linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis-new/userspace-api/cec/cec-api.html
Webex Awards
•UC today awarded Cisco Webex the 2020 Collaboration Platform of the year
•UC Today awarded 2020 Innovation winner for Webex Assistant
•85% of all the Fortune 500 business use Webex based on the current list
•#1 represents 53% of cloud UCaaS installed base market share (subscribers)
•100 M endpoints and 34 Million cloud users
•2019 UC&C MarketScape Leader according to IDC
•# 1 Meeting 41% of SaaS meetings and conferencing market share (subscribers)
•PC Editor’s Choice award (tied for #1)
•2020 Magic Quadrant Meetings leader as positioned by Gartner
•Webex is an innovator when it comes to designing rooms and video endpoints — Red Dot design awards
•59% of all of the video endpoints and 1.6 million video endpoints
•The Contact center is #1 for on premise and cloud/hosted contact center agents
•3.6 million agents installed base
•2020 Intelligent Contact Center Globe from Aragon Research
SOURCES
• UC Today https://www.uctoday.com/awards/
•https://fortune.com/2011/04/07/cisco-video-conferencing-now-in-75-of-the-fortune-500/
•22 Red dot Awards for Webex devices and counting https://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/red-dot-design-award-room-kit-mini
•https://www.red-dot.org/search?q=cisco&p=0&a=&c=&y=2020&sort=relevance%20desc&f=product-design&tab=1
• IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Unified Communications and Collaboration 2019 Vendor Assessment. Rich Costello, July 2019
•https://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/red-dot-design-award-room-kit-mini
•Gartner meeting reports full downloads https://engage2demand.cisco.com/lp_collaboration_17415
•Rethinking Workforce Collaboration, What’s Next? 2020 August Wainhouse ( numbers may be slightly modified based on upcoming update)
•The Aragon Research Globe™ for Unified Communications and Collaboration, 2020. Jim Lundy April 2020 https://engage2demand.cisco.com/LP=13779?ccid=cc001192&oid=anrco01678
- Tied for #1 video conferencing rating
PC Editor’s Choice review
• Synergy Research Group, UC Market Tracker — Conferencing SaaS, March 2020 & As of YE 2019.
• Includes providers with >1% share Source: Synergy Research, April 2020
•The Aragon Research Globe™ for Unified Communications and Collaboration, 2020. Jim Lundy April 2020 https://engage2demand.cisco.com/LP=13779?ccid=cc001192&oid=anrco01678
UC TODAY BACKGROUND
UC Today is one of the world’s leading Unified Communication and Collaboration publication incorporating Customer Experience and Emerging Technologies as well. The founder and publisher is Rob Scott
GARTNER MAGIC QUADRANT FOR MEETING
Meeting solutions blend communications, collaboration and content sharing to enable informal and formal meetings anywhere. Along with its Critical Capabilities companion, this research will help application leaders for meeting solutions find the vendors best suited to their needs.
RED DOT AWARDS
Red Dot Award: Product Design is awarded to the year’s best products. Whether aesthetically appealing, functional, smart or innovative, what the award-winning objects have in common is their outstanding design quality.
SYNERGY BACKGROUND
Synergy provides market intelligence and analytics for the networking and telecoms industry. Synergy’s research is used worldwide by industry-leading companies, Wall Street firms, and government institutions. We specialize in providing comprehensive quantitative market data that is updated every 90 days. Through annual subscription services, Synergy offers worldwide, regional, and country-level market share data, manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, shipments, detailed market segmentation, forecasts and analysis.
ARAGON BACKGROUND
Aragon Research is an independent research and advisory firm. We provide business and IT executives with the actionable insights they need to navigate technology’s ever-evolving impact on business. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, CA, Aragon Research works with executives at every major level of the business and across industries to give them the tools they need to make more informed technology and strategy decisions.
