Print.IT - issue 50

BULLETIN PRINT.IT 9 www.printitmag.co.uk HP finds its voice HP has extended voice- activated printing to consumers in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India, following its launch in the US. A skill for two of the three major smart speaker platforms – Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant (support for Microsoft Cortana is still only available in the US) – will enable users of its web-enabled printers to connect their devices to the virtual assistant eco-system and initiate printing through spoken commands. Different content is available for printing on each platform, but the sorts of things users can ask HP Printer skills and actions to print include a shopping list, a sheet of graph paper, a Sudoku puzzle, a blank colouring page of a favourite character or a child’s weekly sports diary. For HP, connectivity with smart speakers is just the first step in voice-enabling its devices. In the future, it is likely that voice commands will be integrated directly into its printers, eliminating the need to communicate via an additional device. HP says integration will also voice-enable more tasks, such as connecting a printer to the home network, changing print settings or checking ink levels – all of which could be accomplished with spoken commands. Collaboration technologies take greater share of AV budgets One fifth of meeting room AV budgets are now being spent on collaboration technologies, such as interactive displays, video conferencing and wireless presentation solutions. A Futuresource Consulting survey of 2,500 end users in the UK, USA, Germany and France shows that while display technologies still take the largest slice of budgets for the estimated 11 million meeting rooms in Europe and North America, this is changing in line with evolving working practices. This is especially true of large meeting rooms, where over 60% of the AV spend is now allocated to non-display technologies. Anthony Brennan, Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting, said: “With 11% of employees working from home at least three days a week, the role of the meeting room continues to change. More of us are wirelessly sharing content to a web conferencing platform or harnessing interactive technologies to get our point across, and the usage is only going to increase.” Futuresource Consulting’s analysis shows that suppliers of professional audio products, such as commercial speakers and high-quality microphones, are also benefiting from these trends. In the US, for example, 28% of AV hardware budgets for large meeting rooms are being invested in audio. n The new i3HUDDLE 3.0 interactive touchscreen is designed to support easy collaboration in smaller meeting rooms. Great for video conferencing, whiteboarding, wireless presenting and collaboration with remote team members, it features a simple, intuitive user interface – for example, the home screen has just four options (conference, whiteboard, present, co-create) – and easy integration into Windows environments. www-i3-technologies.com ThinPrint launches mobile printing solution Print management expert ThinPrint has brought out a new mobile printing solution that lets businesses integrate iOS and Android smartphones and tablets into their existing print infrastructure. ThinPrint Mobile Print enables employees to print securely from a smartphone/ tablet to an existing network printer, with data encryption during transmission and print job generation taking place behind the firewall. The solution also offers Instant Wi-Fi printing and a secure pull-printing feature that allows users to authenticate themselves directly at the printer. Existing user authorisations are automatically inherited from Microsoft Active Directory or from the print server and can be extended or restricted as required for mobile users. ThinPrint’s cooperation with leading mobile device management (MDM) providers ensures seamless interaction with enterprise mobility management (EMM) systems used to manage mobile devices and distribute apps. www.thinprint.com/mobileprint FollowMe for Lexmark MFPs Ringdale has expanded its fully embedded secure document output management solutions to include Lexmark’s latest A4 devices – the MS620 printer and MX520/620 MFPs. Offering Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and compliance features, as well as secure print and output management, FollowMe Embedded for Lexmark helps Lexmark customers meet evolving security and compliance needs. www.followme.ringdale.com Commercial honoured for achievements in sustainability Business services company Commercial has won a 2018 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category. Judges highlighted the company’s numerous schemes to reduce energy consumption and emissions at its offices in Cheltenham, London and Leeds. These include a delivery fleet with hydrogen- enabled and electric vehicles; reverse logistics recycling; and the use of photovoltaic panels to generate power for its offices, with any extra needed coming from renewable sources. Other factors that impressed the judges were process innovations to maximise waste reuse and recycling, employee engagement and Commercial’s CSR Days, which seek to embed sustainability in customer and supplier businesses. Commercial, established in 1991, provides office supplies, IT services, managed print services and outsourced print. www.commercial.co.uk ThinPrint Mobile Print Issue 50