technology
reseller.co.uk
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
27
Technology Reseller
speaks to Jane Craven,
Sennheiser UK Sales Director for IT/Telecoms, about opportunities for the channel
In this respect, the MB 660 is like a
luxurious ergonomic chair – you first notice
its great design and then the little buttons
and levers that let you customise the
seating experience to suit your personal
preferences.
Adaptive ANC
The MB 660’s most notable feature in
this context is adaptive Active Noise
Cancellation (ANC) – an industry first.
An established feature of many
headsets, ANC is successful at blocking
out background noise, but is not to
everyone’s taste – it can be isolating and
some find the sensation of complete
silence claustrophobic. As one Sennheiser
sound engineer put it to
Technology
Reseller
, “people think they want silence
when what they really want is comfort”.
The MB 660 improves wearer comfort
by offering a choice of ANC modes: off;
on; and adaptive ANC. ‘On’ provides
exceptional noise cancellation though
Sennheiser’s Hybrid ANC technology, which
removes both high and low frequency
noise.
For those who prefer a low level of
background noise, Adaptive ANC, lets you
specify the sound level at which ANC is
activated. This is done by moving a slider
along a bar in Sennheiser’s Captune app,
which can also be used to customise
music settings.
Another interesting feature of the MB
660, TalkThrough aids communication and
stops headset wearers from unnecessarily
raising their voices by opening a clear
communication channel between the
headset wearer and their surrounding
environment. Instead of having to take off
your headset when a colleague comes
up to ask a question, just double-tap the
touchpad to hear clearly what they are
saying, then double-tap again to close
down the communication channel.
TalkThrough is also useful when
travelling, as it makes it possible to listen
to announcements or communicate
with cabin staff without removing one’s
headset.
Other features that contribute to a
more natural user experience include
Room Experience, which creates the
impression that the person you are
communicating with is in the same
room – this also reduces listener fatigue
when using the headset for long periods;
the SpeakFocus array of three digital
microphones for filtering out surrounding
noise; and Advanced Own Voice Detection,
which detects when a person is speaking
and reduces microphone sensitivity when
they are not, so that the noise of their
typing or paper-shuffling is not picked up.
(The University of California, Irvine recently
warned of the dangers of ‘typing and
Skyping’ after researchers showed it was
possible to record background typing noise
and convert the sound into text.)
UC headset
Despite its attractive consumer qualities,
the MB 660 is at heart a business-grade
UC headset. It works easily across multiple
devices and platforms; it is supplied in two
versions optimised for Microsoft and for
other UC systems; it comes with a choice
of connectivity – Bluetooth, NFC and USB,
for charging and wired back-up when the
battery runs low; and it can receive UC
system updates and be managed by the IT
department remotely.
The MB 660 costs £385 (ex VAT).
Over the last five years Sennheiser
has been growing twice as fast as the
headset market overall, which itself has
been growing at a healthy rate thanks
to gaming and the take-up of unified
communications (UC).
Headsets are a key component of UC
systems and this is reflected in headset
sales. Frost & Sullivan estimates that the
headset adoption rate with UC is around
60% versus 5-10% with traditional phone
systems. As a result, it expects the CC&O
(contact centre and office) market to grow
at a CAGR of 11.7% over the next 5 years,
from $1,200 million in 2014 to $2,600
million in 2021.
Sennheiser has what UK & Ireland
Sales Director Jane Craven describes as
‘selective distribution’. It works with a
number of distributors and about 230
authorised resellers who have to complete
an online accreditation process.
“We do this,” says Craven, “because
Sennheiser has a premium image, and
this doesn’t just start with the product. The
buyer has to feel it from the moment they
first research their choices; through the
buying process, dealing with knowledgeable
sales people who can describe our
products; and through the quality of the
post-acquisition service, having someone
they can call if they need help.
“One of the big advantages of selective
distribution is that all our resellers know
about and understand headsets. That’s
very positive for end users. They know
that if they go to a Sennheiser-approved
reseller they will get the service levels they
need.”
Craven adds that professionalism is a
key requirement, both online and offline.
“Does the reseller have a professional IT
and telecoms image and is the product
being sold with similar products? We don’t
want Sennheiser headsets being sold
alongside dog food and hair dryers, as
some competitor products are.”
As long as a reseller meets (and
continues to meet) Sennheiser’s criteria,
it is happy to take them on, whether they
are a traditional telecoms dealer or an IT
reseller.
“We still have traditional telecoms
resellers and the call centre is still an
important market for us. But with the
growth in unified communications, the
IT reseller has got on board, including IT
resellers of hardware, VARs and systems
integrators. People who have a Skype for
Business licence who previously might
have stayed away from hardware have
recently started to understand that if they
are not selling hardware they are probably
missing an opportunity,” explains Craven.
“With telephone systems,
it’s always been a struggle to
get away from the concept of
a headset as a contact centre
tool, even if a lot of offices have
cottoned on to the fact that it’s
not good to have people cradling
a headset between their neck and
shoulder. But with UC, I haven’t
come across a single deployment
that hasn’t included some level of
headset purchases.”
Craven cites the example of Vodafone,
a huge provider of Cisco Jabber and Lync
licences that never used to get involved
with headsets. “We worked closely
with them last year on a deal for the
Environment Agency. They chose Cisco
Jabber as the client and for that you have
to have a headset that works. A ton of
headsets were sold and now we work with
Vodafone on practically every project they
bring in.”
Jane Craven
A premium image
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