Lenovo’s ThinkSmart Hub 700 bring Dolby audio to your conference room

Hot on the heels of its recently announced ThinkSmark Hub 500, Lenovo hopes to elevate the conferencing experience with the ThinkSmart Hub 700.

The new device looks almost as if a UFO is sitting on your desk, but its comical design hides a number of interesting tech features. For example, IR sensors detect when a person enters a room, and can wake up a connected display or devices within range automatically. It runs Windows 10 IoT, and is best suited for users whose laptops are locked down by system administrators, making it difficult to launch or install conferencing software or even plug in devices via USB ports.

The system integrates directly into common conferencing solutions, such as Skype for Business, Zoom or BlueJeans, and displays a quick calendar on-screen of upcoming meetings. Users simply use the jog dial on top of the device to select a meeting, and can join in with just the push of a button. Audio performance comes through loud and clear via the integrated Dolby Audio Speaker System, with enhanced speakers co-designed with Dolby.

Most importantly, the system offers both wired and wireless connectivity to allow local and remote users to quickly connect and share data and screens from multiple devices, eliminating the need to fumble about while trying to locate specific ports.

Lenovo’s ThinkSmart Software Platform integrates with the ThinkSmart Hub 700 to display detailed information such as the busiest times for a meeting room, the most popular conferencing solutions, as well a report on any connectivity or technical issues that may have occurred during a meeting.

Pricing for the ThinkSmart Hub 700 hasn’t been revealed yet, though Lenovo has said that the device will be available in the first quarter of 2019.