Recently, in the IGEL Community, Lars Glöckner, Senior Solutions Architect EMEA at IGEL, posted a tech-tip on configuring Zoom virtual backgrounds on IGEL OS.
Make Zoom Virtual Background on Linux available with Citrix, VMware Horizon, and AVD (WVD) when you don't have the supported hardware in place.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Patrick Toner
Co-host: Chris Feeney
Recently, in the IGEL Community, Lars Glöckner, Senior Solutions Architect EMEA at IGEL, posted a tech-tip on configuring Zoom virtual backgrounds on IGEL OS.
Make Zoom Virtual Background on Linux available with Citrix, VMware Horizon, and AVD (WVD) when you don't have the supported hardware in place.
Host: Andy Whiteside
Co-host: Patrick Toner
Co-host: Chris Feeney
WEBVTT
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Andy Whiteside: Welcome to episode 54 I Joe weekly i'm your host Andy whiteside Chris Christian Fini and I spent some time in the car last week and got caught up Chris how's it going.
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Chris Feeney: Good man, it was a planes trains and all not necessarily trains, but certainly planes and automobiles and and rush hour traffic going into DC last week so yeah good times or.
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Andy Whiteside: So we were at the agile disrupt in Washington DC so you didn't manage to get a train in there at all.
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Chris Feeney: Ah, you know when I was at the airport trying to get home is delay city man, it was crazy and I the thought crossed my mind about a renting a car and just driving or Amtrak was sort of in the back burner yeah but we were able to finally get off the ground, and you know get home.
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Andy Whiteside: Last name day or a different day.
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Chris Feeney: Ah, there we left that day, but it was delayed a few hours, so.
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Andy Whiteside: yeah i've got to go to i've got to go to New York later this week and my wife's already planning on me not making it home.
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Andy Whiteside: For the weekend.
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Chris Feeney: yeah just I mean it was it was partial weather, even though around the airport it wasn't really raining or lightning or nothing that then of course you had all that stacks up and then you have.
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Chris Feeney: The layer just issues with staffing, no, no, pilots that type of thing but.
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Andy Whiteside: yeah well look, we can tie that into the topic here in a second, because what seems like it's easy to common people.
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Andy Whiteside: is not necessarily always easy, for example, making sure you have enough pilots.
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Andy Whiteside: In the hopper to fly during the summer travel season, plus work season that's got to be thought about years in advance, in order for it to work out properly and I think we're getting caught up and.
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Andy Whiteside: pandemic Evan flow and people taking early retirement and I was like I was with a guy this weekend who's best friend is a pilot who's retiring.
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Andy Whiteside: Monday yesterday, and I was like man that's horrible good timing for him horrible timing for the airline to lose yet another you know senior resource.
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Andy Whiteside: patrick's owner Patrick toner the as integrity solutions architect that does our subject matter expert Nigel Patrick with this metric i'm going to ask the question Where are you sitting today.
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Patrick Toner: So, speaking of planes trains and automobiles mostly automobiles, for me, I am sitting in jacksonville Florida, so I finally have arrived.
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Patrick Toner: To my well partially to my destination we're still waiting to make settlement on our House for about 10 days and airbnb but yeah I spent the weekend.
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Patrick Toner: When you're traveling via car with for young children to senior citizens my moms are traveling with us.
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Patrick Toner: there's a lot of bathroom breaks, so we you know that's mentioned all the coffee that we were drinking, so we were it took us a good two three days to really.
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Patrick Toner: get through it, for some reason Virginia, I can never figure it out takes the longest to get there, like you feel like once you get past Virginia, the rest of that drive is easy.
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Andy Whiteside: But it was because it was the first the first date.
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Patrick Toner: that's it that's it definitely has the first date type traffic, especially in northern Virginia it's a man, that is just congested yeah i'm here, so we made it you made it down and enjoy the Nice humidity down here, we came right into a heat wave is uh I think you predicted Andy so.
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Patrick Toner: yeah.
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Andy Whiteside: it's good to be appreciating that come October November for sure November for sure.
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Patrick Toner: Oh yeah oh yeah.
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Andy Whiteside: hey my challenge to you is not this week since the first week but next week, get involved in the citrix user group the vmware user group get the ideal user group and the new tactics user groups going down there and.
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Andy Whiteside: Just help build the Community down there it's that that area is a huge and growing business community and has a lot going on for it.
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Patrick Toner: Absolutely forward to it before the meeting a lot of new people, and you know getting involved in those groups.
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Andy Whiteside: So guys we we chose a topic for today.
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Andy Whiteside: i'm going to go ahead and share my screen here.
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Andy Whiteside: That is about user experience specifically unified communications.
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Andy Whiteside: And this is really a really technical article but we're going to use it for a couple things one we're going to just like with the airline experience it's more than you think like so we get.
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Andy Whiteside: i'll pick on my i'll pick on my wife specifically here we go to fly flights get cancel and she doesn't understand why you can't just fix it right.
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Andy Whiteside: Well, first of all i've got six people that we have to rebook that's not easy, and second, of all, I mean you've got to have a crew of X you got a ground crew you got mechanical you got weathers you got weather situation.
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Andy Whiteside: there's a lot a lot a lot that goes into things that most people don't think about and, in this case we're talking about unified communications in the end user experience in a.
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Andy Whiteside: Virtual desktop virtual APP world specifically around zoom so let's let's real quick the quick let's quickly talk about how I gel and zoom work together to enable.
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Andy Whiteside: To enable that user experience, because I don't think zoom has gotten fully done with citrix and Microsoft and vmware and others them and Microsoft would be very interesting.
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Andy Whiteside: To fully have that offload experience within the the the system itself, and I Joe has to step up and make it happen.
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Andy Whiteside: For some of them not not teams, but others so Chris can you explain just in general, where if it's not native using like web rtc and it has to be assisted by the endpoints smartness technology management, what does I gel do to enable those offloading scenarios.
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Chris Feeney: When it's not native to the.
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Protocol.
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Chris Feeney: So great question so what's actually interesting is we've done really well with zoom for quite a bit now certainly the last two years.
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Andy Whiteside: But Chris Am I am I right to say that the the zoom offloading within citrix vmware and Microsoft isn't native, it has to be helped right.
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Chris Feeney: um well, perhaps we should define a little bit what it is the way I understand it is there's a plugin on the ideal side we actually have several versions to choose from, make it match up with the back end.
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Chris Feeney: And that you know similar how virtual channel works with the endpoint right that has to communicate with the zoom vdi install in the virtual session and.
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Andy Whiteside: So let me, let me pause you there right, so this way I understand it, you and Patrick straight me out if i've got teams, for example in my Microsoft virtual desktop and teams on the endpoint.
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Andy Whiteside: by default more or less it's just going to find each other, going to offload it and it's going to just do its thing in the world of zoom and others we've got to be more.
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Andy Whiteside: going to be more prescriptive about making sure it doesn't If not, then it won't offload Patrick Is that true.
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Patrick Toner: yeah yeah well you know I think the main difference, about being made is that the teams agent is built into the citrix workspace APP or Linux down right it's pretty pretty automatic you know, there are some version things that you have to account for both zoom it's a little more specific.
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Patrick Toner: You know zoom zoom's offload agent is is actually a SEC it's not built into the citrix workspace APP or the vmware horizon application.
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Patrick Toner: it's actually a separate application that resides you can manually it's all going to be the Nigel sits in the agile operating system has to be flipped on and version is very particular you have to make sure you're in the right versions.
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Patrick Toner: You know there's a little bit of wiggle room there but but yeah it's it's definitely a lot more little more planning goes into when you're working with zoom in teams.
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Andy Whiteside: yeah so sorry to interrupt you, Chris you're on the right path, I just wanted to point out to my best of my knowledge.
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Andy Whiteside: it's all a matter of the workspace APP leveraging web rtc to tie the two together and it just natively works, whereas in your world.
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Andy Whiteside: You guys have done amazing things with zoom to make that work as an offload technology and it's not native you have to you know control it go ahead, Chris i'm sorry.
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Chris Feeney: yeah so let's make sure we're we're being very clear on this, so.
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Chris Feeney: On the agile device, we have zoom via plugin and it works across all the three protocols citrix horizon add.
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Chris Feeney: So that means that when you're running zoom inside your virtual session, you are offloading the video audio down to the endpoint the zoom.
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Chris Feeney: thing is still running in the virtual session, but the that you're you're pushing all the processing power, down to the endpoint so you don't have to run it on the back end and we've had that in place for a while now, and the version matching what i've learned is that.
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Chris Feeney: there's we, to the point we've added, and this is basically true across all the different technologies but, generally speaking, the zoom we've got three versions of the zoom vdi plugin, this is the part that.
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Chris Feeney: is on the endpoint So if you you're back in let's say you're back in zoom five dot five.
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Andy Whiteside: hey Chris i'm sorry I think what you said was slightly off, let me, let me say it back to you the way, I think it is and then we'll go from there, the the plugin actually goes in the virtual desktop the agent goes on the eye gel in point, in that the correct way to say it.
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Chris Feeney: Now I disagree with that I think it's the the get the zoom vdi plugin which is on the endpoint.
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Chris Feeney: that connects to the zoom.
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Chris Feeney: vdi installation inside the virtual session okay essentially an agent of sorts but but they both talk to each other and if you had the right horsepower on the endpoint to handle whatever you're trying to do there and then then you'll be able to offload.
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Andy Whiteside: Well, let me say this Okay, so in the virtual desktop you have to install a specific version of zoom right it's not a plug in it's a specific version or is actually a plugin which one or is it.
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Chris Feeney: In the virtual desktop there is an actual install called zoom vdi or something like every can look it up, but it's it's it's a specific install that's in the virtual desktop okay.
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Andy Whiteside: And then i'm just trying to i'm trying to use the word plugin intentionally here because I can tell you, for me it got confusing.
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Andy Whiteside: When both when different people both called the thing a plug in one was talking about the virtual desktop side and one was talking about the endpoint side and they both use the word plugin and I crossed them up when I went to install it the first time.
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Right.
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Chris Feeney: So, to help with some of the confusion here the article actually the author here actually wrote a guide that's out there he's posted a Community it's called the UCC guide.
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Chris Feeney: I Joe UCC guy look it up, you can just Google that and find it and it kind of helps maybe eliminate some of that confusion, but for definitions for the purposes of our listeners.
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Chris Feeney: The plugins are going to be on the endpoint.
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Chris Feeney: Somebody may call it the client or something that we're really talking about a plugin.
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Chris Feeney: That is going to connect back into and talk to the actual instance of zoom or teams, for example, inside the virtual session when those two married together so let's see here here's again, so the yeah the vdi release right, this is what's installed inside.
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Chris Feeney: The the virtual desktop and then, so the plugin has to match right so let's say the back end is 510 the plugin has to be 510 or lower it can't be higher.
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Chris Feeney: So in their version encumbers have jumped from three to five so it's interesting right I think they're matching the version stuff now so it's a little bit easier yeah.
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Andy Whiteside: I think the main confusion for me is we're in this case zoom is the one defining what we're calling what so if it's a vdi software in the virtual desktop and then it's the plugin on the windows endpoint and in your case that plugin aka agent is built in the idol operating system right.
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Chris Feeney: yeah we actually have three versions, so you can pick and choose similar have we have three versions of the workspace APP three versions of the plugin to make sure that you can match up the right one.
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Chris Feeney: And those get updated as they come out and get released by zoom.
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Chris Feeney: and make it make their way into our firmware.
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Chris Feeney: But, but this is a good article here, you know, China, this is a source of truth, essentially so you'll see here they have different things for different types, you know vmware citrix add, for example, cloud PC.
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So got it okay.
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Andy Whiteside: Patrick any any additional context to help clarify this part of the conversation so far you'd like to add, I know we've kind of probably my fault that all over the place.
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Patrick Toner: yeah you know I think it's just we've seen it over coven right the whole pandemic.
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Patrick Toner: You know, I was working with customers during that time, where this was just a you went from nobody using it to the entire world us again right and.
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Patrick Toner: zoom was having to churn out all different, you know versions, because of security and this and that.
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Patrick Toner: So it was it historically was a little confusing for a lot of customers, I mean we went through the fire with lot of customers and you know, during that time.
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Patrick Toner: figure this out, but you know I just made it nice like to chris's point with those three versions.
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Patrick Toner: You know and customers can now pretty easily standardize on one version, one thing I do like to Google.
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Patrick Toner: Because I just needed level set on this is the new Google zoom vdi backwards compatibility, they have a little guide that comes up zoom does it'll match like hey what version of the zoo vdi agent.
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Patrick Toner: Do I need to vdi if i'm and what it correlates to what version of the plugin so they do have a nice kind of web page that matches all those versions together just just for anyone listening, if you do get lost because it can't get a little confusing yeah.
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Andy Whiteside: Now I have a quick question for you guys and we'll jump back into this, but if I if I am using zoom and it is offloading properly do I just look for the telltale signs of dragon you know windows around and it chasing it or is.
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Patrick Toner: there.
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Andy Whiteside: A way to tell that it's being offloaded within my virtual desktop.
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Patrick Toner: yeah there's actually in the zoom vdi client, you can go into the settings.
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Patrick Toner: I believe it's called don't have it in front of me, but you go into the settings and I think it's under statistics.
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Patrick Toner: you're the statistics tab and there's actually a little vt zoom vdi tab there you can click it'll tell you which version of the agent you're running which version of the plugin it'll tell you, if they're actually connecting.
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Patrick Toner: So if you see it say not connected there you know for sure it's not working.
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Andy Whiteside: Now Okay, so a couple so just for admins out there right, you can drag it around each of the window chasing it, you can go to the local ideal client look at the task related what's what's the task manager called Nigel i've forgotten.
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Patrick Toner: Top gop.
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Andy Whiteside: yeah your performance stuff to see if you're getting a lot of cpu local usage and then Patrick when you say you can look at the agent and figured out is that inside the virtual desktop.
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Patrick Toner: or yes okay that's inside the virtual desktop you know you launch the zoom vdi you know application and then you go into the zoom settings and they have a tab in there called statistics and that's where that's where you'll see zoom vdi.
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Andy Whiteside: So I guess philosophically you're in the virtual desktop but because it's really offloading it you're looking at.
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Andy Whiteside: All you don't know it.
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Andy Whiteside: it's crazy but.
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Andy Whiteside: awesome so again kudos to I gel for knowing, this is an issue, working with zoom because zoom for knowing it's an issue, and then I Joe for supporting it.
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Andy Whiteside: And then I asked you guys like a philosophical business and a business question on same time do you ever see a day, where you know Microsoft enables all these other.
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Andy Whiteside: Unified communications players to play along natively or do you think it's always going to be an out of band experience that you guys have to help make work.
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Chris Feeney: I guess Andy i'm not tracking with you on the the native piece so maybe, can you elaborate on what you mean by that because I think i'm getting lost and how you're translating that.
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Andy Whiteside: So teams is part of the Microsoft stack, which is part of the.
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Andy Whiteside: company that has the most widely used Microsoft application, the world which is windows, so they make this all kind of native and working together and they want to make it so we're just kind of happens.
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Andy Whiteside: Through the connection unbeknownst to you if things line up properly, it happens, if not, then it's.
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Andy Whiteside: Then it's not offloaded and then hopefully you got enough processing power on the back end and connectivity to make it less impactful but it's really kind of native whereas zoom is creating their own vdi plug in and their own agent.
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Andy Whiteside: plug in to make it work you ever see a day, where where it just is is part of the operating system where it can be as native as possible, or is it always going to be this work around scenario that works don't get me wrong.
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Andy Whiteside: that's you know kind of a bolt on versus a just that slight tweak to make it work.
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Chris Feeney: So couple things with regard to teams.
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Chris Feeney: As they were adding in support for teams optimization with add more specifically, and I guess cloud PC, for that matter, so like I kind of one of the same.
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Chris Feeney: They had to make some updates to teams, first of all to be able to you know process that and handle it and then.
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Chris Feeney: On the agile side we've built our own add client essentially that can get you into that resource, there were some updates that we did in concert with them.
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Chris Feeney: So the way these things, the nice thing about the way it works on the team side and is that once you've got you have to install teams, a certain way there's instructions from Microsoft on how to install teams.
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Chris Feeney: So that's it'd be it'd be it'd be an optimized state, and then on the agile side is just a matter of checkbox and you connect in with the right firmware version that can do that, then you open up teams and you can go into the about and see if it says add be optimized.
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Andy Whiteside: Now, but you don't have any profile or anything on your side, it just saw each other and happened right if you did.
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Chris Feeney: Right you just yeah basically you just set up a standard add session connection and.
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Chris Feeney: we've kind of got it built in there and then it just it just sort of works now obviously third party non non Microsoft Apps like zoom and webex they sit on top of.
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Chris Feeney: You know those things, and they have those clients and stuff like that that that are required in order to get their technology to work, the same way, effectively.
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Andy Whiteside: And I think I know the answer to my question i'm just trying to vet out the conversation of.
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Andy Whiteside: You know you go two years ago you wouldn't have caught me using Skype or even Microsoft teams now it's just part of.
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Andy Whiteside: part of my world and I literally had a phone call while ago, and I said Oh, I need to share screen hang up and I I ended up doing a team session with this person.
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Andy Whiteside: In a matter of you know, five seconds it just became native experience I didn't have to say okay i'm on I tell him and I don't know I gel is a profile been unable, has not been unable, I just did it and it does work.
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Chris Feeney: yeah yeah sorry.
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Patrick Toner: No, I was saying, you know it's really has become just mission critical for every organization and I think back to the original question, you know.
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Patrick Toner: you're asking there any I think it's it's the zoom teams thing is interesting to me because teams, obviously, is is microsoft's baby right.
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Patrick Toner: But the one thing that just like struck me is like zoom I think offloading for at least for my gel non windows devices working.
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Patrick Toner: In a vd before teams right, so I think zoom has been the they've really been pushing the boundaries, as far as being the the more innovative.
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Patrick Toner: Technology, but you know Microsoft, you know they own the stack so I can't you know I mean you look at citrix like how they've integrated into their into the workspace APP they haven't done that, with zoom.
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Patrick Toner: You know, but it seems to me, it was a team just caught up there they're pretty both pretty.
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Patrick Toner: You know they're both pretty good at the zoom is, in my opinion, a little bit further along as far as like how like the technical features and just how it.
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Patrick Toner: performs but obviously it's an extra cost to a customer so for teams is inner fully integrated right, I have my E whatever package, I have access to teams, I just have to have it configured correctly now.
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Patrick Toner: So you know you could it's probably gonna be a little tougher and tougher teams or i'm sorry on zoom to be competitive, unless they're just continually innovating and leading right which is managed to do so far.
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Andy Whiteside: yeah or you go back to the old days, where customers had a reason to do everything they could.
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Andy Whiteside: want to fight the Microsoft world now because of the oh 365 m 365 a kinder nicer gentler at least proceed to play with everybody world at Microsoft.
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Andy Whiteside: there's less there's less of this I hate Microsoft i'm getting out any way I can stuff that used to go on.
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Andy Whiteside: kudos to Microsoft for figuring out that's the future, you know embrace everybody don't try to kill them.
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Andy Whiteside: So yeah we'll see what happens to a great technology like zoom could be better, but if it's not integrated native and part of the licensing that you already own lots of things have died go talk to no avail.
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Patrick Toner: yeah and what like us was I talked to Chris I don't know you know Christianity, both you guys, have you seen the same, I mean zoom was their strategy, you know 2020 into 2021 but almost everybody was saying.
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Patrick Toner: Oh yeah we're moving to teams, you know that's our plan.
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Patrick Toner: So you know it's you know that's that's kind of been the conversation i've been having for last two years, with people.
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Chris Feeney: yeah well, I mean you have a new product add now windows and cloud PC now.
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Chris Feeney: launched without a full feature set but adding more functionality over the course of time functionality and features that current vendors that have been in this space for a long time, have had.
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Chris Feeney: and have figured out how to make it all work zoom being one of those at some point teams are probably going to have just as good or just as the same or whatever.
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Chris Feeney: Microsoft is who they are, and they'll they'll.
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Chris Feeney: they'll have that feature parity and one of the you know, to get back to our purpose of today's conversation One of those is virtual backgrounds yeah you know i'm using one right now is we're talking Patrick you're not into you're not.
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Chris Feeney: But but it's you know, that is, you know it could be a branded thing or whatever it could be whatever, but that actually feature was more recently added in teams, more specifically, when add, whereas zoom's had it for a while, but.
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Andy Whiteside: Well let's let's use that to talk through this whole conversation of.
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Andy Whiteside: Just because you thought it was easy it's not easy and i'll go back to picking on my wife in the airline conversation.
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Andy Whiteside: You get on a plane and it doesn't have that smart screen in front of you on a plane to from point A to Point B, but the one to get the point A what did have it.
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Andy Whiteside: Like why can't they all just have and i'm like you realize what it would take to make sure they all had it and and is that the future when everybody has a handheld device and it's a much bigger conversation then just you know snap snap make it happen.
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Andy Whiteside: And here's a great example here the the background right if you're using zoom on your windows machine.
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Andy Whiteside: Your home computer whatever it is, and and you got backgrounds and I will send you get your virtual desktop and you don't and you're like well I don't understand why they can't just happen and here's an example of why you need to know more.
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Chris Feeney: yeah and that's why we have partners like yourselves who you know our job is to educate you and help you understand how is it a feature that's not yet available or is it a workaround for the moment, and then eventually it just it's just part of it.
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Chris Feeney: But it's a Keith it's one of these little things that it's kind of cool you know you can do all the same, but if you don't have it, because.
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Chris Feeney: You know it's not supported or yet or whatever it makes a difference and in this work from home i'm like right now, you can't see what's behind me, it looks like it's my office you know it's.
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Chris Feeney: A lot of comments about this particular background, but uh my you know behind the scene, what you don't see behind the curtain is my son walking by go and do that you're getting ready for for his day so.
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Andy Whiteside: There was a time when your automobile did did not have a.
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Andy Whiteside: Car radio in it, that was an upgrade now if your car doesn't have apple car play or some type of car play.
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Andy Whiteside: You think there's an issue right you, you have to have that will get to a point in the next little bit where.
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Andy Whiteside: apple carpet or apple car play android play whatever both will be in every car, you may not even have a radio anymore it'll just be all part of your smart device, and that will be the standard.
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Chris Feeney: yeah well, I remember years ago.
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Chris Feeney: Before I got into the vendor space, I was my big projects was setting up la hotel Internet high speed Internet access.
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Chris Feeney: And it got to a point where you know we were using Cisco devices to kind of help with with the management of that getting online that type of thing, but it was a product Cisco bought slap their logo on it and the training for it wasn't that great.
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Chris Feeney: And I would set it up and I thought I had things right, but when we didn't work hotel manager was calling looking for help, because he had people checking out.
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Chris Feeney: going to some other hotel because they needed it, it became a thing they over almost overnight, I would say just all of a sudden, that was the thing right.
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Chris Feeney: They don't use the phone anymore, they don't use dialogue, they needed a Internet access wireless or wired whatever if it doesn't work.
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Chris Feeney: i'm going to go find somewhere where does and I totally agree, I mean we're must have right, just like.
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Chris Feeney: On that airplane right, I mean look at the strategy we talked about some put the screen and by doing so they're putting extra weight in the airplane.
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Chris Feeney: And they might retrofit it later where they just give you better wi fi and use your own personal device and Southwest takes that approach, for example, but.
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Chris Feeney: anyways you know.
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Andy Whiteside: Our listeners mean I get this and you guys have been around this long enough i'm literally doing the zoom on this screen and i've got my vdi desktop, on the other, screen.
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Andy Whiteside: And I haven't had this happen in forever, but something about recording the zoom is causing my mouse, not to work properly in the vdi desktop which used to not be all that uncommon and you'd have to reconnect or re login or whatever.
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Andy Whiteside: I mean simple things that that the average person, including probably all of us thinks should just work.
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Andy Whiteside: there's you know millions of lines of code potentially them to make that work and we just take it for granted, just like the idea that.
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Andy Whiteside: My should have my background custom background or virtual background in my vdi zoom session the same way, I do local and you know it's not that easy.
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Andy Whiteside: it's doable and easy are these days, but it's not just turned on by default and if you don't have that all sudden you're getting help desk tickets and you've lost credibility with your end user, and your vdi world.
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Andy Whiteside: But they just took for granted that you know everything just happens exactly the same way, and because we're all floating in this case of the eye gel where.
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Andy Whiteside: It is a massive difference, but still the end user has to have the same experience, let me, let me say this real quick I should have said this, the article if anybody was look it up as February 2 from Lars Lars his last name guy O clock clock.
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Andy Whiteside: yep and the name of it is how to configure zoom virtual backgrounds on idol os I think we might have skipped that part earlier but guys um.
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Andy Whiteside: I don't know if we have to go into detail on the so Chris, let me say this, the zoom custom partitions that he's got going on here, so these are, this is actually.
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Andy Whiteside: A little bit of a step ahead, this is.
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Andy Whiteside: Creating custom partitions not just using the native zoom agent that's built into it, am I saying that right.
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Chris Feeney: Now, so what you've got here at the bottom is are going he covers all the bases, so you can install zoom the actual zoom client on agile as a custom partition and so he's he's saying that if you use that option here's how you can you know get a virtual background to work.
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Andy Whiteside: You have to do a custom partition to get a virtual background you.
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Chris Feeney: Can just use, oh no so, then the other three zoom on citrix horizon or add that's where zoom is is running from within that session, but the offloading is occurring down to the agile device, and you want a virtual background, so if so he covers all four options essentially.
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Andy Whiteside: So so Chris if I wanted to use zoom natively on idol without a virtualization platform in the middle, I can do that.
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Chris Feeney: That would be yes, that would be through the zoom Linux APP which can only be installed as a custom partition on audio yeah.
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Andy Whiteside: i'm gonna have to get that done by my help desk team, because I need that because I won't always be in a virtual desktop when i'm trying to design.
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Chris Feeney: yeah I would recommend certainly going back and forth I have zoom locally installed.
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Chris Feeney: You could do teams locally installed or just edge as a browser you can run edge and teams from edge very well and I Joe s so.
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Chris Feeney: But to this article.
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Chris Feeney: to your point, you can run them locally, has to be installed as a custom partition we had a whole I joke Community site on how to how to make that work and then, if you're running zoom on these three other options citrix horizon add.
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Chris Feeney: He gives instructions on what to do, you basically modifying a file and for the Linux geeks out there there's a command called set which basically you're replacing text and he shows you how to do that in this article.
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Chris Feeney: Patrick i'm sure you've dealt with the said command and your time here at I Joel before and maybe sense.
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Patrick Toner: once or twice yeah we've had to deal with that yeah so.
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Patrick Toner: yeah and it's great it's great that you know you look at this he's obviously editing the die and I file to add a replay some text in there to make this happen so every little command.
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Andy Whiteside: question for you guys.
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Andy Whiteside: Does I don't care to add zoom and teams and webex into the operating system as a natively usable thing, or is it is it a is a conflict for them to put it in.
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Andy Whiteside: Like I obviously you guys have it in there to be used inside of a virtual session, but you haven't really seemed to put things into for native usage.
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Andy Whiteside: Why is that I know you guys have a chromium browser now, so you can use local you know browser but you don't really have native applications turned on user facing you do for some things but not these specific things is there, we things going on there, why.
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Chris Feeney: short answer is licensing got a the ability to.
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Chris Feeney: that's really the issue now what's different about a custom partition is.
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Chris Feeney: it's not it's not natively baked in when you're doing that you know we have obviously the citrix workspace APP for Linux and vmware we've already got agreements with those to be able to deploy it and install it now some of this is going to change with.
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Chris Feeney: The APP itself will be on our.
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Chris Feeney: APP store I keep saying that sorry apple APP portal.
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Patrick Toner: Apples listening right now you're.
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Chris Feeney: Right we're going to get thrown off the air.
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Chris Feeney: This is definitely not good this podcast is definitely.
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Chris Feeney: going to get thrown off of the apple environment anyway, but there'll be a point and so you'll have like the native zoom.
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Chris Feeney: client, if you want to install that at a local APP, for example, or the browser those will be available, and you can still the plugins will also be available like i'm pretty sure I did question mark on that I I need to confirm that, but you know.
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Chris Feeney: But that's where we're going to his base operating system and then whatever Apps you will come down from this portal concept.
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Andy Whiteside: But I bring this up for two reasons, one because i'm curious from an industry perspective and to i've got a big 34 inch all in one that will be running I gel that the.
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Andy Whiteside: LG guys gave me last week and i'm going to move to that, as my primary work computer and I want to be able to use it, with or without my virtual desktop in between.
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Chris Feeney: First of all, i'm really jealous I need to have a conversation with movie.
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Chris Feeney: Now that's awesome yeah that's right yeah there it is, is that a curve on the did they get it.
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Andy Whiteside: it's flat it's the one they have a conference last week I just yeah.
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Chris Feeney: I can take it, oh no that's a lot of real estate it's it's awesome i've got a 32 inch basically a TV that I could use it as a monitor next to me here.
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Chris Feeney: But yeah that's Nice.
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Andy Whiteside: Is that I think we've covered it right, I think I think we've covered the fact that there's a way to turn on virtual background from Lars is Article here, and I think.
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Andy Whiteside: we've had a great conversation around what the space looks like at the moment, hopefully we haven't confused people happy to have a conversation with anybody wants to talk about it further just maybe hit me up on linkedin.
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Andy Whiteside: Sure, Chris and Patrick would do the same and look it's not easy but it's so much more doable today, then before.
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Andy Whiteside: You know the idea that Patrick and go up and down the east coast trying to find a house and and work and then Chris and I can work from conferences and you know fun multiparty get home.
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Andy Whiteside: Traffic yeah cars traffic, you know it's just it's it's an awesome time and you know my my family would be quick to tell you that that just means that can work more and that's the other balance, I think we had father's day and.
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Andy Whiteside: You know the good news is I got to spend on my family The bad news is I did a couple of little work things in between and.
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Andy Whiteside: You know that balance of this hybrid work world but technologies like I Joe making it doable and in users should not even have to know that you guys on the back end our SIS admins did magical things to make it happen.
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Chris Feeney: yeah The other thing too is i'll just say this stuff is changing rapidly, I mean there have been in the last two years.
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Chris Feeney: This area this unified COM that's where we've seen, I would say, the majority of the updates from all the vendors.
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Chris Feeney: The the Apps and stuff like that, as they add fix things new features it's just become so rapid so if something isn't working now you're not quite sure it's probably because it's already been solved it's an upgrade thing or it's on a list of things to come, all that being said.
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Chris Feeney: To help kind of talk through this and get really our hands deep into it, Patrick and I have to the author of this.
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Chris Feeney: Article Lars lochner he's a fantastic architect on our side and he is graciously offered his time.
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Chris Feeney: For a workshop we've got coming up here in August so definitely hope to see you all there we're going to dig deeply into the whole unified comms space, and more specifically with agile and enlarge we'll get.
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Chris Feeney: There it kind of show us he's got an amazing lab where he can test all this stuff out and then he puts this stuff out there and a guide to help the Community get get this right, and certainly.
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Chris Feeney: If you want to learn more about it come now we'll have that information out here soon as I suspect, Patrick right.
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Patrick Toner: So it's actually live now so viewed as integra.com for slash events you know you see all of our events coming up, we do.
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Patrick Toner: workshops webinars and this one will specifically be a workshop on August 18 so anyone listening, you can go there now, you can sign up.
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Patrick Toner: This this will be one I mean I think pretty much every customer that we talked to is you know they're there, they need a strategy for this, so this is a great way to see how to configure each one of these.
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Patrick Toner: Whether it be zoom teams webex we'll get we'll get into the weeds and kind of walk through all the different configurations on obviously team, so the ticker.com forward slash events that's where you can find.
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Patrick Toner: You know that and more but but definitely sign up for this one of you, if you want to learn more about this.
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Chris Feeney: And one last thing for rapid i'll just say a lot of this features and stuff like that the endpoint is going to matter if you're going to offload audio and video down at device.
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Chris Feeney: you're going to want to make sure you understand what horsepower you have and what's capable.
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Chris Feeney: Those are some things i've learned working on all this stuff so we have a great tool that.
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Chris Feeney: Has integrity certainly has access to and can kind of help figure out if your existing device could be repurposed and meet this need for example being able to support something like this background.
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Chris Feeney: option, or are you only just going to get a limited subset or is it going to be, you know all of the above.
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Chris Feeney: So if you're not quite sure, well, we have the information to help figure those answers out and it looks like you might need a veteran point we've got great partnerships with the likes of LG and the no lo and others and integrity, certainly is engaged with those as well, so.
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Chris Feeney: let's have that conversation.
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Andy Whiteside: and Chris what you're really highlighting, there is, you have access to all this power and capabilities and there's a business justification Burry using devices, which is good for the environment, good for your your bottom line.
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Andy Whiteside: You know, huge initiatives by companies to find ways to throw less stuff away, and this is just one one way, we can do it.
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Chris Feeney: yeah absolutely.
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Chris Feeney: Well, thanks for the time again, always a pleasure.
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Andy Whiteside: Absolutely, thank you guys.
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Chris Feeney: All right, take care.