When it comes to praise, it’s always better if somebody else does the talking for you. So Revolabs and Yamaha are probably pleased that in a report Wainhouse Research calls its Yamaha CS-700 Video Sound Collaboration System “a huddle room powerhouse hiding within a somewhat utilitarian package” with “strong price-to-performance ratio.”
The third-party researcher focuses on critical issues in the UC, conferencing, collaboration and professional AV markets. The full report, “Evaluation of the Yamaha CS-700,” is available for download.
“The takeaway here is that the CS-700 is a huddle room powerhouse hiding within a somewhat utilitarian package,” the authors write. “Given its strong price-to-performance ratio and remote management capabilities, we expect the CS-700 to be well received by enterprise customers.”
What Wainhouse Had to Say
For the report, senior analyst and Wainhouse Research partner Ira M. Weinstein and senior researcher and consultant Saar Litman conducted hands-on testing of the CS-700AV model as a USB AV add-on device (its primary use case) and as a Bluetooth speakerphone, according to a Yamaha press release.
“The system is easy to install, easy to use, and provides a strong audio and video experience,” according to the Wainhouse report.
In USB AV add-on mode, the goal was to evaluate the performance and experience of both audio and video during numerous video calls using a variety of collaboration tools and cloud services.
Likewise, when used as a Bluetooth speakerphone, the goal was to evaluate the performance and quality of the audio experience during test calls to two types of smartphones.
“There’s a lot to like about the CS-700AV. The system is easy to install, easy to use, and provides a strong audio and video experience. In addition, in terms of the system design, the unit is thin and relatively unobtrusive when installed,” the report states.
“But there’s more to the CS-700 series than meets the eye. Unlike most of the USB solutions in this category, the CS-700 can be configured, monitored, and managed remotely via IP.”
The report also praises the CS-700’s ease of provisioning, monitoring, and control, and the wide range of audio, video, network, security, and control options through its web UI.
“We’re thrilled that independent analysts with their fingers on the pulse of the industry have confirmed what so many of us already knew about the CS-700 — that there’s a lot of performance packed into an easy-to-use, space-saving, sleek design,” says Holger Stoltze, director of product management, Revolabs.
“This product evaluation validates that we’ve accomplished what we set out to do with the CS-700.”
