LoopUp launches new virtual meeting room product

Cloud communications provider LoopUp Group announced the launch of LoopUp Rooms on Wednesday, which it said would combine its premium remote meeting solution with off-the-shelf hardware, creating “plug-and-play” video conferencing suites.

The AIM-traded firm explained that, as businesses saw an increase in remote and hybrid working, demand was growing for collaborative spaces that allowed employees to communicate “securely and productively” with clients and colleagues.

It said that, until recently, video suites had often been expensive to install, complex to use and inaccessible to many employees.

By contrast, it described LoopUp Rooms as a plug-and-play solution that could be set up in minutes and used off-the-shelf hardware, being a display screen, a “high-quality” camera, a mini-PC, a touch-screen controller and a conference room phone.

Users would join meetings with one touch from a touch-screen controller, which then used the high quality video and display of the room's screen and camera, and managed quality-of-service audio of the room's speaker phone.

Users could reserve the meeting room directly from Microsoft Outlook, which added their LoopUp meeting details to the calendar on the room's touch-screen controller.

“With remote and distributed working now the new normal for many, a growing number of meetings are taking place by video conference,” said co-chief executive officers Steve Flavell and Michael Hughes in a joint statement.

“Businesses need more meeting rooms equipped with technology for employees to collaborate effectively and comfortably with clients and colleagues.

“We're facilitating this by making premium video conferencing suites more cost competitive, accessible and intuitive for users without having to call upon IT for assistance.”

At 1016 BST, shares in LoopUp Group were down 0.44% at 226.5p.