No Jitter Roll: Comms Security, Video UpdatesNo Jitter Roll: Comms Security, Video Updates
A look at the latest product news from Oracle, BlueJeans, Deepgram, Bose, and Zoom
June 18, 2020
This week we bring you news on a new approach to securing enterprise communications and collaboration, video meeting security and engagement updates, help on building models for automated speech recognition (ASR), headphone certification for Microsoft Teams, and a FedRAMP authorization.
Oracle Applies AI, SBC Smarts to Secure Enterprise Comms
Oracle takes aim at telephony denial of service, account takeovers, and other cyberthreats against real-time enterprise communications and contact center traffic with a newly introduced solution, Oracle Communications Security Shield (OCSS). Oracle has integrated advanced behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, and caller-reputation scoring into OCSS, which is built on Oracle Cloud infrastructure and relies on the artificial intelligence and enforcement capabilities of the company’s enterprise session border controller. Whereas legacy security solutions tend to rely on static, rule-based decision processes, OCSS enables dynamic call risk assessment, Oracle said.
An OCSS dashboard provides a real-time view into the communications traffic, and offers actionable guidance for mitigating threats and other anomalies, Oracle said. Enforcement policies are customizable.
OCSS is available now, with two levels of subscription pricing.
BlueJeans Adds Security, Engagement Features
In its first product announcement since being acquired by Verizon two months ago, videoconferencing platform provider BlueJeans this week took the wraps off a host of features aimed at improving video meeting security, engagement, and time management — all increasingly important factors for enterprises seeking to optimize work from home (WFH) over the long term. The update comprises five security enhancements and five features meant to address WFH video fatigue and loss of productivity by better approximating in-person experience, BlueJeans said.
For controlling meeting access, BlueJeans has introduced:
Restricted Meetings – Hosts can restrict meeting access to internal employees and external participants possessing a unique one-time passcode that allows for authentication via email confirmation or by logging into a BlueJeans account.
Waiting Room – Increased host management control for meeting admittance
Quick Lock – During a meeting, particularly on sensitive topics, the host can click to lock access to prevent unwanted drop-ins
Additional security enhancements include use of AES-256 GCM encryption of all meeting data in transit, and the ability to set screen share access at enterprise, individual, and per-meeting levels.
For improved engagement, the update offers:
Interactivity – Meeting participants can click for actions such as raise hand, clap, and thumbs-up/down, as well as use emojis in chat window
Virtual Backgrounds – Includes background blur, ability to upload personal background images, or select from a preloaded options
Smart Meetings Transcriptions – An add-on that provides non-meeting participants a way to search and scan content
Enhanced Slack integration – Auto-populates a private Slack channel with a Smart Meetings summary, including highlights and action items
Floating View – For tracking meeting conversations while multitasking
The updates are available now, with the exception of AES-256 GCM encryption, Waiting Room, non-raise hand interactions, and virtual backgrounds. These latter will be available for customer preview by the end of the summer, BlueJeans said.
Deepgram Offers Speech Modeling Free
On the heels of a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel, announced earlier this month, voice analytics startup Deepgram this week announced free access to its MissionControl dashboard. Via the MissionControl, users get guidance on data labeling, training their speech models, and transcription for ASR, Deepgram CEO Scott Stephenson wrote in a blog announcing availability of the free accounts.
Specifically, the free account entitles users to:
20 hours ASR per month
10 minutes of professional data labeling
Two training-ready datasets
Two custom models
One cloud deployment
As Stephenson explained in his post, Deepgram uses “deep learning through the entire speech-to-text lifecycle.” This allows it to build custom-trained speech models unique to each customer, he said.
Bose UC Headset Gets Microsoft Teams OK
Bose Professional this week gave notice that its Noise Cancelling Headphones (NCH) 700 UC are now officially certified for use with Microsoft Teams. The NCH 700 UC features 11 levels of noise cancellation, from virtual silence to ambient and open, Bose said.
Bose will begin accepting U.S. preorders for the UC headphones, which it introduced earlier this year as part of its Bose Work series. Bose has priced the NCH 700 UC at $449, as a retail recommendation. International preorders will follow, Bose said.
Zoom Phone Gets Federal Nod
Zoom Video Communications this week announced that Zoom Phone is now included as part of FedRAMP-approved Zoom for Government platform. Zoom for Government, which received FedRAMP Moderate Authorization in April 2019 via the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, already featured the Zoom Meetings, Chat, and Video Webinar services, Zoom said. FedRAMP offers a “standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services, allowing agencies “to rapidly adapt from old, insecure legacy IT to mission-enabling, secure, and cost-effective cloud-based IT.”
