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Huawei IdeaHub – A modern-day conferencing solution


Centurion, 26 May 2021
Itumeleng Mochocho, Unified Network Solutions Executive, Sizwe Africa IT Group.
Itumeleng Mochocho, Unified Network Solutions Executive, Sizwe Africa IT Group.

Technology continues to change life as we know it. Everything from the way we operate in our homes, in public places as well as in our professional working environments. An area that is changing at a fast pace in the office environment is the conferencing and presentation space.

The drastic change in work habits that is taking place globally, especially with movement restrictions, is also leading to the development of technology solutions that are converging capabilities into single devices and streamlining processes such as live and virtual presentations and meetings.

One such solution is technology vendor Huawei’s IdeaHub, which is a perfect team collaboration board that takes all the elements of a conferencing or boardroom multimedia solution and converges them into one smart device.

The ultra-smart board incorporates five major highly integrated capabilities: It is a fully functional smart board; it has a built-in 4K camera; a built-in high-definition microphone array; an optional built-in Android system/Windows OPS, surround speaker system; and can be wall mounted or attached to a mobile stand.

According to global research firm Gartner, by 2024, remote work and new workforce demographics will mean that only 25% of meetings will take place in-person. Seventy-four percent of companies will permanently shift to remote work as a result of the experiences they had during COVID-19. What’s more, by 2023, 50% of all video conferencing systems may be based on Windows or Android appliances.

Says Itumeleng Mochocho, Unified Network Solutions Executive at Sizwe Africa IT Group: “This solution is a must-have for a modern-day boardroom because it essentially replaces the entire traditional conference room. It does away with devices such as conference terminals, projectors, projection screens, whiteboards, conference control tablets as well microphones and speakers.”

As part of its value-add to this solution, Sizwe is offering free installation and end-user training to ensure its clients employ it efficiently to their operations and extract full value out of it.

He adds that Sizwe has been so impressed with the IdeaHub that it has installed a number of terminals at its head office, as well as at some of its regional offices. “Much like a lot of technology solutions that we implement for our clients, testament to their quality and effectiveness lies in the fact that we also use them at our offices as well,” says Mochocho.

Sizwe is currently offering proof of concept (POC) for a period of six months at clients’ sites both in the public and private sector in South Africa and has received favourable responses from end-users across the board.

In addition to the Huawei Native Video Conference technology on the IdeaHub, which makes it the most ideal telepresence video conference terminal, it also integrates third-party platforms like Windows and Android, and uses third-party applications like MS Teams and Zoom.

Furthermore, it also has a built-in intelligent handwriting recognition feature, noise blocking capability via an acoustic baffle feature, auto framing as well as an intelligent speaker tracker feature for video conferences.

This all-in-one telepresence terminal has many potential usage scenarios in many industry sectors.

In enterprise and government, it would be perfect for policy promotion scenarios that involve interested parties that are situated in different locations, and also for remote training.

In the education space, it can also be used for remote learning and may enable students who are based in far-reaching areas or unable to attend lectures in specific locations to engage in a live video conference. It can also be used to engage a guest lecturer from another province or country. In addition, it can also be used to facilitate group discussions.

In the healthcare space, medical institutions can apply it to several telemedicine scenarios such as remote diagnosis, where doctors are unable to travel to give second opinions, and also for surgical teaching, where a specialist is also unable to be physically present for a procedure.

Meanwhile, Gartner has identified Huawei as a main challenger alongside Google and LogMeIn in its Meeting Solutions Magic Quadrant, for its hardware video endpoints and solutions for on-premises deployments


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Sizwe Africa IT Group

Sizwe Africa IT Group is one of South Africa’s leading integrated IT solutions providers. We’re a passionate, skilled and rapidly-expanding partner of choice for many progressive organisations; both in the public and private sector, that benefit from the value we contribute across the entire IT value chain.

More than twenty years ago we started as Sizwe Business Networking, a ‘box dropping’ organisation and have grown to be a services and solutions provider which has established a nationwide footprint.

Sizwe has built an impressive track record based on our ability to offer complete peace of mind to our clients. We do so by providing innovative solutions to the most demanding challenges and have demonstrated that we have the technical knowledge, experience and ability to deploy effective, resilient and reliable solutions.

In building this expertise and capabilities, we partner with leading hardware and software OEMs and our experienced and dedicated personnel.

Editorial contacts

Lerato Ndlovu
Sizwe Africa IT Group
(+27) 012 657 5337
lerato.ndlovu@sizwegroup.co.za