Page 26 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

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Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire BabbleLabs to Improve Video Meeting

Experience

Work is what you do, not where you go. With this reality, unwanted 100 percent at the source where the noise happens (on the client
background noise has become one of the most common and side). In doing so, BabbleLabs aligns to strict data policies that
frustrating distractions in today’s work environment. To help underpin Cisco’s culture of security by design. “A great meeting
users control unwanted noise in meetings--be it from barking experience starts with great audio,” said Jeetu Patel, senior vice
dogs, lawn mowers, a car alarm or sirens--Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) president and general manager, Cisco Security and Applications
announced its intent to acquire privately held BabbleLabs, Inc. Business Unit. “We’re thrilled to welcome BabbleLabs’ team of
headquartered in Campbell, CA. BabbleLabs uses advanced AI highly skilled engineers. Their technology is going to provide our
(Artificial Intelligence) techniques to distinguish human speech customers with yet another important innovation – automatically
from unwanted noise, enhancing the quality of communications removing unwanted noise - to continue enabling exceptional
and conferencing applications. BabbleLabs goes beyond existing Webex meeting experiences.” “BabbleLabs is excited to become
noise suppression technology solutions by: part of Cisco and the Collaboration Group,” said Chris Rowen,
• Distinguishing speech from background noise; CEO and co-founder of BabbleLabs. “The Cisco team shares
• Removing background noise in real-time; and our passion about speech as the core of collaboration and
• Enhancing the voice to elevate communication, regardless of communication. Cisco’s Collaboration platform will enable us to
language. quickly scale our exceptional speech enhancement technology for
According to a Cisco global survey* focused on the future of the hundreds of millions of Webex users.”
work, 98 percent of workers say they experience frustration from
distractions during video meetings when working from home. Two
of the top 5 frustrations called out are about background noise—
either from other participants or their own side of the call. With
the addition of BabbleLabs, Cisco will bring native noise removal
capability to its entire Collaboration portfolio. Initially, Cisco will
focus on integrating BabbleLabs to deliver a best-in-class audio
experience to Webex Meetings users - wherever they are and
however they connect via the Webex application (whether via a
conference room or mobile device). A great user experience is also
a secure user experience. BabbleLabs complements Cisco’s focus
on secure and private collaboration by processing noise removal

OTEGLOBE Strengthens Its Network Backbone with Cisco 400G IP
Infrastructure to Meet European Demands for More Bandwidth

Cisco announced that OTEGLOBE has backbone network. As the OTEGLOBE With the latest enhancements to its
improved its network backbone with Cisco network infrastructure grows, the ASR network, OTEGLOBE has also received MEF
ASR 9900 5th Generation Line Cards ready 9900 helps to provide the network control 3.0 certification, validating that its network
to respond to its customers’ needs for a and performance necessary to take quick is compliant with the highest industry
400G-powered network. The Cisco ASR actions that result in an optimal experience standards for performance, assurance, and
9900 high-performance router allows for subscribers. Other notable benefits agility. “At OTEGLOBE, we are determined to
OTEGLOBE’s already robust, resilient, include: continue to lead the industry in innovation
and secure network to tackle increased • Speed and Cost Savings: Industry- and invest in the high-caliber technologies
demand at the network edge with leading 7nm silicon CPUs provide that enable us to offer the best services
economic scale, and the ability to support higher throughput rates while delivering to our customers,” said Panagiota
application performance needed for significant power savings Βosdogianni, CTO, OTEGLOBE. “By
400G services. Headquartered in Athens, • Customization: A modern network introducing Cisco’s 400 GbE technology
Greece, OTEGLOBE is a network backbone operating system (IOS XR) that allows to our IP core network, we can respond
operator delivering transport, peering, and for custom deployments into the seamlessly to traffic bursts during peak
interconnect services throughout South- environment hours and accommodate even our largest
eastern Europe. It is also the wholesale • Automation: Drives improved network customers’ needs with simplification,
carrier that reaches Western Europe resiliency and reduces mean-time-to- economic scale, improved flexibility, and
through Greece over a fully mesh optical repair an optimal customer experience.”

26 AUGUST 2020