Microsoft just announced “Project Rigel” to bring rich Skype for Business experience to meeting rooms everywhere

Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion and the seventh brightest star in the night sky.

At the Enterprise Connect 2015 keynote, Microsoft just announced a new initiative Microsoft are kicking off, called Project Rigel.

 

It’s inspired by the Surface Hub experience and will bring a consistent experience to meeting rooms, needing only standard equipment such as projectors. It seems to be a mini version of a full-on room system, or dedicated device such as a Hub. The aim appears to be to bring that simple, “just works” experience using commodity equipment.

Project Rigel will bring a Skype Meeting experience pioneered on Microsoft Surface Hub to nearly any meeting room with a display or projector. It will use Windows 10 devices for center-of-room touch control and Skype for Business online meeting technology to easily connect remote users. Hardware partners including Polycom and Logitech will certify elements of their portfolios for use with Project Rigel systems, including the Polycom RealPresence Trio and CX5100, and Logitech ConferenceCam Connect, ConferenceCam GROUP and PTZ Pro Camera. Logitech also plans to deliver a purpose-built smart dock for Project Rigel to seamlessly connect the system elements in a meeting room, while Polycom plans to deliver a portfolio of complete Project Rigel systems.

Polycom have just put out a press release saying that they will “as part of Microsoft’s newly announced Project Rigel, Polycom will deliver a new line of room solutions purpose built for Skype for Business that will offer plug-and-play simplicity in a variety of configurations to meet the needs of any sized business and any sized room. Additionally, Polycom’s leading voice and video technologies, such as Polycom® CX5100 and Polycom® RealPresence Trio™, will be certified for Project Rigel solutions.”

Logitech have also announced their intention to deliver a purpose built smart-dock for Project Rigel to seamlessly connect the system elements in a meeting room, in a recent blog post. In addition, Logitech will certify elements of its portfolio for use with Project Rigel systems, including the Logitech ConferenceCam Connect, ConferenceCam GROUP and PTZ Pro Camera.

You can expect the first systems based on Project Rigel to be available in the second half of 2016.

You can watch the full keynote here.