Busylight for Microsoft Lync – test report by colima employee

Using Microsoft Lync

Using Lync for daily communication has many advantages and some disadvantages. For example, you do not know whether someone is on the phone, or watching a training video. Can I disturb someone who has a headset on or rather not? Or when a ringing sound is heard, who is the call for?

Formerly a glance  at the phone was enough to see where it was ringing. The Lync Client itself does not show where it is ringing.

In addition, we also have the following situation, due to our IT infrastructure: For the past few months we have been using Pano Zero Clients, which have replaced our old PCs. For our developers, who work exclusively on the VMs, this was the next logical step. Apart from the low maintenance costs for the hardware, a Zero Client consumes little power and is completely silent.

It does have a built-in speaker, but this is very soft, so that a “Lync ring” will only be noticed if you are actually sitting at your desk and the call is signaled on the screen. We have had the opportunity to test Busylight Lync over the past few weeks. First anxious question: Does it run on Pano?

The positive surprise

Yes, it works. Unfortunately, the double click option did not function when we installed the driver on our Windows 7 64bit VMs. The installation went through without complaint, but Busylight did not function.

Only a semi-automatic installation using ‘msiexec’ from a command prompt with elevated permissions led to success. The Busylight came to life, showing the status of the Lync user. In addition to the status colors that match the colors of Lync status, there are the signaling of incoming calls via a flashing blue light and a timid ring. The ringing is still softer than a laptop or Lync Desk Phone, but still louder than Pano itself – all in all quite useful. You can also set different ring tones, so that one can hear “his Busylight”. For those who do not like the acoustic signal, it can also be deactivate completely.

The real purpose, to show that someone is busy, is of course fulfilled.

Two minor things we noticed during testing that could be improved.

On the one hand, the implementation of Lync colors may not be the optimal solution, because the difference between “busy” and “do not disturb” is only visible in a direct comparison. On the other hand, the proposed attachment to the monitor via the adhesive pad, is a decision for life. At least for the monitor. You are most probably better off  with adhesive power strips or something similar.

This colima Cerebro video shows the Busylight in action: 

Here is the website for all those interested in kuando Busylight UC for Microsoft Lync: http://www.busylight.com/

Contact colima

Picture source: Plenom a/s

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