Kuando Busylight UC for Lync

 

update 2014-0306 – new driver released with the following features:

New Features and Functionality include:

• IM Alert (you can have it flash or flash with an audible alert)
• We included some basic FonComfort tools as a bonus:
• Busy-on-Busy Suppression
• Hot-Keys (Call Answer and Fast Dial-out)
• Cleaned up some bugs. (e.g. some issues with docking stations)

Wow.  Such a title for such a little piece of kit.  And it has a serious claim of enhancing workplace productivity.  You can read all the market-speak here.  Specifically the claim is to reduce co-worker/teammate interruptions.  I tried one of these a long time back when they first appeared – and I did not like it.  The required software was unstable; my laptop started crashing and removing the Busylight software solved that – ergo, bad software. Why try it again you might ask?  Well, flat out:  I was asked to.  And why not?  Let’s take a run at this and see how it does this time.

Here is what comes out of the box.

I installed the unit by plugging it into my USB hub.  And waited.  Maybe I should read the documentation?  Ah.  Download needed.  You can get it here. OK, moving ahead, I installed the software.  While doing that, I noticed a few PDF’s that are available for your edimication.  The datasheet and the quick guide.  The datasheet makes some pretty serious claims. The quick guide has the install instructions (repeats the included slip of paper) and also explains functions like what color means what, how to change the colors, ringtones, and volume.

Once the software was loaded, I set the unit up above my desk at Tsoorad Central.  While I don’t like market-speak, I must say that the appearance of the pulsing red “in a call” stopped several people in their tracks.  The cat still walked across the desk, but I am not sure the feline in question cares too much for human activity except for food procurement.

Ringtones from outside my laptop are most welcome – I usually have the stereo playing and the laptop speakers are not the most powerful units known to man.  The light flashes blue to indicate the incoming call – definitely easier to see than the Lync toast that is usually buried under open apps. All in all, the Busylight did what it advertised it would do for Lync, and while my statistical sampling size was not large enough to represent a large environment, the Busylight did indeed cut down on interruptions.  And the software seems to be fixed.

You can get one right here. 

YMMV