After pre-launching earlier this year at CES the French Invoxia has finally publicly released their latest product – the Audioffice. The guys at Invoxia really worked hard to make a beautiful device – and it shows! It’s a beautiful piece of hardware that aims to bring simplicity to telephony in the workplace.
Building on the trend of “bring your own device” to the workplace the new Audioffice is the perfect companion for those who want to reduce friction when using their smartphones at work. The aesthetically pleasing device sits on top of you desk – and while it can pair with iOS or Android devices via Bluetooth – the true beauty of it comes when you plug your smartphone on top of the device, akin to other dock connecting sound speakers.
You can see your incoming calls on the phone’s screen and the Audioffice sports a wired phone headset that makes it as if you were using a desktop wired-phone. You don’t even need to touch your phone to answer calls since the Audioffice has a dedicated physical button, a huge win over other audio speakers. The prominence of the physical button makes it look like a missile “launch” button but I really like the design
Even though many other smartphone connected sound speakers can double as a loudspeaker for calls, the Audioffice is focused on the telephony side rather than the music capabilities (though it can perfectly handle music playback). While you can use it as a loudspeaker on a conference table, or family get together, the dedicated wired phone headset make it perfect for attending personal calls, the physical button also give a more natural experience, and the flat design remove excessive bulk and make it suitable for any desk top.
What really stroked me on the Audioffice is the sound quality of the speakers. While our phones can now handle high quality voice data we lose the fidelity using the phone’s speakers. That is a huge advantage in using something like the Audioffice. They have developed a new technology in-house that they call the In Vivo Acoustic (patent pending). This new tech makes you hear the other person as if in the room and not coming from the speakers. Touted as sound quality combined with spatialization it provides the ultimate telephony experience, and a welcomed innovation for meeting rooms where traditionally only one person sits at the optimal audio output spot – with three microphones and six speakers the In Vivo Acoustic greatly improve both audio input and output.
As for home use and music listening goes, the company is not actively focusing on that – and while they tout those features I’m guessing it will be more of a halo purchase from users on the business setting that want to replicate the experience at home.
We were impressed with the new Audioffice from Invoxia. You can see how the product oozes quality and can improve business setting telephony. With the ever growing trend of bring your own device to the workplace it only makes sense for companies to adapt their telephony interfaces for something more compatible with user’s needs. The Audioffice does just that, and packing their innovations in sound quality this new device can for good change the phone experience in the workplace.