A few months ago we announced SCOPIA Mobile, a first-of-its-kind mobile app for smartphones to control the video conferencing infrastructure. And ever since it was released, people are really excited by it. It’s like having the control of your conferencing bridge and your meetings from the palm of your hand, a remote control that is always in your pocket.

The most common feedback we got for the SCOPIA Mobile app was “OMG it’s so great. Can I use it to control my endpoint?”. Sure, there are ways to control that meeting room system without a remote – via a dedicated or general purpose touch panel – but having the same control via a handheld device makes much more sense, not to mention is a whole lot cooler…

Well, as the innovators in this field, we immediately went to the drawing board, and this week, in the Wainhouse Research BOSTON Collaboration Summit, we announce SCOPIA Control, an iPad application to control our SCOPIA XT1000 HD room system.

Introducing: SCOPIA Control

SCOPIA Control brings the familiar, highly intuitive and “magical” user interface of the iPad to the video conferencing room. It allows users to fully operate our recently introduced SCOPIA XT1000, without any need for a learning curve. Even if you’re new to video conferencing, you can’t go wrong with our contextual menus, that allow you to place calls, control the on-going conference and enjoy the many features our video conferencing system offers. All of this, of course, utilizing the goods the Apple people are kind enough to offer – a large screen, excellent graphics and the multi-touch UI. After all, 3 million users can’t be wrong.

What I especially like about using the iPad as a control device, is that there is more and more sense in having one of those (at least…) in your conference rooms. Cisco obviously thinks so.  Well, we think so too. And a control application on the iPad is cost-effective, needs no wires or a complicated set-up, and allow you to control your endpoint while browsing the web or catching up on your e-mail.

And this kind of app can really change the way you conduct your meetings as of today – you can put the room calendar on the iPad screen and see which conference you should attend; you can connect to a meeting with one click; you can invite participants using the corporate directory; you can even control the camera and microphones from the iPad.

But what’s truly great about having the “remote control” on the iPad is that you can utilize our Advanced Data Collaboration technology to get all those documents shared during the meeting on your iPad screen, so that you can review them in a more personalized manner.

We are showing the SCOPIA Control on the iPad, along with our SCOPIA XT1000 HD room system, at the WR Collaboration Summit in Boston this week. There are many features that are very cool to demo, but give little benefit to the users. Other give great benefit, but are complicated to comprehend. The SCOPIA Control is a great combination of both – it looks great, and it works even greater.