In today’s hybrid work environment, intelligent devices delivering high-quality audio and video are essential for effective collaboration. Cisco room devices are central to an increasing number of meeting spaces, and the most recent AVoIP (Audiovisual over IP) accessories—like the table and ceiling microphones, tracking cameras, touch controllers and room booking devices — make it easier than ever before to achieve a complete experience tailored to the meeting space.
The benefits of AVoIP room deployments cannot be overstated. From simplified installation, setup, and support to more intelligent end user experiences, IP-connected meeting spaces allow IT teams to do more with less resources, lower the total cost of ownership of the AV tech stack, and redefine the possibilities in modern workspaces.
IP-connected Cisco room accessories can radically simplify the AV deployment with plug-and-play connectivity and simple scaling, working together and with the Cisco video device as a uniquely integrated meeting room ecosystem and transmitting power, media, and intelligent control signals over Ethernet. This is a game-changer for your IT departments and AV teams who can reduce the cost and integration complexity of traditional conferencing deployments and forget about extenders, extra power adapters, and traditional video cabling limitations. And not least of all, you can leverage better security compared to traditional AV approaches, given the benefits of encrypted media and APIs over IP.
The challenge of scaling room deployments
As collaboration spaces become more sophisticated, IT teams tasked with deploying and managing video conferencing systems often need to use more accessories, such as cameras and audio systems, than can be directly connected to the room device. This often brings the need for a higher number of ports or more Power over Ethernet (PoE) than the room device can supply by default. It has been common practice for installers and systems integrators to add a network switch to the room as a means to create a segmented network for extra port capacity and extended power budget for the conferencing setup.
In addition, the practicality of AV deployment sometimes dictates to place the room accessories in optimal locations, on the conference table, on the walls or on the ceiling, where adding a network switch under the table or in an AV rack away from the main device provided more simplicity for the video installation.
However, until now the switch and the connected room accessories have remained an isolated island in the sea of AV components while failing to integrate into the broader IT management, security, and monitoring platforms. Simply put, the switch and the connected peripherals stayed invisible from a workspace and network management perspective, creating blind spots for IT admins when trying to monitor and troubleshoot the AV infrastructure.
As organizations embrace hybrid work, the ability to seamlessly extend the corporate network into meeting rooms is critical for scaling high-quality, AI-powered collaboration experiences. Today’s meeting spaces require more than just reliable audio and video—flexibility, security, and manageability of enterprise-grade networking are all key building blocks to elevate your video-enabled rooms to be part of a future-proof, connected workplace.
This is where extending your AV accessory network with the latest, fully managed Cisco Catalyst 9200CX switches becomes critical and signals the next evolution of IP-connected meeting room deployments.
Why the Cisco Catalyst 9200CX is the right match with AVoIP
The Cisco Catalyst 9200CX switch is the perfect choice to bring Power over Ethernet (PoE) to modern meeting rooms and collaboration spaces with a series of compact, silent, yet powerful network switches specifically designed for installation in limited spaces and smart building environments. The 9200CX switches offer:
- Silent Operation: The fanless design ensures quiet performance, ideal for noise-sensitive environments like meeting rooms.
- Reliable Power (PoE): Designed to provide up to 240W PoE overall, the C9200CX powers a variety of accessories directly through a single Ethernet cable.
- PoE Port Capacity: Available in 8 and 12 PoE-port models to easily scale room peripherals even in large conference rooms, boardrooms, or learning spaces requiring an array of ceiling microphones and multiple tracking cameras.
- Flawless Performance: Robust Quality of Service features combined with one or multi-gigabit speed help to prioritize audio and video traffic to ensure smooth, uninterrupted collaboration.
- Seamless Management: Integrates seamlessly with Cisco Catalyst Center or Meraki Dashboard, and will soon become visible in Control Hub, for simple setup, unified controls, and workspace monitoring.
- Built-in Security: Secure connected devices with upcoming integrations into network access control solutions like Cisco Identity Service Engine to provide 802.1X authentication.
- Form Factor: It offers a compact form factor that is suitable to be mounted under the meeting room table, behind monitors, or in an AV credenza.
Combining the C9200CX switches with Cisco AVoIP devices is by no means just a simple integration but has a compound effect. This includes ensuring that your room accessories operate on their own isolated network segment, preventing interference and ensuring smooth communication. The switch can also intelligently prioritize AVoIP traffic (voice, video, and critical timing signals) to ensure crystal-clear audio and video, even when the network is busy. And lastly, it uses smart technology to send AVoIP streams only where they’re needed, keeping your network efficient and clutter-free.
This network extension transforms meeting rooms from isolated setups into fully integrated, scalable components of your IT ecosystem.
Experience full-scale visibility and management
By deploying a Catalyst 9200CX switch directly in a meeting room, an IT team can get full control and visibility.
AV admins will soon be able to gain visibility of and manage the network switch in Control Hub (using Cisco Discovery Protocol) alongside other room conferencing devices and accessories. This removes AV management blind spots and helps administrators gain valuable insights, such as which room device is connected to which port on the switch, supporting inventory management and easing diagnostics.
Driven by our strategy to consolidate admin workflows into one cohesive ecosystem, in the future IT admins will be able to switch from a workspace management perspective to a network monitoring view of the switch without any friction in their workflow, enabling a more holistic oversight of the infrastructure.
For instance, IT admins will be able to remotely manage and monitor the PoE switch and the connected accessories from the network layer, ensuring quicker troubleshooting, enhanced security, and consistent configuration across all collaboration spaces, all while maintaining a compact footprint.
Why Cisco for your AVoIP accessories?
By combining Cisco room devices with the Cisco Catalyst 9200CX, you can build a resilient, high-performance, and easily manageable collaboration ecosystem—creating fully network-aware meeting rooms. Cisco offers validated designs to ensure optimized performance for a flawless audiovisual experience in the room.
Moreover, the integration provides enterprise-grade protection for all your collaboration endpoints while helping you scale your collaboration spaces with confidence and ease, even when there are multiple cameras, microphones, touch controllers, and other peripherals involved in medium and large conference rooms, boardrooms, and more advanced workspace deployments.
Ready to transform your meeting rooms with a truly integrated AVoIP accessory experience?
Discover how Cisco’s AVoIP validated design , powered by the Cisco Catalyst 9200CX, can streamline your deployments and unlock the full potential of your collaboration technology.
What’s more, you can easily model and configure your meeting spaces in 3D using the Workspace Designer which allows you to visualize your room deployment and generate blueprints with the C9200CX switches today (don’t forget to activate the ‘Cable view’ in the designer).Explore Cisco’s AV over IP solutions for video collaboration and the C9200CX switches today.
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