If you’re like me you will have been in an unprecedented number of online meetings this year. Research shows that poor audio is costing businesses time and money with the “average audio solution end user loses 29 minutes per week due to poor sound quality on voice calls”, something many of us have also experienced this year.
EPOS are launching their products into Australia to help Australian business stay productive with high end audio products designed to work as required, when required with a focus on the enterprise market.
So who are EPOS? EPOS launched in 2020 and is a member of the Demant Group — “a world-leading audio and hearing technology group that offers solutions and services to help people connect and communicate with the world around them”. You may have never heard of them but the Danish company is in 30 countries worldwide.
EPOS are now bringing their products, and the current Sennheiser Communications portfolio co-branded as EPOS I SENNHEISER, to Australia and they are covering the entire market with various devices of various price points. The two series’ they are bringing to Australia are the Adapt Series and an Expand series product.
Adapt Series
The Adapt series is a series of premium audio solutions allowing users to make business calls from anywhere. It’s tag line is “Work Your Way” and is designed to not just provide high quality business calls but also an optimised music experience.
Adapt 660
The Adapt 660 is a traditional looking set of over the ear headphones that is EPOS’ own AI for “crystal clear calls” and adaptive ANC along with “superior stereo sound”. The machine learning is also expanded to the microphone performance (somehow, the details are sparse no just how it does this — apparently it automatically adapts to your hearing and voice while studying the environment).
The headphones offer a dedicated Microsoft Teams button along with Alexa support. They can be connected to your PC or device with standard Bluetooth pairing or by using the USB dongle included. Ay $640 they are by no means cheap but offer the best audio experience possible for the enterprise.
Adapt 560
The Adapt 560 is a step down from the 660 and are on-ear headphones with an integrated boom mic. They include ANC as well although not the fancy AI version in the 660 headset. Designed to be extremely comfortable for all-day wearing they also include a Microsoft Teams button and a USB dongle to connect if your PC does not have the standard Bluetooth capabilities.
With 46 hours of battery life they will continue on all day without any loss in audio when it matters. Just like the 660 they offer high quality stereo music performance for an all-round headset experience. Having used these, the sturdy boom mic does fold out of the way and is very inconspicuous. Retailing for $399 they are extremely flexible in their uses.
Adapt 460
The Adapt 460 remind me of the Bose headphones of a few years ago where there is a neck band with in ear buds protruding from it. These are extremely light and portable but still deliver ANC along with a rich sound — although just how rich remains to be seen given the fact their are only ear buds.
The noise cancelling mics combined with the ANC are designed to offer not just high quality meeting audio but also great music quality once again. The Adapt 460 will set you back a RRP of $480.
Adapt 360
The Adapt 360 is an over-ear design along with lightweight materials allow for long term wearing and comfort. They also include ANC and 46 hours of battery life and high quality audio they are by no means missing out on features required for a high end music and meeting experience.
The Adapt 360 retails for $399 are participating sellers.
Expand 80
The Expand 80 series device is an on-table scalable speakerphone which includes six adaptive, beam-forming microphones to isolate the human voice from reverb and ambient noise. The goal is for everyone in the room to be heard and those in remote locations heard by those in the room.
Using PC connections or Bluetooth it can be used with all conferencing services.
We have many different companies selling headphones in Australia but not many are purely focused on the enterprise like EPOS. Their new offerings bring high quality audio to the enterprise while also allowing flexibility for using during personal time with great quality music.
They may not be cheap but your business may think that the price is small in comparison with the lost productivity due to poor audio. For more information head on over to the EPOS website.
