Lenovo^TM announced ahead of Enterprise Connect two solutions to help the businesses more easily upgrade meeting spaces into managed video conferencing spaces and Microsoft Teams Rooms. The Lenovo ThinkSmart^TM Tiny Kit and the ThinkPad^TM Universal USB-C Smart Dock – ThinkSmart Edition enables users to drive smart collaboration while providing IT managers the benefits of managed meeting spaces.

As hybrid work scenarios continue to grow and become a new norm worldwide, businesses face another challenge in intelligent transformation—making meeting spaces smarter. It is estimated more than 43 percent of remote workers feel they are not fully included in meetings, and less than 8 percent of meeting rooms worldwide are video enabled.¹ Because of this, firms are looking to level up collaboration to meet the needs of workers and the IT departments serving them.

“Customers are faced with a continuum of options as they look to deploy the right technologies to build and upgrade meeting spaces for today’s world of hybrid work and distributed teams,” said Shannon MacKay, General Manager of Worldwide Smart Collaboration Business at Lenovo. “The ThinkSmart Tiny Kit and the ThinkSmart dock are entry-level solutions for transforming meeting spaces into better audio/video experiences while adding backend manageability for IT support.”

Lenovo ThinkSmart Tiny Kit

The Lenovo ThinkSmart Tiny Kit includes the ThinkCentre M70q Gen 4 compute module and ThinkSmart Controller which together enable a Microsoft Teams meeting with single front-of-room display and external audio/video. Additionally, Lenovo will offer a ThinkSmart USB HDMI Capture dongle at a later date. The solution is ideal for customers looking for a low barrier to upgrade from bring your own device (BYOD) meeting experiences—unmanaged meeting room solutions requiring a participant’s PC to drive the meeting— to a Microsoft Teams Rooms experience.

With in-room compute power supporting the meeting, ThinkSmart Tiny Kit users can enjoy Microsoft Teams Rooms features, such as one-touch join and Front Row. A modular kit, customers also have the opportunity to add preferred certified peripherals like the ThinkSmart Bar 180 and ThinkSmart Cam to optimize room experiences. For customers that would like to upgrade and access more features in the Microsoft Teams Rooms experiences, ThinkSmart offers a number of certified Microsoft Teams Rooms devices, including the ThinkSmart Hub, ThinkSmart One, and ThinkSmart Core.

The ThinkSmart Tiny Kit is supported by ThinkSmart Manager, Lenovo’s proprietary console that provides IT teams with the ability to deploy, monitor and troubleshoot Lenovo ThinkSmart devices from a single interface, regardless of the state or location of the devices. The solution enables IT managers to check room status, add new devices, and new users, as well as view all active users, check for updates, and restart a device. ThinkSmart Manager automatically detects issues, so IT staff get immediate, real-time notifications on critical issues, even before users can report them.

ThinkPad Universal USB-C Smart Dock – ThinkSmart Edition

The ThinkSmart dock is an entry-level solution for businesses who want to capture room usage and other data analytics for future strategic technology investments while keeping the interoperability and flexibility of a BYOD room. Preloaded with ThinkSmart Manager Basic, the smart dock allows IT administrators to achieve functionality of a managed room.

The ThinkSmart dock is equipped with a vast array of ports, next-gen plug-and-play functionality, rapid charging capabilities², and is powerful enough to install critical firmware updates automatically. The ThinkSmart dock features an innovative cable management system that keeps all cables out of the way and locked down to prevent accidental unplugging. This allows for meeting attendees to quickly plug-in their laptops using a single, tidy cord.

Combining unified communications (UC) interoperability (Teams, Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, etc.) with plug-and-play flexibility, the ThinkSmart dock allows one cable to connect users to professional meeting room quality audiovisual devices and large format displays for group meetings within a conference room or meeting space.

Availability and Pricing³

The Lenovo ThinkSmart Tiny Kit is available worldwide in the second half of 2024 starting at $949.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Universal USB-C Smart Dock – ThinkSmart Edition is available worldwide in the second half of 2024 starting at $349.

Service and Support

The Lenovo ThinkSmart Tiny Kit comes with one year of Lenovo’s Premier Support⁵, upgradeable to three, four, and five year terms, providing access to advanced technicians 24-hours a day, 365 days a year.

ThinkSmart compute products, including the Lenovo ThinkSmart Tiny Kit, offer protection by proactive security features at every layer. Delivering end-to-end peace of mind, Lenovo ThinkShield includes supply chain assurance and below-the-OS protection.⁶