The first Cisco Spark boards have been shipped out and Cisco’s newest product seems to be a true hit. The device is turning heads in the unified communications and collaboration industry by packing microphones, ultra-high-definition cameras, voice-tracking technology and an advanced interactive whiteboard into a single offering. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that the Spark Board got quite the attention over the last few weeks and also won Best of Enterprise Connect 2017. But what is a Spark Board and what does it do?

The Cisco Spark Board is an all-in-one device for team collaboration. The device integrates the most common tools needed for team collaboration in physical meeting rooms into a single, elegant device.

With the Cisco Spark Board you can wirelessly present, whiteboard and video or audio conference everything you need for team collaborations. You connect to your virtual teams via the Cisco Spark app, without having to be in the same physical room. Using the Cisco Spark app, team members can pick up wherever they left off in the physical room, and continue working wherever they want. The app also gives you basic control of the Spark Board through your mobile phone. When you enter the room the spark board automatically detects your Cisco Spark app-supported device and will suggest an activity to choose from, such as; call, whiteboard or wirelessly share your presentation.

Having a meeting with someone on another continent? No problem for the Cisco Spark Board. You can easily share and record information during a meeting via the whiteboard feature. Participants can draw on a black canvas or any document and team members can edit at the same time. So, everyone who is in the Spark Board room can collaborate/draw on the whiteboard and the updates will be seen on everyone’s screen in real time. The device also saves everything in the cloud what has been written on the spark board instead of having to take a picture of a real whiteboard that will then get wiped out again.

Cisco’s focus with the Spark Board was on simplicity, hence why there are no remote controllers. Instead, users use the Spark Board’s touch-screen and drawing pen (that it magnetically attached to the bottom of the board) to navigate. Staying within the simplicity theme, Cisco built the device to be set up as simply as possible by just assembling it to a wall and plug it in.

The board also comes with a 4k camera that captures a high-resolution, wide-angle image of virtually the entire room. Dynamic framing gives you the best possible view of people in the room. Also, no issues with wired microphones anymore. The Spark Board has a built-in microphone that automatically amplifies and modulates speaker voices so meeting participants sound great, even those furthest away from the board.

Another interesting fact is that the Spark Board automatically connects to any laptop, PC, Mac or mobile device with no Wi-Fi, network connection or Bluetooth needed. Cisco is able to achieve this through “ground-breaking new ultrasound wireless pairing”.

Also, interesting to know is that a person can walk up to any Spark Board in the world, even if it’s not owned by them or their company and can start sharing with one click. This is a way of how the networking giant is creating a global network of workspaces that users can access from anywhere.

So, what does all of this cost? The Cisco Spark Board is coming with very aggressive pricing, because Cisco wants to get the device to as many rooms and customers as possible. So instead of going in on $15,000 and over the board is available for $4,990 along with a $199 per-month subscription fee for services.