On this episode of Direct from the Expo, the Collab Collective’s Craig Durr speaks with Rich Bayes, Senior Director of Product Management at Cisco, live at ISE 2026. Their conversation explores how Cisco is advancing collaboration through AI-driven platforms, new room and personal devices, and a growing ecosystem of partners designed to simplify deployment and scale experiences across the enterprise.
Or tune in on your preferred streaming platform:
Craig Durr: Hey, everyone. This is Craig Durr, Chief Analyst and Founder of the Collab Collective. I'm excited to bring you another episode of Direct from the Expo at ISE 2026.
This is fantastic, huh?
Rich Bayes: Yes. It's great to be here.
Craig Durr: I want to introduce you to a new friend of mine, Rich Bayes.
How are you doing?
Rich Bayes: I'm doing good. Thank you, Craig.
Craig Durr: You are here to help me understand what Cisco is doing in the collaboration space. And I'm really excited to hear what you guys say. You have some great product announcements and a lot of interesting things going on here today, right?
Rich Bayes: This is probably our biggest event ever at ISE. I think we have three hardware launches and multiple software launches. It's a huge day here.
Craig Durr: Last time I spoke to you was actually at WebexOne. And at that point in time, you guys were announcing a new operating system for the devices, the RoomOS 26 aligning with 2026, I love that. But tell me, how's the momentum been since that launch?
Rich Bayes: It's been absolutely great. So actually, over the last few months, we've GA-ed in November the RoomOS 26 that went out there with dynamic camera mode. It's the default camera mode for all our devices, and the user has been off the charts like no one's turning it off, which means it's actually working. Because if it wasn't working, people would be complaining about why their phones are off the hook.
Craig Durr: But you got a lot of AI features. You got an AI notetaker, you've got the dynamic camera mode as well. It's a very powerful operating system.
Rich Bayes: It is, and it's been built over years of foundation, not something that just comes overnight. You know, the cinematic meeting was in 2023. We announced that at Enterprise Connect, and we built on that AI Director framework over many years to really unlock these outcomes. Some of the devices we announced today are going to actually bring that even a step further on that journey.
Craig Durr: I love it. That's a great segue. Let's talk about some of these new products you guys are announcing today. Here's the one right up front—the Cisco Room Kit Pro G2. Tell me all about this one.
Rich Bayes: The Cisco Room Kit Pro G2 is the most powerful and flexible integrated codec in the market. And it allows us to really bring both that PoE for IP cameras, and microphones in the environment. Also, we haven't forgotten about the analog world. There’s still a need to have that analog integration point and that be a bridge between two worlds.
But we really beefed up the Room Kit Pro G1, the first iteration, into this generation with like eight times PoE to extend into even the future peripheral aspects. Brand new NVIDIA architecture to unlock new AI outcomes. It is really a beast of a device, and we're excited about what it unlocks.
Craig Durr: I love this NVIDIA architecture idea you talked about because that's a lot of power. Give me some use cases or some examples of how you're playing this.
Rich Bayes: For example, how can we do four camera cross view? Because a lot of rooms out there have twenty to twenty-two seats long. How do you capture that and make sure you get the right angle to the environment? Or for the ultra wide rooms where you need dual quad cams because you maybe have the U-shaped table that could be ten feet wide, where the traditional fit a view of any fixed line camera can't capture that wide. Now, we can start unlocking these spaces.
And finally, there are divisible rooms—it's been a crux for everyone to solve in the AV over the last couple of years. We're looking to simplify that. So Cisco's going to bring this really one touch solution that you can just plug and play and have divisible rooms.
This device will unlock and make life more simple for the admin. And for the end users, they should be able to walk into every space and have a consistent experience from the huddle to the auditorium town hall.
Craig Durr: Wow, it's a lot. And then what you're doing with NVIDIA, this is a first to market idea with your MDEP partnership, right?
Rich Bayes: Yes you're right. It's the world's first MDEP with NVIDIA technology, and I think the world's first MDEP for extra large spaces and high impact spaces in the Android market as well. So now we're really bringing that flexibility to market to allow the flexibility for Microsoft Teams rooms, which obviously is a big growth driver for us in the industry.
Craig Durr: I love that. These are three powerhouses coming together talking NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Cisco with these solutions right now. You also have another great personal solution, right? The Desk Pro G2.
Rich Bayes: Yeah, the Desk Pro G2 is our brand new, not just personal device, but I would say all-in-one device for the moments that matter. All the way from the executive desk to the focus and huddle room… it doesn’t just solve that one scenario; it extends that scenario.
Some of the key aspects here with the new camera feature. Now, we have a dual lens on this camera, which means we can capture ultra wide and bring dynamic mode. But also we're ready for 3D capture, which I think is huge. This new Desk Pro G2 will now work with the Webex platform for spatial meetings.
Craig Durr: Wow, that's a lot of great information there. And you're right, I was underselling it. The fact that I can go from the personal desktop to the huddle rooms, those focus rooms as well.
Rich Bayes: We've been successful in that personal category for quite a while. But I think a lot of people don't understand that this device can also scale down into those booths, into those audio privacy rooms. And that's a really big value prop because when we did Microsoft Teams rooms, there was a market pull to us saying, “Hey, we want the Desk Pro in a huddle space.” But we built the Desk Pro over nine years ago. It wasn't built for that use case by design. It worked.
Now, the Desk Pro G2 is actually built by design to solve the huddle cases.
Craig Durr: And it's even better because this is the ultimate express install, right?
Rich Bayes: Yeah, so can you get it out of the box in a couple of seconds, plug it in, boot it up, you're in a meeting in probably less than five minutes. We're going to be held to that at some point.
Craig Durr: *laughs* Be careful with that.
We did a great job covering that meeting room experience. Let's talk about some of the personal devices you’re bringing to market. You've got a great solution you're talking about for the frontline workers: a new wireless phone.
Rich Bayes: Yes. We have the brand new Cisco Wireless Phone 9821 to the market. This phone really brings the experience of how we bring agentic aspects to the frontline workers.
Traditionally, we have been limited to bringing the experiences of AI to the corporate use case. But now, the frontline workers can value this, but also in a form factor, they used to. Because the tactile use case of having buttons, you know, is a use case needed in healthcare, in manufacturing…it's kind of like the floor we have out here. If there wasn't a show going on, it would be a frontline worker use case right here. So how do we also bring that value of AI to those use cases as well and update that in line with the 900 series phones that we have. This is a device we're super excited about, and we see a lot of high interest from verticals.
Craig Durr: So you're talking about AI, not only for the knowledge worker, but AI for the frontline worker now.
Rich Bayes: Exactly. Now you can bring those, you know, ability to have the phone out and capture AI notes even on the manufacturing floor.
Craig Durr: This is a great story. This is all part of one of those themes that you live by, which you called Distance Zero. But I want to ask about another audience. How would you talk to the IT administrator? What is their Distance Zero experience, for example?
Rich Bayes: Great question because some of our new features in this new product, the room Desk Pro G2 is built for the admin… That every port, even the analog ports, can be monitored and observed if something's plugged in. So what's important to the IT admin is the ability to have control and the ability of the entire platform in the room.
Control Hub has to be that single pane of glass that we built on for quite a while, but now we're extending it even further. So today we also announced AI agent integrations, and it allows us to bring all that value of Control Hub into other AI workflows. For example, Copilot, Amazon Quick, for enterprise workflows, or even ChatGPT-style solutions.
Craig Durr: So this means I could be in Copilot, and I can query the Webex Control Hub information and find out more details?
Rich Bayes: Yeah. So you could, for example, say, “Okay, what's the last 30 days meeting room occupancy in the New York office.” And it will give you a full break. It won't just give you the raw stats. It will actually give you full insights.
For example, “How many rooms are ad hoc books versus how many are ghost meetings?” We don't tell you who the ghost meetings are yet. I know that the most wanted feature is like “Who's not turning up?” That's something maybe you deal with in your own company, but yes. *laughs*
Craig Durr: This is all within the AI tool of your choice, right? But you're empowering them through MCP and some other…
Rich Bayes: Yes, so it's really extending Control Hub. It's not like adding on new features that don't exist in Control Hub today. It's extending that and bringing it for what we call MCP technology. This is obviously bigger than just the collaboration devices. It's the entire Webex platform, so it's bidirectional, too.
Maybe next week at Cisco Live Europe, we'll do some announcements that will showcase extending this even further.
Craig Durr: So this is Cisco’s story taking the collaboration, it's beyond that, right?
Rich Bayes: It’s Agentic Ops. Really solving that for collaboration workloads because IT admins now are having to manage way more devices at scale. We've gone from having maybe a hundred rooms, an enterprise environment to a thousand rooms, but the IT team isn't growing. So how do they scale? Agentic Ops Cisco's way to bring that on top of leveraging the networking stack as well. So all the switch capabilities we can bring in, we can bring that as well.
Craig Durr: That is really insightful. The way that you are building out your ecosystem of partners is really, really powerful, too. I think you guys announced a new partnership here as well.
Rich Bayes: We have a lot of strategic partners, and we've been working with Samsung for many years. But now we brought Samsung to our Workplace Designer. So our work with Designer Tool has been amazing for customers to go and design rooms for what it would look like with equipment.
But every room had a display, so how do we bring that also to the market? And certified displays are very critical. A lot of our customers say that they buy displays based on Cisco certifying them for plug and play use.
So now we brought all the certified displays from Samsung into the WorkPlace Designer Tool, which now allows us to kind of bring that experience to the forefront. On top of that, we can also bring this to work with Advisor.
Craig Durr: I love this tool. It’s one of my favorites. It’s getting close to going to beta here soon, hopefully.
Rich Bayes: Yeah, we're about to enter beta and work with the Advisor. This tool allows us to take the Workspace Designer UI elements and bring it into Control Hub. Now, we can actually kind of visualize the room post installation. Because the best thing for New York is a little room, but for your admin team in London, how do you understand what the room is currently set up as and looks like?
So right on the NVIDIA AI, the Designer UI, all those elements come together. We're now really delivering on, I believe, this AI to AI promise we made at WebexOne.
Craig Durr: I love that. Workplace Designer and Advisor are one of my favorites. You go from day zero to day one deployment, now you're talking day two use cases. It's very powerful as well.
This is a lot of great stuff. So where should people go to find out some more?
Rich Bayes: You can go to Cisco.com or our Work Designer website. You can also visit us here at the booth. We are here for the next couple of days. We also have Experience Centers all around the world, like London, Paris, New York. So reach out to your Cisco sales representative, and we can book you in for a deeper experience center tour near you.
Craig Durr: And I love these places. I had a chance to visit a couple of them, like the Paris one and the New York one. The fact that you get to see the technology in use in the Cisco environment.
Rich Bayes: What we say is we’re drinking our own champagne. We're putting the one Cisco story… you can walk in there and you can see how, not just collaboration, but how Cisco spaces, networking, wireless all come together in a unified solution in a real life workplace where Cisco employees really work.
Craig Durr: It is a powerful solution. I appreciate that. This has been a fantastic update. I can't wait to get a chance to go down there and see what you guys are showing.
Rich Bayes: You better be there.
Craig Durr: I’m gonna be there. You got it.
Everyone, this is Craig Durr. After this, I’ll go to the Cisco booth. I want to thank you for joining us here for this Direct from the Expo edition. Join us here for some more information. We'll bring you a great content update live from ISE 2026. Take care.