Lync Busylight

Finally received my Lync Busylight from Plenom!

It came in a small box containing the unit and a minimal sheet with instructions. "Use common sense" and "Do not immerse the product in any type of liquid" were the most interesting guidelines, but also there was a link to a driver download page.

On the driver download page you could register for software updates, there was a FAQ section, a quick guide and a datasheet; informative, simple and to the point.

The drivers are available in a version for all users of the computer which requires administrative rights to install, and a user version which installs the software locally under your user profile folder.

The installation was straightforward, but to many "nexts" I think: Next, I agree, Next, Next, Next, Next, Finish. Then the light started to shine in green. The light can show 5 colors: dark red (Do Not Disturb), red (Busy), yellow (Away/Off Work), green (Available) and blue flashing (Incoming call) but the difference between red and dark red is probably too small to be visible to anyone walking up to your desk. At an incoming call the light will play a ringtone and there are 8 different tones to choose from, and you can even set the volume of it. The driver installs a tray application where you can control the tone and volume.

So far I really like this little product and I think it can be really useful when sitting in an open office environment with a headset glued to your skull. The Microsoft Lync team tweeted about busylight with this post: "15% of employees cite distraction by colleagues as a drain on productivity" and pointed to busylight as a solution, I second that.

Thanks Plenom for a great product!