SX-20 vs Spark Room Kit

[vega_ralph]

Cisco seems to be encouraging migration to the new Spark Room Kit instead of SX-20(N) for new purchases.  The SX-20 obviously still exists, and is on the most recent TP Product Matrix, but the Spark documentation tends to leave it out.  Is this just a perception issue on my part, or is Cisco quietly working to phase out the SX-20?  Does anyone have any product roadmap insight?

[Wayne DeNardi]

Given the SX20(n) is now quite an old model (it's been around for over 5 years), and the RoomKit is a more recent and much more capable device, it's not surprising that the RoomKit gets more favour in the newer documentation.

I haven't heard any rumours of an end of sale date for the SX20n yet, nor for the MX which use essentially the same hardware, but given the recent releases of RoomKit/RoomKit55 as newer versions of the endpoint range, I wouldn't be surprised if there is an announcment of EoS for the older products in the near future which will be a shame as the SX20n platform makes a great low end integrator endpoint and the RoomKit doesn't quite fit in that space yet.

[vega_ralph]

Thank you.  I agree completely, but hope someone might know if the inevitable EoL document is 6 months vs 30 months out.  We are planning installs based on the SX-20 that we'd rather not re-write quite yet.

[Wayne DeNardi · Accepted solution]

End of Life will be 5 years after the End of Sale date - and the End of Sale date is usually a reasonable number of months after the EoS announcement is made - so, ordering and installing the SX20n devices now, or in the near future shouldn't be a problem.

[jcagnini1]

I'm not sure I agree with "the SX20n platform makes a great low end integrator endpoint and the RoomKit doesn't quite fit in that space yet."Can you elaborate why you don't believe it fits in that space?

In my opinion, I do agree the SX20 is a good endpoint for the price, but I don't agree that the RoomKit "doesn't quote fit the space yet."In my experience, the Spark Room Kit is a better endpoint and has been fitting in great for rooms that normally receive an SX20. In our quotes, the Room Kit comes in at about $2k less for almost identical SX20 configurations, i.e. camera, touch 10, mics, etc.. Spark Room Kit plus is only coming in at about $4k more than the SX20 and has a far better feature set, especially in regards to end user experience with the updated speaker tracking cameras. 

Just want to pick your brain @Wayne DeNardi - Thank you and looking forward to your response.

[Wayne DeNardi]

In many of the installations where we use them, we often require the endpoint to support connections from many different camera sources - in a lot of the work we do, we don't necessarily use the camera that comes with the unit (or only use it as an IR receiver) - so this is where the RoomKit fails for us with its single camera (the RoomKitPlus codec is a better fit for some of these types of installation, minus the Quad Camera).  We wouldn't use the RoomKit camera, and instead, with a SX20N, can just feed in our other camera source as an HDMI feed.  This is especially useful when doing Pictire-in-Picture via an external video compositor to provide multiple Camera feeds in to the codec at the same time for transmission to the far end.  Most of our rooms where we use the SX20s also have external DSP mixing in multiple (in most of our rooms, 6 or more) microphones in to the endpoint, and the audio is required to be sent to many different speakers within the rooms, so, again, using the RoomKit's built in mic and speaker doesn't help much with this.  With larger rooms, the RoomKit also doesn't fit well, where the SX20n with all the other integrator components, works a treat and can be used in any sized room.  This allows us to have a single consitent design across all our room sizes.  The codec is just the workhorse to transmit the signal.  I can see us using the RoomKitPlus Codec (minus camera) in the future, but not the RoomKit - and, for those reasons, that's why I don't think it fits the integrator space, or at least, not how we use endpoints - of course, your (and others') installations may differ and the RoomKit may fit your purposes.

[matt mcfetridge]

The Spark room kit replaces the SX10

The Spark room kit+ replaces the SX20

SX20 should not be recommended any more since they've released the room kit+. It blows away the SX20 and if you're integrating a room why even bother with an SX80 since a lot of users will be putting in an external DSP, and possibly controller/switcher if you need the additional HDMI inputs.

The SX20 DVI-I port always sucked to convert to HDMI requiring an external device to mix out the audio from the HDMI to the 3.5mm line audio input.

[Wayne DeNardi]

The End-of-Life announcement for the SX20s have now been posted.

End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco SX20 with P40 camera   Last Date of Support 28 February 2023

End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco TelePresence SX20 with 12X Camera   Last Date of Support 30 July 2023

Recommended Replacement Products are the RoomKit or RoomKit Plus.

[ds51]

The last day to order the SX20 with the 12x camera is July 30, 2018.  Last day of all product support is 2023.  Just to throw my 2 cents in, I feel the C-Series were better integrator codecs than the SX series.