A tad late to the party, Cisco finally announces AI-based noise cancellation for Webex with the acquisition of BabbleLabs.
Cisco on Tuesday announced its intent to acquire BabbleLabs to eliminate one of the most persistent problems of remote work collaboration today — background noise. “A great meeting experience starts with great audio,†said Jeetu Patel, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security and Applications Business Unit.
BabbleLabs is a California-based developer of noise removal and speech enhancement technology. The three-year-old startup’s proprietary technology leverages artificial intelligence to:Â
- Distinguish speech from ambient noise
- Real time removal of background noise
- Language-agnostic enhancement of voice communication
Cisco’s Webex lags behind its major collaboration peers when it comes to background noise suppression and elimination. Rivals Microsoft and Google have already announced noise cancellation mechanisms for Teams and Meet respectively. Zoom also leverages a third party noise cancellation solution by Krisp.ai along with Discord.
See Also: Discord Tunes Out Ambient Noise With AI-Powered Noise Suppression for iOS & Android
Cisco plans to integrate BabbleLabs’ technology with its entire suite of collaboration solutions, starting with Webex Meetings. Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Collaboration Group Javed Khan will lead this integration.
Patel who also oversees the Cisco Collaboration Group as a part of Cisco Security and Applications Business Unit said, “We’re thrilled to welcome BabbleLabs’ team of highly skilled engineers. Their technology is going to provide our customers with yet another important innovation – automatically removing unwanted noise – to continue enabling exceptional Webex meeting experiences.â€
BabbleLabs has so far raised $18 millionOpens a new window through its seed and Series A financing in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Value of Cisco’s acquisition of BabbleLabs remains undisclosed.
The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and requires regulatory approvals of shareholders and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021.
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