UC Channel Update – June 2026

In this update: (June 2026)

• Upcoming events July 2026
• 3CX Q2 promos are ending 30th June
• 3CX’s Latest Product News
• Yealink Product News
• Grandstream Product News
• Fanvil Product News
• CommBox Product News
• Demo Equipment
• Case studies – stories sell products!
• Join our LinkedIn UC community to see the news first

Upcoming events June 2026

30th July – Auckland Annual Movie Night –join us for our Annual Auckland Movie Premiere Night. Before the movie there is the opportunity to talk with the vendors – for our UC Hardware brands we’ll have a range of products on display. Before the event, book a meeting/demo and then go in the draw for that vendors prize on the night along with the big overall META Quest 3S with 2 Controllers giveaway prize! Visit this link to register your interest. As this event sells out each year, we are limiting the number of attendees from each partner, so all registrations are subject to acceptance. See you there – our Spidey senses tell me it will be a great night!

3CX Q2 promos are ending 30th June 2026

The Q2 promos (launched mid-April) will finish firmly on 30th June 2026. This is your chance to order some stock licenses with the 10% off new business 8-SC or higher licenses – upcoming projects you can be ready for. Please don’t leave your order to 5pm on the last day of the month when our team have finished for the day… The promos will not be available on 1st July.

The discounts are across 3 key areas:

• • NEW Licenses 8-SC and above –depending on the length of time you purchase the new license for discounts of 10% to 20% off your normal 3CX partner buy apply.
  • Pro-rated upgrades to 16-SC or above and pro-rated upgrades to 16-SC or above combined with maintenance renewals – when increasing the license size to fit within the fair usage policy a discount of 25% applies. If combining with a 1- or 2-year renewal on the same transaction the discount also applies to the renewals. If increasing the size and combining with a 3-year renewal on the same transaction a 30% discount applies.
  • Educational discounts – the educational threshold for discounts has reduced from 32-SC to 16-SC and above. Discounts can be used from above promotions to stack the benefits. Educational discounts have some specific T&Cs and a copy of the quote from 3CX partner to educational organisation showing the discounts must be given to Bluechip NZ to apply to 3CX for the appropriate discounts to be awarded.

See the full blog post on the promotions here. As the promotions can be different on the same SKU depending on the choices purchased, please contact our sales@bluechipit.co.nz for a specialised quote to access these promotions. Please note there is no promotion on standalone renewal SKUs.

We are awaiting an update from 3CX as to whether the Educational 20% Discount will continue beyond the promotional period.

3CX Latest Product News

During June Update 9 has gone live. Below is a summary of updates since our last update:

Update 9 FINAL – last week (mid-June) update 9 went FINAL release and is now ready for production systems. This release blog recaps all the work through the Alpha, Beta, and Release Candidates. This update is focused on a redesigned user interface for the WebClient/Dialer; a leap forward with AI improvements and the supported integration of Grok (xAI). The update also includes improvements to the advanced queue features; supporting more VoIP providers with template builder; along with the normal enhancements and fixes. The blog has a great amount of detail, links to other more in-depth blogs and keeps you up to date with where 3CX is at today. A strong recommendation is to review the final release, associated inks and the more in-depth topical blogs.

One key highlight that I should point out is in the section around the ability to integrate with Grok (xAI) for full call transcription and summary & sentiment analysis. Grok offers a significantly lower-cost alternative compared to Google, OpenAI and even 3CX Cloud transcription which led to 3CX removing their Enterprise Plus edition. The estimated cost with Grok is USD$0.10 per hour – customers need to sign up with Grok and agree to their policies as they are integrating this tool to their 3CX. Full setup guide is here on the 3CX website.

A recap of the update 9 journey to final:

• • Update 9 Release Candidate 3 – the final fixes and tweaks were released to RC3 early in June – see the blog/change log via this link.
  • Update 9 Release Candidate 2 – at the end of May Release Candidate 2 was released with final minor updates. See the full blog here.
  • Update 9 Release Candidate – mid-May the first Release Candidate was released with further updates to the AI transcription and other minor updates including some Yealink and Fanvil phone template updates. Within the blog announcement there is also the link to the full changelog file.
  • Update 9 Beta – right at the end of April, the update 9 Beta edition with some significant additions since the Alpha (Alpha blog is here). A key change that has been alluded to with the retirement of the Ent+ Edition is a major new addition to the 3CX AI capabilities – Grok (xAI). This integration brings a fast, simple and cost-effective option for transcription, summaries and sentiment analysis. There are improvements to the AI Receptionist and PA roles and improvements to the holiday prompts. The full blog found here has key details on the changes within the beta. Remember a beta is not for production systems but is great for testing on your configured test systems.

Deep dive blogs into specific new update 9 features:

• • A closer look at the improved AI features– this blog looks at what is changing between update 8 and update 9 for the AI features. Update 9 delivers a more streamlined AI experience, making it easier to manage how your system handles calls. With a cleaner interface, improved call routing and more flexible AI controls, you can fine-tune behaviour without added complexity. Check it out here.
  • AI Prompt Engineering a 2-part blog series – these blogs are well worth a read to streamline/refine your processes:
    • In part 1 3CX looks at the common mistakes that occur when writing an AI prompt and how they re-wrote their own AI Receptionist’s prompt for better results
    • In Part 2 3CX looks at the way to write an effective prompt and optimise your AI agents for real conversations.

Softphone & Mobile v5.6 Betas:

• • Softphone App Beta – this beta is preparing for the update 9 changes and introduces new office hours management capabilities, expanded deployment flexibility via command-line arguments, and a new and improved Poly headset integration provided by HP, with support for additional devices. This release also includes several usability fixes and reliability improvements. See the blog here.
  • iOS App Beta –this is a smaller update which is focused on stability, usability improvements, and resolving issues affecting day-to-day usage. The blog is here.
  • Android App Beta – likewise the Android App is a smaller update focussed on the same stability and usability as the iOS – see the blog here.

Proxmox Auto Deployment

Hosted by 3CX Price changes

Yealink Product News

What a fabulous night Auckland – Thursday 18th June 2026 was our Hardware Showcase Evening at Ellerslie. Great company, great conversation and a wonderful opportunity to showcase the Yealink solutions from IP phones, Headsets, to Video Conferencing. The light drizzle didn’t dampen the enthusiasm or the line for the Tacos!

Not in Auckland or unable to attend on the night – don’t worry we have you covered. If you’re Auckland based, reach out to your Partner Success Managers Andre or Chris Blair and we’d be happy to host you at our Ellerslie office. For those further afield, we have a wide range of demo equipment of the IP phones; headsets and for meeting room devices, we have an A25 with CTP25 and A40 with CTP25 bundle within our demo equipment available to borrow. Contact uc@bluechipit.co.nz to arrange.

One of the fun experiences in the meeting room spaces cover some of the key tracking options and use case scenarios to consider:

• • Presenter Mode – this is the fun hand signal activated (come for a visit to learn the secrets behind this!) for a presenter to be able to move around the space and the camera follows them. Designed for a multi-camera setup with a dedicated space where presenters are standing and moving. This is a Windows IoT setup requirement with either the SmartVision 80 (S80) or UVC86 camera required to activate this.
  • Speaker Tracking Mode – this is where the camera will find the active speaker based on sound and zoom in on them – as soon as someone else starts talking it switches to them. This is great if people are presenting and participants remoting in feel like they’re sitting in the room looking at the speaker, if people tend to all talk at once and over each other then it can be a negative feel for outside participants so needs to be used in the right meeting scenario. This is available on both the Windows IoT solutions and the Android solutions and is a standard feature of the solutions and the Basic MTR license.
  • IntelliFocus Mode –this is a favourite layout of mine and many customers – this is often a preferred option for a meeting with multiple participants as gives a great experience for those in and out of the room. For the Android Bars & MeetingBoard Pro – A25 only has 2 speakers in view, A40, A50, and MeetingBoard Pro along with smart Windows IoT solutions have 4 speakers showing at one time. The speaker that has been quietest longest will drop off when a new person starts speaking. This view gives a split screen view of four individual speakers (two only for A25), with a persistent Room View shown at the bottom. This ensures that both the details (facial expression, gestures) and the full meeting context are captured in a single, cohesive frame.

Our Ellerslie office has three spaces equipped with Yealink MTR solutions. We have a small, medium and large space configured with equipment. Reach out to your Partner Success Manager Andre or Chris Blair to arrange a time where the rooms are available and we will be happy to host you.

The very popular MeetingDisplay bundles will continue but there will be price increases from June 2026. The bundles available are:

• • 511069 A25-031 + MeetingDisplay 55” + S Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • 511070 A40-031 + MeetingDisplay 55” + S Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • 506301 A40-031 + MeetingDisplay 65” + S Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • 506302 A40-031 + MeetingDisplay 75” + S Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • 507244 A50-031 + MeetingDisplay 75” + L Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • 507245 A50-031 + MeetingDisplay 86” + L Bracket to mount the Android Bar under the Display
  • NB: The wall mount bracket for the MeetingDisplay’s is sold separately and is SKU 506204.

SIP Phones – the transition from the T4 to T7 and T5 to T8 ranges is ongoing. We’ve now sold out of the popular SIP-T46U model but have the replacement SIP-T74W available. We still have the ever-popular SIP-T43U but this is our last stock – we’re almost out of the SIP-T54W with only a couple of units left in stock. Our everyday pricing is competitive, but we also have project pricing available for those larger deployments – if you need help with a project contact uc@bluechipit.co.nz and we’ll be happy to assist. If you’re just after a quote, reach our team via sales@bluechipit.co.nz and they’ll be happy to assist. An overview is below.

Grandstream Product News

During June, the launch occurred with GDMS hosted in a local Sydney data centre. This is an exciting additional point of presence for Grandstream’s free Cloud Management platform. GDMS data in Sydney will be an enhancement for customers with data sovereignty requirements.

One of the most common questions at our Hardware Showcase was around the Cloud Management of devices – GDMS is completely free, no limit on the number of devices you manage. All devices are managed from a single sign-on from your IP phones and paging solutions to your GWN networking solutions. If you don’t yet have an account, it’s simple to sign up for an account at this link. By default, it should present you with the Sydney host.

The second most common question was around the warranty for the GWN (Grandstream Wireless Networking) solutions which covers their Access Points, Routers, and Switches – this is standard 3-year warranty.

We’ll have product on display at our upcoming Auckland Movie Night as Grandstream are a Gold Sponsor. If you’d like to know more about any of the Grandstream range or take some of our demo units for a test drive reach our UC Team on uc@bluechipit.co.nz.

Fanvil Product News

In 3CX’s update 9 (currently still in Release Candidate), new/updated templates for the popular Fanvil X-Series, W-Series (portable DECT and WiFi models), and Hotel IP phones have been added.

Do you want to know more about any of these phone models? Reach out to uc@bluechipit.co.nz for further advice.

Commbox Product News

A reminder of the key ranges from CommBox for commercial displays in meeting room spaces:

• • MR = Meeting Room Displays, commercial displays from 43” to 98” available
  • A11 Intelligent = displays with Android intelligence on board (great for signage!), also available from 43” to 98”
  • S5 Classic = full touch/interactive solution with its own OS. Four sizes available – 65”, 75”, 86”, and 98”.

These are the key ranges, but CommBox has large format options available and LED.

Commbox units have a standard 5-year warranty period and include a wall mount. Don’t hesitate to reach out for commercial display options to uc@bluechipit.co.nz.

Demo Equipment

Here at Bluechip Infotech New Zealand, we hold a demo pool of Yealink, Grandstream, Jabra and Fanvil products which are available to borrow. We have video conferencing solutions, IP phones, DECT phones, headsets, WiFi Access Points, facility access and more available to borrow and test. It’s a great way to be able to test out units and see if they meet the needs of your clients. A great way to evaluate new offerings ahead of purchase. If you’d like to borrow anything, please reach out to Megan Twentyman our BDM – UC in the first instance.

Case Studies – stories sell products!

Real world stories sell solutions and help increase market awareness! We are looking for local NZ success stories that we can work with you to produce case studies around our UC brands. If you have a good story to share, please reach out to us on uc@bluechipit.co.nz and we can work with you. As a thank you to you and your team, we’ll shout your team a lunch when we wrap up and the story is produced.

Join our LinkedIn UC community to see news first

Our “Bluechip UC Community” group has been created so our customers quickly get all the latest news. We post regularly and welcome new members to the group. Keep up to date with upcoming Bluechip Infotech New Zealand events, UC-related updates and any other general UC news. Join the LinkedIn group here.