New Beacon Release Enhances System Management and User Experience!

We’re happy to announce the latest update to Beacon! The November 2021 update provides several enhancements that enhance system management, user experience and security. Key enhancements in this release include:  

Support for New Print Manufacturers

The latest release expands the print manufacturer support for Beacon Sentry Print. Now, organizations can use Beacon to secure and manage their Canon, Toshiba (available soon, pending certification), and Framework level 3 and 4 Lexmark devices within their multi-vendor print environment to:  

• Enhance security by controlling access to managed devices and require authentication at the device via proximity card or keyboard login to release prints
• Provide employees with an intuitive and consistent Sentry Print experience to manage job lists and release documents at any Pharos-enabled device, with minimal training required

Integration with Universal Print 

Universal Print is a Microsoft 365 cloud-based print infrastructure that simplifies office printing for IT administrators and employees by eliminating on-premises print servers and print driver management. If your organization is using Microsoft 365 in an Azure AD environment, Universal Print introduces a cloud-based print workflow.  

With this Beacon release, Sentry Print has been added to Microsoft’s Universal Print to enable secure print workflows, including end-to-end encryption. Beacon Sentry Print requires users to authenticate at a printer in order to release their documents, reducing the likelihood that sensitive information gets into the wrong hands, as well as waste from abandoned prints left at the printer. A single queue enables users to release prints via proximity card or passcode at any Pharos-enabled printer, regardless of manufacturer.  

Extended Support for macOS 

Updates to Print Scout support the Apple M1 CPU and introduce it as a “Universal” application optimized for performance on Apple’s M1 Macs. Print Scout now supports mac OS 10.14 ‘Mojave’, 10.15 ‘Catalina’, 11 ‘Big Sur’, and 12 ‘Monterey’.  

Expanded Support for Authentication to Home, 2nd swipe Logout and OpenID passcode authentication  

The previous Beacon release introduced several capabilities that helped improve user experience and enhance information security. The latest release expands these capabilities to an expanded set of MFPs.  

• Authentication to Home enables approved users to access the default device home page (vs Pharos home page) and additional MFP features (copy/scan/fax) — and not just print—upon authentication. Authentication to Home is now enabled on Canon and Toshiba* MFPs, in addition to HP, Konica Minolta, Lexmark and Ricoh.
• 2nd swipe Logout reduces the chance sensitive information gets into the wrong hands by immediately logging out with the swipe of a proximity card (vs time out or device UI). 2nd swipe logout has been expanded to Canon and Toshiba*  in addition to Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Ricoh, and Xerox.
• OpenID passcode authentication provides an alternative way for users to authenticate at printers and release documents if their ID card is lost, damaged, or unavailable. Open ID Passcode support is now enabled on Canon, Toshiba*, and Xerox devices in addition to HP, Konica Minolta, and Lexmark.

For a complete list of new features in this release, please refer to the Release Notes. 

*Toshiba available soon, pending certification