Four AV Tech Solutions To Enhance Your Coworking Spaces
Video conferencing has already proven to be an immensely powerful communication tool, as evidenced by its rapid worldwide adaption. Despite the enormous steps forward it has taken in terms of reliability and stability over the past decade, there is still quite a bit of work left to be done to improve and streamline the virtual meeting process.
This goes double for coworking spaces, which require far more versatility and customizability than a comparable meeting space in a typical office environment. In coworking settings, some of the most frequent complaints are a lack of audio clarity and tools for real-time content sharing and collaboration. Thankfully, a large lineup of audio visual technology solutions has emerged over the past few years to fill the gaps, drastically improve meeting quality, and further integrate video calls into our coworking spaces.
What Is AV Technology?
Audio visual technology encompasses a huge variety of devices and systems to enhance communication through sight and sound. With the right audio visual technology solutions, your video conferencing system's audio and visual elements can work together to create more engaging and efficient communication at any distance.
For effective communication to take place, the AV system must simultaneously convey an image and spoken audio to and from one party to the other. On the visual end, an AV system is comprised of a web-enabled camera and a display, while the audio aspect utilizes a combination of speakerphones, microphones, and speakers.
The complexity and quality of this combination of sight and sound can vary tremendously depending on the needs of the space and available budget. An auditorium will have different needs than a senate hearing, and a boardroom will likely have a different budget level than a huddle room!
What Are The Benefits Of AV Technology?
One of the primary benefits of AV technology is that it helps hybrid workplaces bridge the gap between in-person and remote participants. Team members from around the globe can simultaneously contribute to a discussion or collaborative project without involving inefficient middle-man correspondence technologies or engaging in expensive work trips.
AV technology can e customized to cater to any number of meeting scenarios, from large conferences to intimate team huddles. Different combinations of technology exist that enable you to find a typical office conference room audio visual solution to putting out a live company training course for both in-person and distance attendees.
Fundamentally, AV technology exists to provide enhanced communication and collaborative options to organizations based on their needs. For working spaces, the AV technology needs to emphasize versatility and ease of use, allowing users to come in with their device, hook up to the conferencing system, and immediately begin making calls.
What Types Of Workplaces Can Benefit From AV Technology Solutions?
Companies and organizations working in almost every industry and sector can benefit from AV tech, with each having a distinct technology mix that can maximize the effectiveness of their meetings. As tech advances like video conferencing have allowed for a wider geographic distribution of teams and employees, the composition and needs of a typical workplace have changed dramatically.
Instead of creating satellite offices, many organizations are opting instead to utilize coworking spaces, where many different companies can coexist in a single space. This system saves on costs without sacrificing the effectiveness of internal and external communications thanks to AV technology.
Depending on the number of employees in a single location, coworking spaces can provide fully sized conference rooms or smaller huddle rooms where users can find quiet privacy without worrying about bothering others in the space. These shared meeting rooms can provide tech solutions like BYOD conferencing systems, audio ecosystems, and specialized cameras and displays that provide a seamless and high quality meeting experience.
What AV Technology Solutions Can Enhance Coworking Spaces?
BYOD Conferencing Systems:
The emphasis for every piece of shared technology in a coworking space needs to be convenience and ease of use. Conferencing systems that require a complex setup and cable connections just to make a call will cause nothing but problems, which means a ‘plug and play’ bring-your-own-device (BYOD) system is required.
BYOD conferencing systems involve the use of a centralized device to network every part of the conferencing system - audio, camera, display, and platform - and reduce the number of connections needed to just one. A system like Barco lets users connect by either using a direct wired connection or by using a dongle for wireless, while Airtame lets users download an app on their device and stream their video calls through wifi.
Wireless Presentation Systems:
Wireless presentation systems facilitate seamless content sharing and can be used for both in-person and remote meetings. They empower presenters to showcase their work without the need to shift back and forth from or hunch over their computers and devices, which helps promote a more engaging and dynamic presentation experience.
Audio Ecosystems:
Audio ecosystems use a combination of audio hardware and software to create a networked web of audio pickup and transferrence. Solutions like the Stem Ecosystem provide coworking spaces with a customizable and scalable solution that can be tailored to fit any sized room.
The Stem Ecosystem is comprised of four mix-and-matchable audio endpoints - Table, Wall, Ceiling, and Speaker. Each device can be used individually for smaller rooms or networked together to create an audio ecosystem to provide a wider coverage area in larger meeting spaces.
The Stem OS provides users with a suite of powerful software tools that make installation a snap. These tools include:
- RoomDesign - digitally recreate the meeting room in the software, allowing users to map out device placement and estimate audio coverage areas
- RoomAdapt - Each device performs a test to analyze the room’s acoustical profile and adjust its settings to provide optimal audio quality
- RoomCheck - The ecosystem tests the coverage range, providing the user with a visual heatmap that indicates any possible dead zones in audio coverage
Interactive Whiteboards:
Whiteboards are ideal for visually representing ideas, creating lists and schedules, and brainstorming new ideas when meeting about a new campaign or product. One of the greatest challenges for distance communications is replicating all of the benefits you’d get from meeting someone in person, which includes tools like a whiteboard.
Interactive displays that can act as a whiteboard provide exactly that experience. Teammates can throw ideas out and have either one or more presenters write or draw them on the shared whiteboard. Each team member can contribute, and the digital whiteboards can be saved and expanded, which provides an additional benefit over its analog precursor.
Coworking spaces provide dynamic and less costly options for businesses and companies that have a widely distributed workforce. To provide an optimal experience for these isolated employees, coworking spaces need their meeting rooms to be outfitted with audio visual technology that provides a seamless video conferencing experience to ensure they can communicate with the rest of their teams effectively.
