Latest Generation: Simple Doesn’t Mean Less

The latest addition to the all-in-one video bar lineup is Yealink’s MeetingBar A40, launched in September 2024. While video bars are known for their convenience, they can sometimes fall short of the stability, security, and management features needed for robust corporate use. Yealink addresses this with the A40, offering:

• Improved stability through its one-cable solution that handles sharing, BYOD and PD charging all from one desk cable.
• Enhanced security with Android 13 and Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP) support, protecting against cyber threats and data breaches in Teams environments.
• Simplified IT management through remote monitoring, reducing downtime and ensuring smooth operations.

All-in-One Solutions: Beyond Video Bars

While video bars are effective for small rooms, Yealink offers a broader range of all-in-one solutions, including devices that integrate touch displays with built-in cameras, microphones, speakers, and digital whiteboards. These solutions offer plug-and-play simplicity but also transform workspaces into collaborative hubs. So how do you choose between a video bar and an integrated board?

Modern Style: MeetingBoard Solution

The MeetingBoard is ideal for newly constructed or renovated offices, where no legacy devices need to be reused. With a similar budget to a video bar, it offers more features like digital whiteboarding for enhanced hybrid collaboration. It’s also perfect for open spaces, executive offices, or even lobbies, as its movable floor stand allows for flexibility without requiring wall mounting. The dual-system compatibility (Android and Windows) ensures it fits into any office workflow.

Traditional Style: MeetingBar Series

For meeting rooms with existing TV setups, Yealink’s MeetingBar series offers a sustainable and budget-friendly solution. It easily attaches to any screen and is perfect for small spaces like huddle rooms or phone booths, where quick setup and affordability are key.

Conclusion

Whether you’re upgrading an existing room or setting up a new collaborative space, Yealink’s all-in-one solutions provide the right mix of simplicity, flexibility, and performance. With options like the MeetingBar A40 and MeetingBoard, Yealink covers a wide range of needs to ensure seamless hybrid collaboration.

Learn more about Yealink’s all-in-one solutions in this guide.

The post Simple Videoconferencing Solutions: Video Bars & More appeared first on My TechDecisions.

In addition, all five models of Biamp TesiraFORTÉ X and Devio SCX audio processors — the TesiraFORTÉ X 400, 800, or 1600 and the Devio SCX 400 and 800 — are now certified for Microsoft Teams using either Parlé Beamtracking ceiling or tabletop microphones. As a result, they offer multiple channels of AEC for further flexibility and customization in medium and large conference spaces.

Features of New Microsoft Teams Certified Solutions

“The Microsoft Teams certification of our complete line of conferencing bundles and audio processors notably expands our portfolio of Microsoft Teams certified solutions,” says Joe Andrulis, executive vice president of corporate development at Biamp. “Our TesiraFORTÉ X and Devio SCX audio processors are at the core of these solutions, providing excellent performance and innovative technology, including AI noise reduction and Biamp Launch, so that integrators and end users can be assured that their conferencing solutions will be easy to install, easy to use and result in extraordinary audio quality that is validated to work seamlessly within the rigorous standards of the Microsoft Teams platform.”

Medium and large room conferencing bundles from Biamp contain either a TesiraFORTÉ X 400 or a Devio SCX 400 processor, as well as Parlé Beamtracking microphones. These  track conversations from around the room — enabling remote participants to feel just as present as those in person — and are available in tabletop or ceiling models. They also include Desono C-IC6 ceiling loudspeakers, Biamp’s PoE-powered amplifiers, along with all necessary mounting accessories and category cabling to complete the installation in medium or large meeting spaces.

Advantages of the Biamp Solution

The newly certified Microsoft Teams bundles offer customers the advantages of a complete Biamp solution, including integrated Acoustic Echo Cancellation and cutting-edge AI noise reduction to suppress distracting sounds, as well as Biamp Launch automated system deployment and configuration. Biamp Launch identifies and configures every device in the system, performs a tuning cycle, measures acoustic characteristics of the room, applies recommended signal processing, echo cancellation, speaker tuning, noise reduction, and Zoom Rooms settings, then generates a dashboard highlighting performance settings before-and-after optimization.

Installers also benefit from Biamp innovation that extends far beyond superior audio, including minimal cable requirements with zero termination, zero network setup, automated EQ, and more. The Biamp bundles’ design feature plug-and-play installation, resulting in significant time savings for integrators. They also provide a consistent, high-quality audio experience for users across all conferencing spaces within a building, says the company.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on October 22, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post Biamp’s Conferencing Bundles Earn Microsoft Teams Certification appeared first on My TechDecisions.

But introducing the right collaboration technology in meeting spaces can be the biggest challenge for IT-managers today.

In this new resource, “Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces,” you’ll learn about the importance of creating flexibility and great user experiences in hybrid meeting spaces. You’ll also discover how to tackle the most common struggles and frustrations of meeting room users, especially in fixed room setups like Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms.

Download your free copy today and start designing meaningful offices spaces for your company.

The post Practical Design Guide for Office Spaces appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Located in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province in  China, DKU is an educational and research university situated on a 1,200-acre campus. The university offers a range of  academic programs and a diverse, inclusive culture to students from around the globe.

The large-scale audio video project is part of the university’s second phase, covering 22 buildings on campus, including 29 classrooms, 20 conference rooms, and a visitor center. DKU set its sights on a number of top global brands. In the end, the Sennheiser TCC 2 ceiling array microphone stood out due to its superior audio technology, open technology path and rich success experience. DKU chose to install a total of 116 TCC 2s so that every space can enjoy the trusted Sennheiser audio quality.

The Sennheiser TCC 2 Solution

DKU offers courses taught by faculty from Duke University in the U.S. as well as other locations around the world. As a result, the university requires each classroom to provide an online learning experience as if it were face-to-face. Audio equipment, in particular, not only needs to be clear in sound quality, stable in transmission, and easy to operate, but it also needs to fit seamlessly into different room types and teaching scenarios.

The TCC 2 utilizes patented Dynamic Beamforming technology, which automatically tracks the position of speakers and switches between speakers in real time, ensuring that their voices are clearly captured. Teachers are able to move around and communicate freely with students while teaching, and the layout of desks and chairs in the classroom can be flexibly adjusted to enhance the classroom experience. According to Sennheiser, the microphone’s built-in 28 broadcast-quality microphone heads make the sound clear and natural, and remote teachers and students can also listen to the speakers clearly as if they were in the room/

In addition to classrooms, schools also place a high value on the design of audio systems in conference rooms. In teleconferencing, the seamless integration of audio and video is very important. In this project, TCC 2 integrates Biamp DSP and Sony PTZ camera tracking to synchronize the monitored speaker’s position to the camera, thus realizing real-time switching of the speaker’s footage, which makes the meeting more realistic, efficient and immersive.

Visitor Center Acoustics

The Visitor Center is another highlight of this project. In order to provide excellent conditions for teachers and students to communicate, display and hold activities and exhibitions, the Visitor Center built by the school has a flexible layout and a bright and spacious space, with an area of 400 square meters and a height of 4.8 meters, in addition to the need for high-quality sound pickup, the site of the local sound reinforcement is also a very high demand. Three TCC 2s were installed in the Visitor Center, whose TruVoicelift acoustic enhancement feature delivers everyone’s speeches clearly to every corner, with natural, full sound quality and no distortion or delay, making for a truly immersive audio experience.

AV-over-IP Integration 

The DKU Phase II project, which took three years to design and deploy and complete, was not only large in scale but complex. The project’s audiovisual system included many types of products including Biamp DSP, Bose loudspeakers and Crestron control systems. Therefore, for the success of the whole project, easy operation process and seamless integration of products of each link are crucial, which is also the main challenge of the project manager.

Wan Li is the chief engineer at DKU and the university’s technical lead for the audio system design. His team adopted an all-digital and fully distributed AV-over-IP architecture for the University. The TCC 2 can be seamlessly integrated into the campus network with all brands of audio equipment via Dante, allowing IT managers to monitor and control the communication, interaction and control of various devices on campus in real time via cell phones, tablets or computers, greatly simplifying workflows.

Sennheiser’s business communication solutions have an open audio/video ecosystem with strong compatibility and can be integrated with different brands of devices and platforms. TCC 2 has been certified by Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Tencent Conference and Nail Conference to meet the preferences and needs of all types of users.

Praise for Sennheiser’s TCC 2

During the implementation of the project, Sennheiser’s technical engineers went to the university several times to carry out on-site investigation and debugging work room-by-room to ensure that the installation position and angle of each TCC 2 could achieve the optimal effect and realize the best voice clarity. This was highly recognized by DKU staff.

“The exceptional quality of the TCC 2 is unquestionable, and the Sennheiser team has been instrumental in the smooth implementation of the project. They provided full technical and training support and helped us make great progress in commissioning and optimizing the system.” Li praised, “In the school’s future development plan, we look forward to continuing to work with Sennheiser to further optimize the performance of the audio/video facilities and continue to enhance the immersive learning and collaborative experience for teachers and students.”

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on April 26, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post Duke Kunshan University Selects Sennheiser for Audio Upgrade appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Security Operations Centers (SOC) and Beyond

As businesses focus on business continuity and situational intelligence, IT integrators with a holistic approach are increasingly being asked to extend their expertise beyond the peripheral systems that they are deploying — into the Operation Centers that manage the systems. This natural expansion emphasizes the growing need for a comprehensive approach that combines security, operational functionalities, infrastructure and AV considerations within the enterprise.

C-Level Recognition of Platform Solutions

A significant shift is occurring in the C-Suite with chief information officers (CIOs) recognizing the value of adopting platform solutions over point solutions for visual displays serving core enterprise operations. Enterprises are increasingly seeking integrated platforms that go beyond individual applications, thus providing a unified solution for all visual display needs. This shift reflects a desire for comprehensive solutions that streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency.

Rise of Data Dashboards in Enterprise

The rise of data dashboards in the enterprise is fueled by the growing need for effective metrics measurement and tracking. In this landscape, operational benefits play a crucial role, allowing businesses to manage content on any screen without relying on expensive and unsecure thin client PCs or USB drives, eliminating the need for significant manual intervention in content updates. Users can securely and centrally manage content directly from their web browser, presenting a more efficient and secure approach.

This trend is underpinned by the demand for integrated solutions that seamlessly connect with leading technologies. Notably, these data dashboards fully integrate with key applications like Power BI and Tableau as a single source, ensuring automatic, persistent and secure authentication to dashboards, charts and reports.

The aggregation of multiple charts as a source facilitates the secure distribution of operational data to relevant teams and stakeholders. This not only highlights the importance of technological compatibility but also underscores the broader trend of fostering informed decision-making through streamlined and secure data management.

Software-Defined Solutions versus Hardware Limitations

The paradigm of hardware-based point solutions is becoming obsolete as software solutions gain prominence. The ability of software solutions to seamlessly integrate with various industry-leading technologies provides a level of flexibility and scalability that hardware-based solutions struggle to match. This shift marks a departure from the limitations of hardware-centric approaches to a more agile and interconnected future.

The Significance of 8K Solutions

The advent of 8K solutions adds a new dimension to AV/IT integration. As display resolutions continue to evolve, the demand for higher quality visuals in enterprise environments is driving the adoption of 8K solutions. This shift is not just about increased pixel density; it’s about providing a more immersive and detailed visual experience that enhances collaboration and decision-making processes.

AV Integrators Embracing IT Protocols

On the flip side, AV integrators are gradually embracing IT protocols and solutions designed for the digital age. Software-defined solutions built for IT — standardized over networks — are gaining traction. While the adoption may be slower due to the historical reliance and subsequent familiarity that hardware solutions provide, the industry is witnessing a transformative shift towards embracing more agile and adaptable software-defined solutions.

In conclusion, the convergence of AV/IT is reshaping the landscape of enterprise operations. From organizational restructuring, to the demand for comprehensive platform solutions, and the adoption of software-defined approaches; the trends in AV/IT integration indicate a paradigm shift towards a more interconnected, data-driven and technologically advanced future for businesses.

As the industry continues to evolve, staying abreast of these AV/IT integration trends is imperative for integrators seeking to provide modernized enterprise-class solutions to their clients.

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on March 15, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

Jamey Miles is VP Channel & Strategic Accounts at Userful.

The post Top AV/IT Integration Trends Shaping Enterprise Operations in 2024 appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Research by Frost & Sullivan reports there is greater adoption of meeting insights and analytics tools to gain a better understanding of space utilization, performance, and engagement, with 76% of the decision-makers indicating this is a key capability. Companies are looking into implementing emerging technologies that provide insights on the workspace and meeting room utilization.

Today’s workforce has become accustomed to the Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) or Bring your own Device (BYOD) concept in meeting rooms. The Barco ClickShare solution enables users to host calls from their own laptop with their preferred videoconferencing platform, using the audio and video equipment in the meeting room. According to Barco, ClickShare has been leading the market with its wireless BYOM approach, as market research company Futuresource Consulting has previously estimated that ClickShare’s portfolio makes up over 50% of the global wireless conferencing market.

Clickshare & Microsoft Integration

With more than 240,000 ClickShare Conference devices in the field, ClickShare will be a significant data source for Microsoft Teams Rooms management capabilities and will feed into future initiatives. This first step provides valuable insights for IT decision makers without changing the user experience. When initiating a Teams call, the user’s Teams desktop client identifies the connected microphone, speaker, and camera via the ClickShare Base Unit and Button, passing the data into the Teams Pro Portal. Once multiple users have connected to the same ClickShare Base Unit, the information is populated for IT managers as a potential shared space within the Pro Management portal, enabling registration and management of the meeting space.

“ClickShare has always put the user at the heart of the experience, while guaranteeing IT managers have the necessary insights to equip meeting rooms in the most optimal way,” says Jan van Houtte, head of product at Barco. “Through this integration, Microsoft and Barco will work together to build easy management systems at scale for their customers. The joint forces in the Shared Spaces initiative are a first yet crucial step to explore market opportunities and establish a future portfolio.”

“Barco shares a clear focus with Microsoft on creating the best meeting experience. This focus drives our decision making, strategy, and partnerships, which has led us to take this step,” says Dan Root, head of global strategic alliances at Barco. “We are very pleased to be a part of the Microsoft Teams Devices ecosystem, and to bring Microsoft into our partnership program. Through this collaboration we will work together to build industry-leading solutions that take collaboration to the next level.”

Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on February 22, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post Barco Streamlines IT Management with Microsoft Integration appeared first on My TechDecisions.

“At ReliaQuest, our mission is to make security possible, therefore, it’s critical that we have access to the latest technology,” says Regina Marrow, ReliaQuest’s chief information officer and executive VP of operations. “On any given day, we are hosting customers from large enterprise companies, and the technology that we are using, and our operating centers, serve as the underpinnings of those interactions. So that technology must be world class and reliable because it reflects our brand. This technology directly impacts the effectiveness of those interactions because consistent experience is crucial for our teammates and customers.”

Choosing the Sony Pro BRAVIA Displays

ReliaQuest ultimately chose a range of 150 Sony Pro BRAVIA displays to help suit their business’s needs in their operating centers. These included the 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, 85-inch and 100-inch models. AVI-SPL provided ReliaQuest with product guidance and delivered on the installation.

According to Marrow, the team selected the technology due to its combination of quality, reliability, durability, ease-of-use and design aesthetic. The displays are used broadly for playing videos and running meetings in their collaboration spaces, huddle rooms, conference rooms, common areas and performance centers, where the company holds its trainings. The Sony Pro BRAVIA displays are also used for multi-purpose collaborations with customers and teammates, and for digital signage in the open areas of its operating centers including in the cafés and reception spaces, as well as sitewide communications and company town halls.

The Pro BRAVIA displays were especially important to ReliaQuest for regularly hosting leaders at its operating centers for interactions ranging from executive business reviews to trainings. “The high-quality, consistent and reliable experience that we have with the displays gives us peace of mind. We know that they’re going to work every time and the images are crisp, they’re clear, they’re colorful and they’re stable.” says Marrow.

Sony’s Pro BRAVIA Displays Boost ReliaQuest Operations

Since ReliaQuest opened its new operating center with Sony’s professional BRAVIA displays and other technology, the overall experience has been enhanced for customers and teammates. A perk the company noticed about the Pro BRAVIA displays was that they had the ability to operate without interactions from the everyday user. ReliaQuest set up its displays so everything could be managed centrally. This proved to be helpful for teammates, especially when the displays run on a schedule to maximize the energy efficiency and minimize wear. Due to the Pro BRAVIA screen mirroring feature, employees can also work collaboratively by utilizing Microsoft Teams. With the company building having large windows and being located in areas with natural bright light, the displays have no issues providing good, vibrant image quality — even when it’s midday, says ReliaQuest.

In addition, the displays also benefit ReliaQuest’s customers whether they are hosted at ReliaQuest’s locations, or utilizing the company’s spaces for their own team meetings.

“As a global security provider for the largest most trusted brands around the world, we understand that quality matters and we take what we do seriously. We wanted a partner that has the same attention to detail that we do and prioritizes the same level of quality and excellence. We align with high-quality, world class companies because we know that helps us in our mission to serve our customers and to make security possible,” adds Marrow.

Shop and compare the latest Sony professional display solutions on our sister-site AV-iQ.

Editor’s Note: Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister-site Commercial Integrator on January 5, 2024. It has since been updated for My TechDecisions’ audience.

The post AVI-SPL Enhances ReliaQuest UX with Sony Pro BRAVIA Displays Nationwide appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Productivity plays a huge role in a company’s financial health. Recent data from McKinsey & Company shows that productivity has barely grown in the U.S. (1.4%) since 2005. They also estimate that boosting U.S. productivity represents a $10 trillion opportunity.

Few teams feel the effects of unproductive work quite like IT. Their teams are typically small, and yet their work is overwhelming and mission-critical to keeping businesses moving forward. For instance, countless SaaS applications are now integral to the operations of every company, and yet one, often lean team is responsible for their upkeep and management.

That makes IT operations a potential bottleneck. Unsurprisingly, according to Evanta (a Gartner company), CIOs say increasing efficiency and productivity are top priorities for 2023.

The Manual Trap

SaaS applications, from project management, CRM and collaboration to MarTech and expense tools, are inseparable from our daily work. And our IT stacks are continuously increasing, with companies worldwide using an average of 130 apps in 2022.

My experience in the IT space has taught me that most IT teams still manage SaaS applications manually, attempting to track their licenses, users, and renewals via spreadsheets and provisioning/deprovisioning access to applications one by one. These bandwidth-crunched teams are wasting valuable (and expensive) time completing important yet mundane and repetitive tasks that are humanly impossible to keep up with – and, therefore, prime candidates for an automation-driven productivity boost.

The Onboarding/Offboarding Bottleneck

Two of the most time-intensive IT operations are onboarding and offboarding employees from SaaS applications.

Consider this scenario: A company is growing rapidly, hiring to fill the gaps they have across their organization to keep up with the high volume of work required to hit their increasing targets. Maybe they bulk-start new employees on one specific day, every two weeks.

If they have five employees starting on that day, IT first needs to receive the information that those employees are starting. They need to learn what departments those employees will work within and what tools are required for their roles. From there, they must provision access to those applications per employee and application. Endless Slack messages, clunky application backends and likely incomplete information eat up their day.

By the time they finish provisioning that group of new hires, the next group is likely just about to start. Any failures along that scattered onboarding process create a less-than-ideal onboarding experience and derail a new employee’s initial productivity.

On the flip side of this process is offboarding employees.

Manual offboarding requires IT to work with a departing employee’s manager to learn what apps they used (a less than scientific endeavor, particularly when you consider that many employees subscribe to apps on their own without others’ knowledge), and then manually deprovision them from every application. Beyond the time sink for IT, there is also a risk factor — failing to deprovision an employee from even one could leave sensitive company information accessible.

While handling these critical tasks in this manner is inefficient, it’s also indicative of the wasteful nature of manual IT operations. IT pros are highly technical and talented. Having them spend their time on tedious tasks distracts them from working on higher-value projects.

Related: ChatGPT-Like Microsoft 365 Copilot Will Be Coming to Microsoft Productivity Apps

Increase IT Productivity Through Automation

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of organizations will implement structured automation to deliver efficiency, an increase from just 20% of organizations in 2021.

Despite that, Torii’s  survey of over 200 IT professionals found that less than half of respondents have fully automated most tasks, and only 13% reported great success with automation.

So what’s stopping IT from automating? Time: 58% cite insufficient staffing or time as significant challenges in automation implementation. It’s a chicken and egg scenario.

The only way forward is through investing in tools that help manage their SaaS stack, that also include intuitive automation capabilities.

Investing in any old automation, won’t cut it either. In the context of IT, how that automation integrates and interacts with your SaaS stack is key.

Solutions such as SaaS Management Platforms, with automation built-in, provide the visibility IT needs to understand their SaaS stack and associated users and costs, as well as with the actionability required to manage it.

For the onboarding/offboarding bottleneck, this means automatically discovering and surfacing every application in use at your company, first and foremost. From that point of centralized visibility, you can create workflows that automate previously time-intensive tasks (and eliminate the chance of things falling through the cracks) to free up your IT staff’s time (and improve results).

For example, the system can detect which department new hires work in and automatically provision access to the applications they’ll require. Equally for offboarding, when an employee leaves — since you’re aware of every application they’re utilizing, the same platform can automatically deprovision them once triggered by your IDP or HRIS.

These are just small examples of the automation opportunities for IT, but when you compare them to the manual alternatives, it’s easy to imagine the productivity gains you can garner.

As companies continue looking to save costs, greater productivity could fit the bill — as it improves the value of every dollar spent.

By better using time, you’ll enable your organization to optimize resource use and focus on the objectives that drive revenue. Those that invest in productivity now stand to earn more from the efficiency gains of the future.

The post Now’s The Time to Focus on IT Productivity appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Recent technological improvements have made hybrid meetings more effective. With the Bring Your Own Meeting concept, running video meetings from your own laptop in the meeting room, is only one click away. BYOM puts the user at the heart of the collaboration experience. However, other collaboration solutions put the meeting room and the technology first.

Different setups in the video-enabled meeting room

Today we can distinguish roughly 3 types of meeting room setups.

Empty room
For those rooms that are not yet equipped with any technology, you can bring all the benefits of ClickShare to them by simply combining ClickShare with AV equipment from one of our more than 120 global alliance partners.

 

Room with wired setup
In a wired meeting room, you can find a display, camera and audio. Whenever you want to connect to the display, you need to connect your laptop via a cable. With ClickShare, you get rid of the cable and make the setup much easier to use, wireless and hassle free.

 

Fixed conference room
You can even add ClickShare to a meeting room that has a fixed conference room setup, such as a Microsoft Teams Room. Sharing content in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference becomes effortless. With ClickShare you can easily switch between UC&C platforms mode and Bring Your Own Meeting mode.

BYOM room solutions offer the possibility to switch platforms and use the devices, videoconferencing platforms and setups users prefer. In a wired BYOM setup, you need an HDMI-cable to share content on screen, whereas in a wireless BYOM room, you use wireless collaboration solutions like ClickShare to get content on the room display.

Sometimes IT departments decide to roll out one video conferencing platform throughout the organization, accompanied with installation of the accompanying fixed conference rooms (Room systems). These provide a simple way to have a videoconference or a hybrid meeting. Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms offer a complete meeting experience.

What are users struggling with in fixed room setups?

These typical fixed room features can cause quite some frustrations for end-users, especially when they easily want to start meetings from their own devices.

1. Different rooms, different setups
1 in 2 is confused by different setups in different rooms
When you equip a meeting room, you want  users to be able to intuitively get started with the conferencing equipment installed. When having different setups, different peripherals and different room systems with dedicated user interfaces, that can be tricky and may lead to extra training, more IT tickets and lots of phone calls.

2. Cable troubles
57% think it’s a hassle connecting the cable of the meeting room display
Which cable goes where? What do you do when you have multiple presenters? The search delays the start of the meeting or causes unwelcome interruptions. Moreover, when you want to switch presenters in a space with a fixed in-room system, there is only one cable available, and you must pass on that very same cable.

3. Platform troubles
65% is unable to connect to the meeting room system
Have you ever tried having a Zoom call in a Microsoft Teams Room, or a Teams call in a Zoom Room? Fair to say, that’s quite cumbersome. In a fixed room setup, you are prompted to use the video conferencing platform the room is designed for. Switching platforms is not an easy option.

4. Sharing content is hard
58% have issues with sharing content 

1. Wireless content sharing in a face-to-face meeting
   A room with a fixed in-room system is intrinsically inflexible. You have the option to share content with a cable. If you hop into a fixed conferencing room to have a face-to-face meeting, wireless content sharing can be a challenge. You need to book a video call, join the call and turn off the audio. Only then can you wirelessly share content without audio echoes.
2. Content sharing side by side
   Sometimes you need to compare documents and different presenters want to share content on screen. However, not every setup allows for multiple sources on screen or side-by-side sharing. A Microsoft Teams Room only has one cable to share content to the meeting room display, so switching presenters means handing over the cable in the meeting room.
3. Content sharing in a videocall
   Sharing content in the room does not equal sharing content in the video call. Sometimes, additional presenters need to dial into the video call as extra participant before they can share content in the video call as well. This can cause annoying audio interferences in the meeting room itself.
4. Content sharing from a mobile device
   Have you ever tried sharing a video or image from a mobile device in a fixed room? There’s no way to connect the cable to your phone or tablet. Nor are there features to enable screen mirroring via Airplay, Google Cast or Miracast.

5. No decent view on content & people
65% want to see people & content equally good
For the most equitable experience in a video meeting, you want to be able to see and connect with remote colleagues. Remote participants should have an equal part on the meeting screen as the content displayed. Not all meeting rooms have multiple screens, or a room display that is large enough (like 21:9) to show both people and content. In a Microsoft Teams Room, the full pixel space of the meeting display is not optimally used. There are always black borders around the shared content.

6. Unwelcome to guests
1 in 2 systems do not allow external guests to participate in collaboration
Working with complicated control panels, having no access to the company network or having to install software can only add up to the complexity of joining meetings for guests. In addition, guests are not always accustomed to the platform used in the fixed room or have the right account to start the video meeting. Which adds up to the complexity of sharing content.

7. Ad hoc video meetings are a nightmare
62% of meetings is unscheduled
Unplanned and unscheduled meetings in a fixed room take time, simply because the room setup does not allow for easy wireless content sharing in an ad hoc meeting. You need to schedule your call upfront before you can start the meeting from the room console.

8. Room systems can be costly
1 in 2 IT managers want to invest more in hybrid meetings
Rooms with fixed in-room systems often eat up your budget, as you installed high-cost equipment and have recurring license costs.

Moreover, meeting rooms with complex or malfunctioning video conferencing setups are usually not used often enough. Recurring technical issues with equipment are the main reason for users to stop using certain spaces. People don’t want to lose time with starting and running meetings. They simply want the setup to work.

The service tickets to fix issues simply take too much of your precious time. If you want to save on both money and time and enjoy a better ROI and higher adoption rates in your meeting rooms, you need a solution that is easy-to-use, easy-to-manage and a good investment in the long run.

What now?

Download our infographic.

Don’t worry, there are wireless collaboration solutions that help you improve the user experience in a fixed room. Download our Design Guide white paper, here.

The post What are your Biggest Struggles with Tech in UC Rooms?  appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The post Enhance flexibility in your Microsoft Teams Rooms with ClickShare Automatic Switching appeared first on My TechDecisions.