In our series of #RoadtoISE blogs, we're talking with exhibitors about the hottest technologies and trends they're looking to see at ISE 2020.
Q&A with Rob Smith, Senior Director, Integrated System Sales, Western Europe, Shure.
Q: Why ISE 2020?
ROB SMITH: Why not ISE? It is the world’s largest exhibition for AV and systems integration and it provides Shure with an opportunity to meet with the most influential people in the industry from around the world. We are excited to be part of one of the biggest events of the year as we know our long-time partner AVIXA is so instrumental in organizing such a tremendous showcase.
Q: What is the most exciting trend you expect to see at the show?
RS: Visitors to the Shure booth can expect to see some exciting innovations being debuted for enhancing the conferencing audio experience. We think this will support the market’s demand for higher-quality, simpler, and leaner deployments in meeting spaces that ordinarily couldn’t justify premium audio. We have some remarkable innovations that we will be unveiling at ISE that we believe attendees will find very useful for their business.
In addition to new solutions, many will be talking about the future of conferencing. That is a key area we’ve been focused on at Shure. With technology’s speed and capabilities advancing rapidly, and the exciting innovations by the major soft codec vendors, organizations are more and more expected to function seamlessly across locations in real-time. Given all these changes and new opportunities, online meetings today—with stakeholders, employees, board members, new clients, existing customers—are essential business functions. In fact, based on our recent research, seven out of 10 meetings are already virtual, or include a mixture of in-person and remote delegates.
In addition to being crucial for operations, virtual meetings are also used to reduce costs, accommodate expanding remote teams, increase meeting engagement and attendance, and make decisions quickly across a diverse workforce.
And yet, professionals overwhelmingly report that their online meetings are consistently plagued with frustrations regarding audio quality. From background noise and echo, to difficulties connecting and audio cutting out entirely, users are frustrated with meeting time spent troubleshooting instead of collaborating. They want more productive meetings and less time trying to reconnect in or rescheduling altogether.
Shure worked with research company Illuminas to survey and interview buyers and end users about virtual conferencing. In this wide-ranging study of AV users and buyers in enterprise organizations across various industries, we examined the significant consequences of technology issues in organizations that rely on both internal, external, and combined virtual meetings.
We are discovering some key data that will impact the way organizations incorporate V capacity into their larger strategy, including the fact that over 80 percent of virtual meeting attendees say that "flawless audio" is the key criteria to holding successful meetings. Strikingly, they said flawless audio is four times more important than video in online collaboration.
Why audio? Because you can still hold a productive meeting without video, but without being able to speak and be heard clearly, virtual connectivity is useless. Audio quality is the most crucial issue and technology investment for supporting virtual meeting success.
We’re looking forward to learning more from attendees about how our solutions can help them.
Q: How will your solutions inspire integrators?
RS: We believe our role is to help integrators understand there are effortless ways to upgrade and operate conference room technology. Our conferencing solutions include equipment and software which is easily adaptable and upgradeable—as well as software that helps manage performance seamlessly.
Q: How will your solutions inspire tech managers?
RS: We also provide training and support for tech managers to help them understand how products and solutions can evolve to meet their needs.
To learn more, visit Shure at Stand 12-F90 at ISE 2020.
To read more ISE 2020 stories, visit avnetwork.com/tag/ise.
