AVT Question: It has become clear that the proliferation of hybrid meeting solutions has dramatically altered the landscape of the office—shifting the physical space requirements of organizations and opening up seemingly limitless possibilities for the hybrid employee.
We reached out to the industry thought leaders whose companies are innovating technologies for the new era workplace for their insights and to share best practices to help ensure that employees can enjoy the same immersive meeting experience, regardless of their location. [February 2022]
Thought Leader: Garth Lobban, Director of Marketing at Atlona
The business world has gradually accepted that remote work will remain part of the corporate fabric, and that means ensuring that both physical and remote workers have the tools they need to collaborate. The corporate meeting space is ground zero for making changes and upgrades that improve productivity and bridge the two worlds.
It wasn’t long ago when the presenter knew their audience was keeping up with the talking points. The presenter could see the audience, and the audience could look right back while absorbing the information in real time. Everyone was in one physical space, and often there was little more than a display and a lavalier microphone.
"AV distribution gear with USB-C connectivity can be employed in these rooms to bring both the camera and speakerphone into the laptop driving the web-based meeting." — Garth Lobban, Director of Marketing at Atlona
The corporate world must now think differently. We are now presenting to remote audiences outside the meeting space. The inability of the remote worker to see the other person effectively reduces the communication by half and raises frustration. If there’s video of the presenter at all, many hybrid team members use built-in laptop cameras. This viewpoint can make the remote participant subconsciously feel inferior as they are always looking upward. In the office, that little webcam is woefully inadequate to cover the meeting space. Without a state-of-the-art PTZ camera connected to your laptop running the Teams meeting, the other side gets only half the experience.
Small form-factor, ePTZ (electronic pan-tilt-zoom) cameras open the door for vastly improved video capture in the small conference room. Plugging these small cameras into laptops and positioning them on stands at your eye level or on your display can help participants feel engaged. For larger rooms, full-sized PTZ cameras can be automated through control systems to focus on each presenter. AV distribution gear with USB-C connectivity can be employed in these rooms to bring both the camera and speakerphone into the laptop driving the web-based meeting.
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