The ultimate achievement for any technology or manufacturing process today is to improve performance and efficiency while reducing environmental impact. At Controlled Thermal Resources, a pioneering Southern California company that produces lithium battery products in a near-zero-emissions facility, sustainability is central to everything they do.
When the company recently opened a new office and decided to upgrade its meeting room video conferencing equipment, the drive to improve efficiency, quality and sustainability led them to Konftel. The Swedish technology company manufactures high-performance, easy-to-use cameras and conference phones for video conferencing, and has also made sustainability core to its company mission – as a Climate Neutral Certified organization.
According to Controlled Thermal Resources’ Real Estate Manager Paul Magana, the company required an affordable, platform-agnostic video conferencing solution that would allow them to collaborate with Zoom, Teams, WebEx and any other service a client or partner might utilize.
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“Over the last two to three years, virtual collaboration and video conferences have become part of our daily work process, and the consumer-grade equipment we were using simply wasn’t up to the task,” Magana explained. “Being able to clearly see and hear remote partners is vital to our ongoing success, and between the finicky setup process, frequent issues with connections and screen sharing, and sub-par audio and video quality, we knew we could do better.”
After research and conversations with colleagues, Magana and the company’s decision makers chose the robust Konftel 800 conference phone and easy-to-use Cam50 1080P video camera with pan, tilt and 12x zoom capability. The first conference room to be upgraded now has two of each, providing full-room coverage at a fraction of the cost of competitor’s solutions.
“We looked at various solutions, and Konftel’s wireless products that can run on Power over Ethernet provided significant benefits for our space while being one of the most affordable options,” Magana continued. “What’s more, the fact that Konftel is one of the industry’s strongest proponents of developing carbon-neutral processes and products made it a perfect fit that exceeded all of our expectations.”
Magana said that some other solutions they considered would have required tearing up concrete floors to lay new wiring, with some even using proprietary cables. The Konftel 800 conference phone, on the other hand, is powered by PoE (power over ethernet) and uses Bluetooth to provide simple, fast connection no matter who is running the meeting.
In addition to the cameras and conference phones, Controlled Thermal Resources’ new conference room includes an 85-inch wall-mounted digital display with an Apple Mac Mini mounted behind it. Through this combination of technologies, users are able to easily and quickly launch meetings without all the fuss of the former setup. Previously, meeting hosts had to connect their laptop to the room’s equipment and ensure everything was running smoothly before each meeting, which reduced efficiency and often required IT support.
“The new system we designed is easier and more reliable, and the quality has been fantastic,” Magana said. “The first time we had a meeting with 20 executives from all different locations, there were no glitches, no drop-outs, every word and image was crystal clear, and attendees shared their screens with no issues. The vast difference between the old solution and Konftel’s professional-grade equipment has been a game-changer for our daily meetings.”
Controlled Thermal Resources was founded in 2013 and is growing rapidly, with their innovative sustainable processes attracting interest from companies around the world that rely on professional-quality virtual collaboration tools.
With both Controlled Thermal Resources and Konftel stating their commitments to sustainability and emissions reductions, supporting each other’s businesses is a no brainer. While the lithium company creates new ways to safely power the future.
