InfoComm 2022 returns to Las Vegas this June 4-10. As excitement around the event builds, we’ve turned to InfoComm 2022 exhibitors to learn what trends they expect to see at the show—plus a special sneak preview of what they’ll show in their booths—in our InfoComm 2022 Impulses series.
[InfoComm 2022 Registration Is Open]
Today, meet Charlie Jones, insights manager, global alliances at Sennheiser.
How does InfoComm inspire you?
Charlie Jones: At Sennheiser we have a collaborative spirit. We are all about working together with our industry peers and exploring new partnerships, and already have over 30 alliances in place with some of the leading manufacturers in the industry. For us, InfoComm represents an opportunity to finally get together as colleagues, share smiles, wine, laughs, and catch up on the last two years where we didn’t have the chance to connect in person. InfoComm allows us to remember that these partnerships and collaborative technology solutions are all about bringing people together. The show is a great place to get a sense of what innovations are coming to the market in the next year and find new opportunities to add value with superior audio solutions.
What recent trend or technology do you expect to generate buzz on the show floor?
CJ: I expect Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a big buzzword on the show floor as more manufacturers find creative ways to bring this technology into the meeting environment. For instance, our newly launched TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker (TC ISP) will be showcased at InfoComm, and it is one of the first intelligent solutions for this market, enabling users to start and optimize Microsoft Teams meetings by talking to Cortana via voice recognition, calendar syncing, and automatic transcription. Coming out of the pandemic, so many of us have more work than we know what to do with, so at Sennheiser we are eager to find ways to enable hybrid and remote workers to work smarter, not harder with solutions like the TC ISP.
[Sennheiser Launches TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker for Microsoft Teams Rooms]
How will your company’s solutions inspire end users?
CJ: With the rise of hybrid meetings and the drop in travel over the last two years, we had to innovate quickly to prevent disruption in workflows and enable disparate teams to still communicate as if they were in the same room. Over the last two years, we set out to bring audio collaboration solutions to the market that not only sound fantastic but reduce the intimidation factor of meeting room technology, with simplistic and easy-to-use form factors.
This mission is what inspired innovations like camera tracking integrations for our TeamConnect Ceiling 2 ceiling microphone, which allows meeting participants to be seen as easily as they are heard. In the same vein, we also developed products with features like automated transcription such as our TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker for Microsoft Teams environments, facilitating scripted recordings of everything said in a meeting.
[InfoComm 2022 Tours to Explore Las Vegas' Dazzling Pro AV Sights]
Why are ceiling-mounted microphones growing in popularity?
CJ: While SCN readers love technology, the fact of the matter is that most of our customers are still somewhat intimidated by it. If we stick a microphone in their face, they freeze up and forget what they are going to say. To add to this, hygiene is still a massive consideration, and passing a mic between meeting participants is not conducive to a healthy environment. Ceiling mounted microphones like our TeamConnect Ceiling 2 take care of all of this. There is no longer a daunting mic that gets in the way of a video, it’s instead capturing audio effectively from its inconspicuous spot on the ceiling. The latest generation of our TeamConnect Ceiling 2 can even be tied into automated camera tracking, allowing the camera to follow the speaker in the room, so that remote participants can follow along in a meeting as if they were there, and in-person attendees can move around the space and arrange the meeting room furniture however is most conducive to their gathering.
