It has been a long journey from the days of choppy video calls to the present, where Zoom meets host more than dozens of people. The audio video industry has grown from enabling broadcasts to facilitating one-on-one communication to now fostering team collaboration in multiple sophisticated ways.
Indeed, with comprehensive solutions that drive the hybrid workplace forward, the industry has made a huge leap in terms of enhancements. And it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that AV products are shaping the enterprise landscape and redefining how work is done.
But getting to the current stage of AV took hundreds of small and big strides. Many AV products and AV solutions that came before still form the bedrock on which modern communication and collaboration thrive. Audio and video inputs and outputs make up the bulk of enterprise communications and messaging solutions even today. Favourably, AV products have evolved extensively to usher us into an age where communication and collaboration have become experiential, easy, seamless, efficient, and real-time.
Here are five AV product innovations that have had a profound impact on the world of enterprise AV:
Digital Signage
Once a solution primarily for airports and large retail spaces, digital signages are now almost everywhere. Be it lobbies, cafeterias, meeting rooms, digital signage solutions, and video walls, deliver highly immersive brand experiences.
Apart from industries like tourism, retail, restaurants, etc., modern-day enterprises too are leveraging digital signage to deliver content easily across locations with just a click. In fact, digital signage is being used to drive the touchless workplace and has emerged as a compelling wayfinding solution.
Whether it is to influence the decision at a point of sale, establish and reinforce brand identity, create a wow element during product launches, educate customers and employees, or drive employee and brand experiences, digital signage has revolutionised how we disseminate information and build influence.
Unified Communication Systems
Unified communication technologies and systems have been in a mode of constant evolution since the mid-1990s. What started as an effort to bring unification of voice communications, text messages, and presence through a single communication platform has witnessed radical evolution.
From hardware PBXs to flexible software products for home, management, and business, Unified Communications solutions today are high-end, global management systems without georeferenced users capable of functioning in both online and offline modes.
Today, cloud-based unified solutions offer enterprises business continuity, productivity, and flexibility. These solutions integrate diverse communication tools and applications in your business environment and can now enable one-touch collaboration.
They can be customised to power up huddle rooms and small, medium and large meeting rooms. The right solution enables seamless collaboration across teams irrespective of their location, increases impact, elevates customer interaction and fosters innovation in a hybrid work environment.
Video Conferencing – Microsoft Teams and Teams Rooms
While Microsoft Teams was launched in 2017 as a part of the Microsoft 365 family of products, it has quickly evolved to become a critical collaboration tool in the enterprise kitty.
With the onset of the pandemic, Teams became a crucial tool to drive conversations and information exchange across industries. Today, it can facilitate powerful experiences by streamlining workflows, storing files on the cloud, hosting online events for up to 1,000 people, and presenting material more effectively using Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Teams Rooms is taking the capabilities of Teams further. It allows enterprises to turn any meeting space into an easy-to-use and inclusive collaboration space where everyone has a place at the table. In essence, Teams Rooms offers flexibility and elevated collaboration experiences without security and operational concerns.
Crestron Flex
Creston has been a stalwart in the AV products game. The Crestron Flex solution is perfectly suited to meet the communication and collaboration needs of the current environment.
Crestron Flex gives organisations the capability to create immersive workspaces and deliver video conferencing environments that work to make collaborative moments simple for their employees.
A full-featured video conferencing room solution, Crestron Flex ensures superior and consistent audio-visual quality across devices. It merges unified communication, room scheduling, wireless presentation, and device management and provides a single interface for Microsoft Teams and Zoom Rooms.
As we move firmly into the hybrid work mode, Crestron Flex becomes ideal for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) conferencing environments. It provides ultimate flexibility by helping enterprises enable work-from-anywhere.
The high-fidelity audio features, high-resolution video display, and an intelligent HD camera ensure excellent clarity and connectivity. Room scheduling systems and XiO cloud workplace analytics help manage and measure how rooms are being used. It can also be used to create more responsive spaces with controls like automated lighting.
Jabra PanaCast
Jabra has been a pioneer in world-class UC sound solutions. This company has always focused on productivity through improved concentration, conversation, and collaboration. Jabra PanaCast is one of the latest offerings that takes video collaboration a step further.
Marrying their 150-year expertise in sound with industry-first video technology, the Jabra PanaCast aims to deliver one of the world’s most collaborative huddle room experiences.
The PanaCast is the world’s first intelligent panoramic video collaboration device. It offers three 13-megapixel cameras working together as one using a core technology embedded in the built-in Jabra PanaCast Vision Processor.
AI-powered 4K Ultra-HD video, Intelligent Zoom, Intelligent Lighting Optimisation, and Intuitive Picture-in-Picture mode further make video conferencing experiences seamless and immersive.
The multi-camera array solution offers incredibly immersive experiences owing to a full 180-degree panoramic field of view. The panoramic video allows easy and equal participation and facilitates true collaboration.
The leading-edge cameras and microphones, fourth-generation stitching technology, and Intelligent Vision software, along with wall-to-wall coverage in Panoramic-4K video work, drive optimal performance. Besides, on-device processing & integrated privacy cover optimised for all leading UC platforms make the solution perfect for the new normal.
Conclusion
The past few years have witnessed a sustained rise in the innovation of AV products. If we look closely, we can see that the history of this industry is steeped in innovation. It is through constant innovation that modern society today has developed this astounding capacity for communication, something that would have been nothing short of magic to a person even a couple of decades back.
Book a free consultation with us to know more about the AV solutions that would befit your workplace.
