Several workplace trends that had been slowly gaining traction in recent years expanded rapidly over the course of the pandemic: specifically, a growing number of remote and hybrid employees and the rise of video conferencing platforms. While spaces (and their intended purposes) will vary, an important consideration is maintaining a consistent user experience for everyone, no matter their location, while still tailoring the solution to the space.

Offices

Whether it’s part of a company facility or a remote/home workstation — solutions for individuals need all the functionality of any space, no matter its purpose. It’s imperative that a remote worker feel as connected to a collaborative meeting as those occupying the same physical space. This means clear audio and video are essential whether sound is delivered via speakers or headphones — and the ability to share content quickly and easily with the team should be a top priority. Organizations should standardize hardware and software solutions to create an ecosystem that delivers consistency, equity, and engagement.

Small rooms are also referred to as huddle rooms, these spaces allow for one to five employees to collaborate are often used for brainstorming or strategic sessions. Functionality for wireless presentations and the option to collaborate and edit materials are often important in these spaces. The need for a guest to “BYOD” — “bring your own device” — for a presentation enters the equation here, too. As a result, your ecosystem can’t be completely walled-off from these applications, and your collaboration tools should be ready to communicate with third-party devices.

Medium rooms need all the functionality of a smaller room but need to comfortably seat up to 10 people and have a video display that’s large enough to be clearly viewed by anyone in the room. In this size room, audio and video start to need special attention to make sure that the mic array completely covers the available space. If sidebars or soft-spoken team members are added into the mix, it’s important that remote workers hear all that’s being said. And an intelligent video system gives all virtual participants an “equal seat at the table.”

The digital workplace — with its combination of remote and in-person collaborators who need to communicate effectively — is here to stay. The pandemic accelerated the digital workplace trend, increasing the number of remote and hybrid employees and the expanding video conferencing platforms.

But this transition to the digital workplace is not without its frictions. For example, many companies have cobbled together solutions that may have utilized a variety of devices and platforms that are incompatible and don’t always “work and play well” with one another.

And the user experience may not be all that you expected as employees with little remote experience may have struggled to learn when using devices or platforms with less-than-intuitive interfaces. Even employees with remote experience may have their collaborative contributions impacted due to poor audio and video solutions — whether they’re at home or in the boardroom.

Other friction points are connectivity — poor connectivity can leave employees feeling frustrated, lonely, or detached from their teams; scheduling and management — keeping everyone engaged and on time and ensuring there are rooms and devices ready; and security issues — a wide range of devices on company networks, machines accessed by family members with little cybersecurity oversight, and less-than-secure home networks, are all potential headaches for your IT department.

The solution to eliminate these frictions is to create a high-performance digital workplace. The right digital workplace seamlessly links team members anywhere in the world. While specifics can vary wildly there are some fundamental considerations when choosing a solution.

Once you start look at the esports landscape, you will discover that its applications share many similarities with today’s more common collaborative applications that you already know — hybrid meeting spaces, classrooms, and digital signage. While the scale is different and the intended experiences vary, the functionality is nearly the same regardless of size — or name.

For example, an esports lab is very comparable to a huddle space. Some of the needs of these similar spaces include USB integration for peripherals, point to point integration, and ability to scale.

Training venues are similar to hybrid workspaces and standard conference rooms in corporate settings, and much like classrooms in schools and universities. They could potentially scale up to include technology shared by courtroom, executive conference room, or lecture hall/training room applications. Larger venues also have commonalities with military installations.

Competition venues share many of the same attributes as simulation centers, command and control centers, and emergency operations spaces. All require multi-source and user routing, audio routing, and ultra-high image integrity up to 4K60 4:4:4.

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Valley Communications Systems, Inc. is delighted to announce that on August 15, 2020, it celebrated its 75th anniversary!

Read the full article here: Valley is 75 years young!