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Creating Better Workplace Meetings With Crestron Flex

AV in Meeting Spaces

In a fast-paced, productivity-focused workplace, time is at a premium for everyone. Meetings have to start fast, run as expected, and support the way participants want to collaborate. Less time worrying about how to use technology means more time to maximize productivity and create new ideas that benefit the business. 

Because not every meeting has the same number of people or same general purpose, smart workplaces will feature a variety of spaces: huddle rooms, open areas, personal desks, executive boardrooms, and traditional conference rooms designed for small, medium, and large groups. 

These spaces are typically aligned with purposes suited to their size: the quick brainstorming huddle, the strategic presentation, the training session, the group presentation. Though different in size and purpose, most share similar technology systems. The types of collaboration technology in these spaces often include preferred UCC platforms (think Microsoft Teams Rooms), wireless connectivity from BYOD, ready-to-go video conferencing, and interactive displays. 

Regardless of your particular industry — whether it’s higher education or any number of corporate sectors like energy, finance, legal and transportation —  you can make use of the variety of collaboration spaces for quick huddles, training sessions, and strategic-minded presentations. Common to these organizations is their reliance on speed and agility. To reach business outcomes and outdo the competition, they must give their talent the tools they need to quickly come up with ideas and strategies that they take to market. By establishing technology standards for each of these spaces, you create a consistent, a high-quality experience that encourages collaboration and optimizes your workforce’s effectiveness. 

Crestron solutions set the standard for collaboration across industries and applications. In particular, Crestron Flex is a pace setter for key activities like quick-start meetings, video conferencing, collaboration, and content sharing. There’s a Crestron Flex solution for any size and type of conference space – including private and custom spaces and rooms designed for groups of various sizes. Wherever they gather, even from remote locations, meeting attendees have the same easy ability to work together. 

Users can connect their personal devices into their Crestron Flex device and start working with one another from their preferred UC platform. Crestron Flex natively supports whichever popular platform you choose, so once you connect your laptop via USB, you’re ready to collaborate. 

I encourage you to look at the Crestron Flex series of products so you can get an idea of how they’ll play in your workplace. For companies like yours, you’ll have a meeting-room solution that’s affordable and supports the way your teams produce the outcomes that drive your success in the marketplace. These solutions include:

  • Crestron Flex B-Series Smart Soundbar
  • Crestron Flex C-Series Integrator Kits
  • Crestron Flex M-Series Tabletop AV Conferencing
  • Crestron Flex P-Series Desktop Phone

You can learn more about each of these solutions at the Crestron Flex page.

Want a demo of Crestron Flex so you can see firsthand what it can do? Contact us at AVI-SPL and we’ll answer your questions and show you how Crestron Flex transforms your meeting experience so you get the business outcomes that spark success.

 

 

 

 

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Webinar Recording: Preparing Your Meeting Rooms for the Teams Experience

Audio Conferencing

The growing popularity of Microsoft Teams is a testament to our need to collaborate efficiently in real and virtual spaces. Poorly designed rooms undermine the collaboration culture. The user experience has to be consistent across the spectrum of spaces, from huddle spaces to lecture theaters.

Sneak preview:

During this webinar, Chris Fitzsimmons, product marketing manager for Biamp, looks at ways you can bring the Microsoft Teams experience into a variety of meeting spaces. Download this recording and you’ll learn about:

  • The difference between Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Teams Rooms 
  • AV best practices (with a focus on the importance of audio quality)
  • Microsoft-certified solutions from Biamp and how they improve the collaboration experience

Fitzsimmons also addresses audience questions on topics like network security and the features of Biamp solutions.

Here’s a short preview from this Biamp event that emphasizes the importance of audio to successful meetings:

Find out more of Fitzsimmons’ advice for creating an engaging collaboration experience in a variety of meeting spaces.

Get the recording for “Preparing Your Meeting Rooms for the Teams Experience” >

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Five Steps to an Outstanding Video Conferencing Experience

AV in Meeting Spaces

A big part of the user experience in meeting rooms is the user interface. And by that I just mean the control panel that participants will use to start the meeting, video call, and sharing capabilities. As I’ve learned from AVI-SPL’s programmers, these control panels should support the different ways people want to work in these spaces.

David Thorson, vice president, programming at AVI-SPL, reviews five steps to building a video conferencing user interface (UI) that delivers a positive meeting room user experience (UX) in your digital workplace. Thorson will help you understand issues like:

  • Defining user expectations for the meeting room experience
  • Creating the UX architecture
  • Choosing the right hardware and software based on your user interface blueprint
  • Using meeting room standards for a consistent experience
  • Monitoring the usability of your solution

You’ll also learn about some specific Crestron solutions that help meeting attendees experience an outstanding video conference.

Read “User Experience-Driven Meeting Spaces Meet the User Interface” >

 

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How to Create Meeting Room Standards

AV in Meeting Spaces

If you want to encourage effective collaboration within your organization — and who wouldn’t? — then you need to establish standards for your collaboration rooms and the technology within them. “Why is that?” you might ask. Well, in this AVI-SPL white paper, you’ll discover the benefits of creating meeting room standards for your workplace. You’ll also learn:

  • 5 keys to successful collaboration
  • How to choose solutions for different types of rooms
  • How to know if your standards are working

After reading this paper, you’ll understand how to create technology standards for different rooms and how those standards can make your meetings run smoothly. This will lead to a better user experience during collaboration sessions, and your employees will increase their use video collaboration in dedicated spaces.

You’ll also have a concise resource you can go to again and again. This guide includes a table of the common types of meeting rooms and the technology systems that usually go in them.

Get your copy of “The Enterprise Guide to Creating Meeting Room Standards” >

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How to Decide Which UCC Team to Join: Cisco or Microsoft

AV in Meeting Spaces

You want to create a reliable strategy for improving your company’s unified communications and collaboration (UCC) experience. The better the collaboration among team members, the better the outcomes for the organization. 

The AVI-SPL Customer Advisory Board (CAB) includes large enterprises (including Fortune 500 companies) that met over three months in 2019 to discuss UCC platforms and their process of determining which ones are right for their operations.

Now you can draw on their experience and insight through this overview of their discussion of UCC platforms and their related challenges and opportunities.

UCC solutions like Cisco Webex Teams and Microsoft Teams can power a collaborative workplace, connect team members for meaningful collaboration in meeting spaces, and link offices around the world. In this article by AVI-SPL SVP of Marketing Kelly Bousman, you’ll learn:

  • How to assess your current collaboration state (with a chart to serve as your guide)
  • How to determine user preferences for your current UCC tools
  • Why companies like Cisco and Microsoft are developing their UCC capabilities
  • How Fortune 500 companies assess and compare the benefits of UCC solutions
  • The challenges that come with multi-vendor systems

With this information in mind, you can do what the CAB members have done or are doing — determine the benefits of improvements to their UCC capabilities and the ways to achieve those benefits. You’ll have the information to build a case for the UCC platform (or combination of platforms) that delivers the business impact you need.

Read “Deciding Which UCC Team to Join – Cisco or Microsoft” > 

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7 Tips for Successful Workplace Meetings in 2020

AV Everywhere

A new year presents the motivation for resolutions that we hope will improve our lives. Since so much of our time is devoted to our careers, I’m going to focus on a strategy that can lead to a better workplace experience and business success in 2020.

During a 2019 AVI-SPL webinar, Lieven Bertier of Barco explained the ingredients to a perfect workplace meeting and how collaboration technology supports these meetings. Bertier is the director of go-to-market strategy and services for Barco’s meeting experience business.

He noted that Barco’s own research indicates millennials and Gen Z will make up 59% of the workforce this year (a figure not too far off from the 50% figure I found in this source). This matters because they are natural collaborators who embrace digital technology. As I frequently mention in this blog, companies that want to attract and keep the best talent need to give them the tools to succeed.

During the webinar, Bertier touched on stats and findings that illustrate the connection between meetings and meeting-room technology, including:  

  • 30% of organizations in 2020 will find their greatest competitive asset in their workforce’s ability to creatively use digital technologies.
  • 72% of employees say their companies need to invest in better meeting technology (most say it needs to be intuitive and plug-and-play).
  • Most millennials (78%) and everyone else (75%) want a fixed place for their meetings.

That last point should matter to anyone involved in business, because millennials are already the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. (As an aside, be skeptical about reports that claim millennials will make up 75% of the workforce in 2025. Recent research shows that’s an inflated number that keeps getting circulated without fact-checking.)

But of all the statistics that Bertier shared, the number that struck me and inspired this post is this one: 51% of employees attend meetings that they say are irrelevant to them. 

Let’s give this the context Bertier provided: The average meeting length in the U.S. is 48 minutes. So if you attend 10 meetings a week, that accounts for a full day of work each week. No one who cares about their career and responsibilities wants to be part of a day’s worth of being unproductive. Now consider that there are about 3 billion meetings in the U.S. every year and that the Fortune 500 wastes $75 million a year on meetings. As Bertier notes, it’s no wonder that nearly 60% of employees think meetings should be shorter.

Meetings Aren’t the Problem

The problem is poorly conceived meetings. Meetings should be where people formulate their strategy and tactics, brainstorm ideas, make decisions, work with one another, and make progress on their shared projects. Where time is at a premium, meetings can’t be interrupted by digressions, small talk, and technology that hinders rather than helps. With that in mind, here are Bertier’s list of seven tips for better meetings:

    1. Add the technology and rooms that will empower people to have better, more productive meetings.
      • So what does better technology look like? It’s simple and intuitive. That means it works at the touch of a button, is wireless, compatible with any device, and is easy to set up. 
    2. Reduce the number of meetings. Don’t mistake this for less collaboration. Empowered by meeting spaces with collaboration technology, you may find your employees getting together frequently in quick huddles to review plans of action, answer lingering questions, and map out strategies.
    3. Assign clear roles and responsibilities: A meeting that has a chairperson, note taker, facilitator, and timekeeper can keep it focused and productive.
    4. No interruptions or distractions. Most participants are offended by someone who uses a phone or computer during a meeting. This can be impractical to eliminate, since we rely on our personal devices to take notes and contribute to the discussion. It may be better to encourage attendees to use their devices only for purposes related to the task at hand.
    5. Use multimedia. 72% of survey respondents feel more engaged with multimedia presentations.
    6. Embrace huddle spaces. Huddle spaces with ready-to-use collaboration technology benefit those who want to work together in small groups and do so at a moment’s notice.
    7. Aim for the 17-minute meeting. In countries around the world, most employees want their meetings to be shorter. By setting a time limit on meetings, you encourage organizers and participants to focus on the agenda.

With these tips in mind, you have a good foundation from which to empower staff with the type of meetings that improve productivity, reduce stress, and create a collaborative environment that leads to better business outcomes. For help with putting these recommendations into action, work with a services provider who has deep experience in workplace collaboration. AVI-SPL has that experience, so reach out with your questions and requests.

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