Corporate Clients Profit from AV in Communications and
Training Applications
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Classrooms and lecture halls now come equipped with streaming and recording capabilities.
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It’s what’s on the inside that counts. As profitable
companies have long understood, keeping
employees educated, informed, and in touch with
each other is a safe investment for promoting longterm
growth. So it’s no surprise that corporations
of all stripes—from manufacturing to financial to
pharmaceutical—have looked increasingly to AV
consultants to help them raise the bar on internal
communications.
Whether they’re designing fully self-contained
campuses, planning dedicated simulation centers,
or bringing new collaborative capabilities to HQ,
AV integrators have a more active role than ever
before in benefiting their clients’ balance sheets. The
bottom line: improved corporate communications and
training is mission-critical.
“We’re helping them solve real business
problems—not just providing a conference room,”
said Eric Bixler, account executive for Philadelphia,
PA-based Advanced AV. “In 2012 the call is for us to
act as a business consultant, not simply be an audiovisual provider, and
I think that’s been a change across all audio and visual communications.
Before, our clients in need of improved corporate communications or
training would say, ‘It would be cool if we could do this,’ but now it’s, ‘I
need to be able to do this.’ That’s a real shift in how our customers look
at what we provide.”
Rich Wisneski, manager of design
engineering for AV integrator SKC
Communications, sees the concurrent
evolution of corporate boardrooms
and training initiatives as a distinct
opportunity to expand on what his
firm can do for their clients. “We have
to keep the ‘three C’s’—collaboration,
communication, and creativity—in
mind every time we build a room for
these purposes,” he explained. “For
‘collaboration,’ the question is, ‘What
tools do they need?’ Just sharing from
laptop to laptop may be big for some
companies, but others may need to
allow everyone to annotate shared
material on any number of devices from
iPads to slates, tablets, or a MicroTile
wall that’s wired for multiple touches.
“On the ‘communication’ aspect,
it’s not only about video or audio
conferencing, but the streaming and
recording capabilities. They want to
know, ‘How can I maximize that room
for a global workforce that’s in China,
Canada, and America?’ By building in
high-quality streaming, we can put
them all in the same room so they can
communicate visually, aurally, even
tactilely.
“Lastly, ‘creativity’ is the most
fun. What if we can put displays in a
better spot, or design the room so that
the table can move around to create
plug-in points? We can put people in
the frame of mind that they can use the
room differently, and nine months later
we hear about applications that we
didn’t even think of. The end benefit is
that when people are engaged, they’ll
contribute a lot more: If you open up an
environment where people start to interact and springboard off of each
other, then the ideas mature, matriculate, and come out.”
At the NYC -based technology consulting firm Shen Milsom Wilke
(SM&W), an influx of large-scale, high-profile corporate training
campus projects underscores just how important this effect is.
SM&W’s managing partner, Thomas Shen points to his company’s role
in developing progressive systems designs at new, ground-up training
centers for General Electric, Honeywell, and a global tax and auditing
firm as evidence of corporate America’s growing emphasis on gathering
employees for focused education, networking, and team-building.
SM&W recently helped the latter of these clients complete one of
the largest dedicated corporate training centers in the world. “It’s a
wholly self-contained campus, encompassing over 1,000,000-square
feet of training spaces, classrooms, large-venue meeting areas,
conference and meeting rooms, telepresence rooms, etc.,” Shen said.
This training campus also includes an 800-room hotel solely for the
use of the company and its personnel. In addition to the training spaces,
the campus includes facilities to support social venues, fitness and
exercise, dining, entertainment, and more.
“Previously, to support their training and education programs, our
client would select a central city like Chicago, and block out virtually
all of a hotel’s guest and convention rooms,” Shen noted. “Often there
were limitations to the sizes of these hotel and convention spaces, and
our client spent a lot of money leasing the facilities. More importantly,
the hotels and meeting spaces they would lease didn’t have the
capabilities to support their needs for technology, including the ability
to support recording and live streaming of events, distance learning
and teleconferencing, and dynamic presentation systems. The creation
of a new, dedicated training campus was a huge financial investment
for our client, but they believe that by building their own facility they
will receive the immediate benefits of a highly integrated, technology
enriched environment to support their needs, and receive ROI in a
relatively short time frame.”
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Digital signage boards are
placed in gathering spaces
for visitors to interact with.
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At the tax and auditing firm’s new training campus, no-holds-barred
AV integration is the core of what makes this advanced multi-acre facility
tick. While excellent visual and audio quality in each classroom are a
given, it’s the application of AV in virtually every aspect of an attendee’s
experience in the building that points to the bigger possibilities.
Common at the university level, problem-based learning has been a
prolific form of pedagogy, and technology consultants like SM&W have
developed convenient methods for students and instructors to share
information within the classroom. For in-session collaboration, SM&W
designs polling systems using mobile phones or custom handheld
wireless devices that measure audience response then shares the results
instantly with the room for further discussion. Information content
can be shared instantly between a student’s laptops/tablet computer
and with the entire classroom, all wirelessly through the support of an
enterprise Wi-Fi network.
SM&W is helping people find their way around a large corporate
training campuses by designing digital signage boards placed in hallways
and gathering spaces, which attendees can interact with for room
location and scheduling information. Furthermore, SM&W designs
systems with Radio Frequency
ID (RFID) technology to allow
communications between the
digital signage boards and
a visitor’s unique ID card,
providing instant identification
of the employee, and allowing
them to learn their itinerary
simply by walking up to the
display.
As the possibilities
at plugged-in corporate
communication and training
centers expand, so do clients’
needs for the valuable
knowledge and experience that
AV firms bring to each project.
According to Advanced AV’s
Eric Bixler, beyond selling their
brain power, the additional
opportunities for designers
to build on margins lies in
customers’ increased needs to
effectively engage employees
who they simply can’t afford to
fly in for every meeting/training
session that takes place—or who
may be increasingly resistant to
taking the trip.
“They’re interested
in enabling mobility and
availability,” he said. “Businesses
want to know, ‘How do we take
these meetings to phones and
tablets, in case our employees
want to just participate at their
desk, or even sit in their lounge
chair with their iPad?’ Corporate
customers are more and more
open to allowing employees to
make that decision. AV firms
can really help them to overcome the inherent
challenges there, by bringing the collaborative
experience to people’s personal devices or
desktops.”
David Weiss (www.dwords.com) writes extensively
about AV, audio, and broadcast technology.
LifeSize Camera 10x
LifeSize Camera 10x is the company’s
first 10x optical zoom camera
designed for large meeting rooms,
auditoriums and lecture halls, this
new HD video conferencing accessory
option delivers increased zoom
capability to support Full HD quality
video, even at significant distances.
Bundled with any of the LifeSize 220 series endpoint offerings, the product
ensures that no facial nuance, expression, or gesture is missed during an HD
videoconference. LifeSize Camera 10x key features include improved pan tilt
zoom functionality; smoother operational handling for more lifelike interactions;
1080p30 support and increased zoom capability; full HD video to support larger
meeting rooms; improved low light handling; antiglare visor; reduced light glare
on lens; and support for cable length up to 328 feet (100 meters) so that HD
video can be captured even in large meeting spaces.
Panasonic AW-HE120
Panasonic’s AW-HE120 is a pan/tilt/zoom camera
featuring a 20X zoom lens and a three 2.2 megapixel
U.L.T. MOS imagers supporting full HD video
capture. Ideally suited for such demanding applications
as sports, staging, houses of worship, news,
and government video, the HE120 is equipped with
the same high-performance sensors and DSP used
in Panasonic broadcast camcorders. With a signal
to noise ratio pushing 60dB, 1,000 TV lines of resolution,
16-axis color correction, and Panasonic’s exclusive DRS (dynamic range
stretch), the HE120 sets a new performance standard for integrated pan-tilt
cameras. In addition to preserving RS-422 serial compatibility with controllers
designed for use with the previous generation of Panasonic remote camera systems,
the HE120 supports both direct and Web-based IP remote control. Direct
IP control is possible using Panasonic’s AW-RP50N, as well as appropriately
programmed systems from Crestron, AMX, and other manufacturers.
Polycom UC Board
Thee Polycom UC Board improves communication and collaboration in
video conferences by allowing meeting participants to leverage their existing
video display screens and mobile devices as interactive whiteboards for
video collaboration. The Polycom UC Board is a simple and cost-effective
solution combining a plug-and-play receiver and stylus with a compact
design for portability. The solution transforms LCD monitors and display
surfaces into a video whiteboard space, so every participant can stay fully
engaged. The Polycom UC Board software natively integrates with the
latest Polycom RealPresence Room HDX solutions to share content. Users participating in a video meeting can also share
content such as a presentation, and use the Polycom UC Board to write, annotate or highlight key points, right on top of the
presentation for everyone to see in real-time.
ClearOne Collaborate
Collaborate is an all-in-one voice, video, and data collaboration
console for organizations using unified communications
software or web services communications. Delivering plug-nplay
simplicity in a business solution for video collaboration,
the ClearOne Collaborate allows small groups in an executive
office or conference room to converse and see each other while
simultaneously viewing data from applications, web sites, or
other local or network sources.The system is ClearOne’s first
to incorporate video capability and features an integrated ClearOne HDConference audio conferencing system, a 46-inch HD
LCD monitor, an HD USB video camera, and a built-in quad core PC with Windows pre-installed. Collaborate is also available
without an operating system for enterprises that have customized or bulk licensed software.
Vaddio AutoTrak 2.0
Vaddio’s AutoTrak 2.0 is a classroom camera. The instructor wears an IR
lanyard belt pack that emits infrared light received by an IR PTZ camera.
Video is then sent from the IR PTZ camera to the tracking camera. In addition
to moving from side-to-side, an autopilot motion follows the instructor
as they move closer or farther away from the camera. Users will be centrally
framed no matter where they stand. Presenters can quickly switch between
three tracking camera presets. An additional “rescan” button instantly
activates IR lanyard reacquisition. Paired with Vaddio’s HD-20 HD PTZ
camera option, the AutoTrak 2.0 system provides true native HD in a single chip and 20x optical zoom. Automatic and manual
white balance modes were also added to increase control over lighting conditions within the presentation area.