Remember boardroom flip charts, whiteboards, and cheap sound systems with ceiling speakers crackling and buzzing? As digital technology has advanced, the hunger for better audio-visual systems has increased substantially. The flip charts and white boards are being traded in for highly sophisticated systems connecting TVs, projectors, computers and interactive displays. Wireless presentation/collaboration systems are also finding their way into the C-suites. In addition, face-to-face meetings are hosted virtually through audio & video conferencing allowing participants to take a trip and never leave the farm.
Gear brands like Bose Professional, Kramer, EV, Denon Professional, QSC, Marantz Professional and many others offer a range of audio-visual products including fully integrated systems, which allow participants to interact and fully collaborate in real time.
[The demand for interactive, collaborative and virtual AV solutions continues to grow.]
Ken Greene, a commercial audio visual expert and head of the Commercial AV Installations Department at Production World, has seen a growing demand for high-quality AV solutions in the boardroom. “Corporate teams and their clients need AV solutions that deliver high levels of functionality as well as quality,” says Greene. “These AV solutions offer high levels of interactivity improving productivity and efficiency, given that teams in different locations can work together as if they are in the same room.”
The costs of these installations run between $25K and $40K but are well worth it, Greene notes. “There is less downtime with people not having to drive to different offices or even fly in from other cities. So the cost of the system more than offsets all the travel costs over the lifetime of the system.”
The interactive requirements that demand the transmission and playback of large files and data have driven the manufacturers to design technology capable of handling the capacity with minimal or no latency or loss. Kramer’s technology is a good example of that. Their AV Network Management products set a new standard for AV/IP convergence. Features include touchless automation and wired as well as wireless collaboration.
Other brands have reinvented audio solutions that eliminate the need for multiple microphones. Shure’s Microflex Advance system is a ceiling installation that can cover a 30’ x 30’ boardroom area covering all people who have something to say in a meeting. Shure refers to this as “Steerable Coverage”. The MXA910 Ceiling Array Microphone is a perfect example. Using Autofocus Technology, Shure’s MXA910 can fine-tune the position of 8 lobes, meaning that even if speakers sit back in a chair or stand up, the quality of sound capture remains consistent. The onboard IntelliMix DSP provides all the signal processing needed for echo- and noise-free audio.
[Brands like Shure are streamlining AV solutions.]
“Time is always money,” says Greene. “There are many impressive AV solutions out there that certainly deliver the efficiencies companies are looking for. But, it’s not just about efficiency, it’s also about quality.”
For Ken Greene’s team at Production World, a focus on quality and high functionality is paying off as their department continues to see their revenue grow. Given the evolution of technology to date, it is clear that the boardroom of the future has arrived and it is transforming business. It will be interesting to see what else develops in the next few years.
