Current rent prices are casting a significant shadow over offices and business resources. Last month, it was found that Australian rents are rising at the fastest rate since the global financial crash of 2008. Rapid population growth is thought to have impacted property and land prices, which are being passed on to tenants. In Sydney, the per square meter price of land has more than doubled since 2010, and the number of new property listings has declined, making affordable spaces more challenging to get hold of. What’s more, despite the large shift towards flexible working policies, there is still a high demand for quality office spaces that are well-equipped with modern conferencing equipment, high-speed internet connectivity, and other facilities. However, these spaces are limited, and the scarcity drives up demand, allowing landlords to charge higher rates.

As a result, many businesses are trying to justify their investment in office spaces by truly  making the most out of every square foot. The efficient management of workspaces, meeting rooms, and other resources has become crucial to productivity and cost-effectiveness. Some are exploring co-working arrangements, where they share the workspace with another company to help lower the costs.

Clear and efficient meeting room booking, scheduling, and management are essential in helping businesses make the most of their investment in brick-and-mortar office spaces. By implementing user-friendly scheduling software and tools, companies can optimise their use of meeting rooms, reducing wasted time and space. This not only enhances productivity but also minimises the need for excess office space, lowering real estate costs. Furthermore, it eliminates the frustration of double bookings or underutilised meeting spaces, allowing for the office environment more conducive to collaboration. The booking technology can also be used to manage any asset, not just meeting rooms. Concierge Displays has been used in applications where a reception will manage a number of loan motor vehicle by using the summary screen to book and track vehicles in an efficient, user friendly manner.

Seamless meeting room management is a requirement that goes beyond office spaces, encompassing hotel rooms with conferencing facilities, universities, and more. Streamlined scheduling and room utilisation play a pivotal role in enhancing the overall experience for guests and student. In hotels, a user-friendly meeting room management system ensures that guests and businesses can easily book and utilise conference spaces. That facility will prove attractive to business groups and individuals, maximising revenue. Similarly, universities benefit from such systems by facilitating smooth scheduling of classrooms and study spaces, ultimately improving student engagement and educational outcomes.

The demand for an easy-to-integrate meeting room management system is what inspired the founding of the Melbourne-based company Concierge Displays. Trying to manually manage meeting room schedules through memos, emails, and calendars can quickly lead to clashes, staff tensions and wasted space. The company’s engineers designed its very first meeting room booking system in 2014, which is now keeping thousands of meetings running on time and to schedule worldwide.

Source: Concierge Displays

Information displays to be stationed outside meeting rooms. These feature a host of capabilities designed to enhance the convenience and productivity of booking, scheduling, and overseeing meeting rooms.  The display shows a graphical timeline that visually represents the daily schedule for each meeting room, using colour coding to indicate the room’s availability status. When a room is vacant and ready for booking, the screen is illuminated in green, but when it is occupied or booked, it turns red, so availability is easily determined from a distance.

User-friendliness is a central focus of these displays. Staff can book spaces for immediate ad-hoc meetings or for future use, extend or curtail bookings easily, and integrate their room bookings into the existing calendars of all meeting invitees. Notably, the displays are also equipped to report any room feature errors, ensuring a quick resolution to any issues that may arise. Installation is also straightforward as the displays support Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Wi-Fi connectivity, so it requires minimal input from IT support. Additionally, they offer multiple mounting options to accommodate diverse room configurations.

The displays offer two modes of operation: Room Booking Mode, which provides a clear view of the availability of a single meeting room for straightforward scheduling, and Summary Mode, which offers an overview of the availability of multiple meeting rooms. Customisation is a key feature of Concierge Displays, allowing users to tailor how they view room schedules. This flexibility greatly simplifies the task of planning and managing meetings. The screen skins and logo are also adjustable, and you can add video as well as text, helping to establish brand cohesion and a professional look around the office, hotel, or campus.

The displays incorporate 10.1 or 15.6-inch touch screens with durable hardened glass. They deliver clear, high-definition visuals at a resolution of 1280 x 800 or 1920 x 1080, respectively, and are equipped with side LED indicators that simplify the process of checking room availability. But on top of the display’s built-in control features, Concierge Displays integrate with the Companion support software. This provides a singular view of the current schedules of each meeting room in the workplace and connects with Office 365, Google, Microsoft Exchange, and Syllabus. Companion can also be used for configuration and consistency checks, for example, for check-in failures or outdated room booking information. On top of this, it has a powerful reporting tool that provides valuable insights into room analytics and utilisation. This helps businesses make data-driven decisions on optimal layout and whether or not additional meeting spaces are required.

With the ever-increasing cost of rent and land space, businesses can be sure they are efficiently managing their meeting rooms with the Concierge Displays. Discover how Concierge Displays can elevate your AV transformation by contacting distributor Jands today.

The post Make the Most of Your Meeting Rooms with Concierge Displays appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As workforces shift into more of a hybrid layout, companies must balance the convenience of virtual meetings with the benefits of face-to-face interactions by investing in top-quality audio-visual technologies. When employees can come together in either a physical space or through effective audio-visual means, they can build relationships, establish trust, and collaborate more effectively.

Choosing the right technology for the right room

Efficient and smart meeting rooms are a powerful tool for empowering executives and teams. With advanced technology, executives can lead dynamic, interactive presentations or discussions, and teams can share ideas and more easily work towards a common goal. Meeting room demands, though, are changing, so companies must stay ahead of the curve by investing in modern rooms equipped with the latest technology.

Maximizing the productivity and effectiveness of meetings requires the right technology for the corresponding room. A meeting room that is well kitted out and tailored to the specific needs of participants not only saves time for meeting participants but also improves team communications.

Choosing the right technology for a meeting room is essential for starting meetings on time and ensuring smooth operations. For example, technology requirements for a small huddle room differ from those for a large boardroom designed for presentations and conferencing – and as such, each room faces different challenges.

Modern and efficient rooms with up-to-date technology can prevent technical glitches, reduce downtime, and increase productivity. Conversely, outdated or poorly-designed room AV equipment can lead to frustration, wasted time, and negatively impact an attendee’s experience.

It’s very common for business leaders to find it overwhelming to navigate the multitude of available audio and video solutions available on the market. Do you find it challenging to select the appropriate technology for your workplace? If so, you’re not alone.

How Biamp can help improve your meeting space

Biamp assists decision-makers and business integrators who face difficulty choosing the best audio-visual solutions for their meeting spaces. For medium to large meeting spaces, there are the much-lauded Biamp Bundles to offer a comprehensive solution, simplifying the decision-making process by eliminating compatibility issues and complex configurations. These bundles are available in different sizes to suit various meeting spaces.

The Biamp range provides high-quality audio and video configurations that promote collaboration, active participation, and focused attention.

Huddle/small meeting rooms

An all-in-one solution like the VBC 2500 Parlé Conferencing Bar, with its high-quality camera and audio system, is a great option for smaller spaces. It saves space on the conference table, reduces clutter, and offers advanced audio intelligence features.

Medium meeting rooms

The first question to consider when selecting an audio solution for a medium-sized meeting room is the size of the space and whether there is an existing audio solution. If there isn’t, it’s important to determine the type of microphone required to capture high-quality audio from employees in the room.

For those who prefer a solution that doesn’t require manual configuration, the Devio SCX Medium Meeting Room Bundle is an ideal option. It features automated tuning with Biamp Launch 2.0, which minimizes noise and delivers clear audio when multiple parties are talking.

However, if manual configuration and tuning of the system is required due to room considerations, the TesiraFORTE X Medium Meeting Room Bundle is an excellent choice. It works seamlessly with platforms such as MS Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex, making it ideal for businesses with diverse conferencing needs.

Large meeting rooms

To ensure the highest audio quality for a large meeting room, it is essential to consider the type of microphone that would best fit the space. The TesiraFORTE X Large Meeting Room Bundle is ideal if multiple microphones and customized configurations are preferred. This bundle offers a complete audio solution for a room that caters for up to 18 people, providing everything necessary for clear communication.

Alternatively, if a setup with no manual configuration is preferred, the Devio SCX Large Meeting Room Bundle is perfect for modern meeting rooms. It reduces the amount of hardware and connections required to outfit the space.

Once you have a medium or large conferencing room audio system in place, it’s easy to pair it with a high-quality camera to enhance the overall experience. The number of people in the room is an important factor to consider, and a 4K camera like the Vidi 250 from Biamp is the best option for medium to large rooms with its auto framing functionality that helps ensure everyone can be seen clearly.

Biamp also offer bring-your-own meeting (BYOM) capabilities, allowing users to plug in their laptops and use the room’s AV system without pre-installed requirements. Products from the Biamp Modena range promote reliable connections and clear audio and video quality, boosting collaboration and productivity for remote team members using their preferred devices and software.

Visit Jands today to explore the latest Biamp meeting room solutions and discover the perfect one for your needs. Whether you’re looking for a compact and versatile audio interface for your huddle space or a powerful video conferencing system for your large meeting room, Biamp and Jands have you covered.

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The post From huddle rooms to large conferences: Biamp’s meeting room solutions for every need appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In the past, a lot of enterprises would have invested significantly to set up unified communications facilities in meeting rooms and boardrooms, incorporating both audio and video conferencing tools that would need to be individually integrated with existing connectivity and the electrical infrastructure in the building. Virtual meetings were normally to include overseas partners and clients into mostly physical meetings, while the rest of the in-person attendees sat in the boardroom.

But over the last couple of years, company leaders have had to rethink their strategic operational objectives, as online communications, as well as collaboration tools, have entered into the mainstream of usage. Users are much more onboarded to the technologies as platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams have been widely adopted.

Source: Jands Pty

As a result, people have come to expect video and audio conferencing tools to not only connect seamlessly with minimal disruptions, but also be able to provide the sort of broader functionality that more consumer-friendly services now offer. These include, but are not limited to presentations, recordings, transcriptions, automated calendar scheduling, and even collaborative notation tools where different users can mark up and leave comments on a shared virtual canvas.

As workers have slowly eased back to the office, meeting space requirements have also changed with larger spaces and nooks for smaller breakouts becoming commonplace. With so many changes affecting meeting culture at basically the same time, IT teams and installation integrators have to consider a range of factors when implementing new audio and video conferencing solutions.

For integrating new tools from the ground up, it is still advisable to use professional audio visual (AV) installers, but the Parlé VBC 2500 Conferencing Video Bar from leading professional AV solutions supplier Biamp is both easy to set up, and simple to use. The VBC 2500 Video Bar is part of Biamp’s recent Parlé line of audio and video conferencing bars aimed at small to medium-sized rooms.

Thanks to Biamp’s 40-plus years of AV expertise, the Parlé VBC 2500 incorporates all of the company’s latest audio and video technology innovations in one conferencing bar, including an array of 27 Parlé microphones that feature Biamp’s patented Beamtracking technology to listen to and track users around the room.

Biamp’s award-winning echo cancellation, paired with an Artificially Intelligent trained Noise Reduction Algorithm, provides sharp sound quality and speech clarity. When used in tandem with Biamp Launch, its intelligent processing features can be tuned to address the differing acoustic needs of each connected meeting room, creating a balanced audio experience. This is called Biamp Audio Intelligence – or, Biamp A.I.

Alongside Biamp’s Digital Signal Processing, the VBC 2500 has a best-in-class 4K ePTZ camera. Sporting Biamp Video Intelligence, the device delivers auto-framing capabilities, tracking participants using Pan, Tilt & zoom, ensuring everyone is seen clearly. Meeting attendees are kept in view with premium optics and a 120-degree wide angle lens – even when they are pacing around the conference room. An automated privacy shutter adds extra security to cover the camera when it is not in use.

Source: Jands Pty

For systems integrators logistics headaches are eased with Power over Ethernet cables (PoE) transmitting data and electrical supply with one cable. The VBC 2500 can also be connected by plugging a USB cable directly into a UC system or a Devio SCR-10, and hitting ‘Launch’ to deploy professional-grade tuning.

Parlé video and audio conferencing bars offer professional-grade AV accessible ad usable by end-users, using simply-integrated technology to create a cost-effective, single-vendor solution.

To discover how the VBC 2500 delivers premium big-room quality experiences to smaller rooms, get in touch with the official Australian distributor of Biamp audio visual business solutions, Jands, who will happy to assist with specialised installations and expert opinions for your next AV project.

The post Bridge the remote communication & collaboration divide with premium audio video conferencing appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In fact, the development of ceiling array microphones has transformed the very nature of video conferencing, allowing a room full of speakers to be clearly heard as they each weigh in during meetings. This has reduced the need for individual video windows cluttering screens, especially in larger or rapidly growing companies. These specialised microphones have helped make video conferences more seamless, giving participants a sense of all being in the same room and reducing awkward moments like individual microphone echoes and feedback.

Shure, a market leader in sound devices, has taken ceiling array mic performance to the next level of sophistication and clarity, with the launch of its MXA920 microphone.

Out of the box, the MXA920 will give you perfect coverage of a 9 x 9 metres room, making it more than sufficient for most office conference rooms, without all the tricky configuration that some other ceiling array microphones demand before they’ll give you the performance you need.

It also frees you from having to choose your seating positions carefully – with blanket room coverage, the MXA920 delivers “fix it and forget it” performance immediately.

However, if you want to focus on speakers in one part of the room and minimise pickup from another, the MXA920 is also equipped with a simple web tool to allow you to configure pickup in minutes, minimising interruptions and letting you get on with your meeting stress free. You can define up to eight separate coverage areas with a simple drag-and-drop tool. Configuring the MXA920 is as easy as taking a screenshot – it uses familiar processes, so you can easily define your areas of interest.

For example, you can set the MXA920 to focus on picking up a single presenter standing and moving around on stage or on an entire round-table discussion group with minimum technical knowledge. Combining multiple functionality and extreme user-friendliness, the MXA920 is designed to make your day-to-day video conferencing as straightforward as talking to the person sitting next to you.

Certified for use with Microsoft Teams along with a whole host of other productivity and conferencing tools such as Google Meet, the MXA920 “plays well with others,” working with others seamlessly.

Part of the reason it works so well with a wide variety of conferencing tools is that the MXA920 comes with Automatic Coverage technology, which gives you directional sound quality, picking up all the voices you want to hear, and cutting down on extraneous noise that can make both your video conferencing experience and any auto-transcription a confusing and garbled affair.

To improve the audio capture of the MXA920 even further, it comes with on board IntelliMix® Digital Signal Processing (DSP), that means you can cut down extraneous noise even further, remove echo from your audio, and boost the intelligibility of your speakers. That’s an important consideration, as those experienced in both video conferencing and those who transcribe or translate video conference meetings know that intelligibility can suffer in unscripted situations, where there is a lot of overtalk or pauses.

Their patented IntelliMix® audio processing software can deliver clarity across a wide assortment of room types. Whether you’re in an executive boardroom, a government office space, or any other kind of meeting space, the IntelliMix® DSP will cut out the room’s acoustic disadvantages and give you crisp, clear, intelligible audio.

They say if something isn’t broken, you shouldn’t fix it, so the MXA920 also brings the ability to turn off Automatic Coverage and manually configure the lobes of your pickup, just as you could with the Shure MXA910. The MXA920 gives you the best of both worlds – an exceptional pre-configured coverage profile with Automatic Coverage, and the freedom to turn it off and personally configure your microphone pickup as needed for any given event in any given room. With eight configurable pickup lobes, it deepens the control you have over what you hear, and how you hear it.

In an improvement over previous designs, the MXA920 is available in both round and square form factors, so it can fit with multiple design aesthetics, rather than sticking out. You can even paint the MXA920 so it fits in more seamlessly into the décor of your most frequent video conferencing room.

For more complex audio requirements, you can even configure a whole host of MXA920s – and other devices – from the Microflex ecosystem. That’s a premium audio-visual ecosystem which lets you turn any room into the perfect audio environment for video conferencing. That means that you have the flexibility to use the MXA920s for a simple 30 x 30 feet square room up to a much larger, more cavernous space, to add dynamism to your conferencing or simply bring in speakers from around a huge room, rather than funnelling attention to a single, static space.

And if you need it, using the Microflex ecosystem brings Shure encryption to your system, securing the flow of content from your MXA920 to other Microflex devices in the same room.

The MXA920 is the latest in a long line of outstanding Shure microphones stretching back 90 years. A leader in the business of sound pickup, clarification and amplification, Shure packs all its considerable experience into the MXA920, delivering a microphone that advances the technological capabilities of ceiling array microphones to serve a demanding worldwide business audience.

If you’d like to see – and hear – the Shure MXA920 in action, you can contact a Jands Audiovisual Expert, or you can find a handful of high-quality walkthroughs of the MXA920’s capabilities available on Youtube.

The post The Shure MXA920 – The New Standard in Ceiling Array Microphones appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Most businesses will have some form of basic audiovisual capabilities installed in-house, but this technology is typically confined to the boardroom or to a handful of large meeting rooms. The events of the last two years have triggered a change in business practices across the globe. A shift in operational priorities has required businesses to rethink and reassess their  utilisation of audiovisual communication technology. In 2022, it’s become expected that organisations can connect seamlessly and can provide immediate access to facilities for presentations, interviews, webinars, board meetings, and so much more.

The underpinning technologies powering this new type of facility are complex – at least to the layperson. From the everyday user’s perspective, what’s important is how easy it is to connect a laptop or tablet to a large-screen TV or projector, and doing it reliably, every time. Satisfying the need for reliability and security while balancing image and sound quality against ease of installation and maintenance has historically been the job of the audiovisual professional. In 2022 a new generation of audiovisual technology has emerged capable of satisfying all criteria.

The evolution of HDMI over IP networks has been taking place over the last ten years or so as a natural evolution of analogue KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) solutions found in data centres’ computer racks. The widespread adoption of HDBaseT™ protocols means point to point connections can carry uncompressed video and audio at 4k resolutions with low latency and medium latency options – perfect for the fast-paced business environment. Achieving high image, and sound quality at a reasonable price has been a challenge until quite recently.

Although it’s still advisable to use a professional AV installation service to help with a business’s initial infrastructure needs, the Blustream AMF41W is a device that is ideal for end-users on a day-to-day basis. Meeting attendees can connect wirelessly to the device (it can act as a VLAN-ed WiFi hotspot) to pass 4K media to connected devices. It even supports Apple AirPlay and Miracast for consumer-focused hardware sources. For wireless presentations or demos, the AMF41W can be connected and operational within seconds to provide high quality picture and audio that has won Blustream multiple industry awards.

With over 30 years’ of experience with the company, its AV engineers have dedicated chipsets for the HDBaseT™ hardware that maximise quality and emphasise usability.

There’s no sign-up or log-in required by users, no licensing restrictions, and therefore, no waiting around as colleagues search for cables, adapters, dongles, or driver downloads.

Wireless connectivity is complemented by four physical inputs for permanent device installations, and there is a range of control options (including RS232) plus upgradable microphones, speakers, and cameras.

Power is supplied to the AMF41W via PoE (48v) on existing Cat5e or better, and cable runs can be up to 100m without repeaters. Even at that distance, latency is measured in µ-seconds – arguably, the hardware is over-engineered for 2022; Blustream is clearly confident that this is future-proof hardware. When companies decide to invest in beam tracking microphones or facial recognition cameras, the AMF41W is not only capable of handling this upgrade but designed to.

Like all the best AV systems, the AMF41W works quietly and unnoticeably in the background, freeing users from cable concerns, scaling easily to 4k, and providing reliable, day-in, day-out service. Businesses needing the air of effortless professionalism need look no further. They get the bonus of no meeting time lost as people look under desks for cables, USB memory sticks, or spare laptops with different ports on their sides.

Presentations, online meetings, virtual interviews, and webinars will have the platform they need in 2022 and beyond. To learn more about the HDBaseT™-based Blustream AMF41W and the options available for your installation and setup, reach out to an AV professional at Jands.

The post Simplified Quality Solutions for Audiovisual Presentations appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As workers slowly return to their workplaces, organizations wishing to present a professional image are rightly investing in reliable video conferencing and collaboration technology. Dedicated audiovisual systems that produce crisp audio and sharp video have never been better and easier to use. Professional audio companies are producing business-oriented hardware and software perfect for small and medium-sized businesses. If you’re keen to give your employees, clients, and the outside world the best possible AV (audiovisual) experiences when working with and within your organisation, then read on.

 Many businesses face an uphill challenge when setting up dedicated video conferencing solutions as it usually comes as an afterthought for most IT teams. The average company boardroom might only feature an old desktop PC, a last-generation webcam and a “flying saucer” style desk phone. This type of equipment might have been adequate for occasional use before the events of 2020. But today, most people grow quickly tired of latecomers struggling to join virtual meetups, tinny audio, and blurred video (if video works at all). Most IT teams don’t have the staff to hand-nurture video conferencing solutions for every meeting, and few teams have an audiovisual expert on hand to fine-tune the available equipment.

Luckily it is a relatively simple matter to create AV installations in multiple sites around a business, from small breakout rooms right up to large conference rooms that seat dozens. With modular hardware, installations can be as simple or as intricate and exacting as required. In some cases, solution costs are low enough for small businesses to set up several spaces permanently for the same money as a single, specialist installation.

The Stem Ecosystem of audiovisual equipment comes from audio specialist Shure, designed for exacting AV standards at very attractive price points. The Stem Ecosystem provides the type of audio excellence you might expect from a market leader, with hardware designed to be installed on walls, ceilings, and tabletops.

What puts the Stem Ecosystem in the category of AV excellence is, of course, its usability. Expensive solutions are rarely used if they come without an easy-to-use user interface — it’s just too difficult for the average person. However, the Shure Stem Ecosystem is accessed through the Stem Control, a single powerful tabletop touchscreen device about the size of an iPad. It controls the audio system and the software operating behind the scenes. The Stem Control works in conjunction with the optional Stem Hub, enabling multiple audio units in a space to function as one.

The Stem Control gives all users real-time control over the software used to set up and maintain virtual meetings (like Zoom, for example) and optional access to the company’s VOIP system. Furthermore, the device acts as a central controller for administrators over all connected Stem audio devices across the organisation.

There are two multifunction units in the Stem range, the Stem Table and Stem Wall. Each uses real beamforming microphone “tunnels” that intelligently focus audio reception onto whoever is speaking, wherever they are in the room. Built-in speakers reproduce incoming audio with all the clarity you’d expect from a market-leading audio company, easily filling smaller spaces with crystal clear sound.

The Stem Table has a USB 2.0 port to connect to those coworkers who want to use their own laptop and video conferencing software in a meeting room but extend the native hardware’s capabilities with pro-quality audio.

The Stem Speaker gives companies options for where it’s mounted: wall, ceiling, or tabletop. Subtle LED lighting around the circumference shows when the device is active or whether audio is muted. Cabling is simple too, with power-over-Ethernet technology meaning only one wire is needed for full connectivity.

Microphone technologies can be pushed to the limit for meeting and conference rooms where many voices can be heard at once. The Stem Ceiling microphone array gives companies full-room coverage via mic “tunnels” that focus audio reception on whoever happens to be speaking at any one time. Multiple microphone beam settings give companies ultimate control over their meeting spaces and ensure that wherever in the room the speaker might be, everyone at the meeting is given the best quality audio reception.

For larger rooms where more than one device is required, it’s wise to include the Stem Hub in plans. It extends interconnection options for the AV system, including enabling access to the company’s VOIP system thanks to its extensible interfaces.

The Stem Ecosystem innately connects with all common conferencing and meeting software such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Hangouts. Whether your setup is a single small, breakout-style room or many larger conference rooms, the Shure Stem range offers options that will be the perfect fit.

Each room’s setup, large or small, can be automatically “tuned” for optimum acoustics. This process takes seconds but ensures that the sound output and input consider a space’s natural acoustics. Cameras can be mounted where needed (onto the Stem Wall bar speaker/mic combo, for example), and with an optional dedicated mini-PC, the pro-level AV solution is ready to go.

There’s a centralised dashboard for systems administrators in the IT team and the audio specialist tasked with managing multiple AV setups to control and track all the available, interconnected equipment. Right from the Stem Control, there are options to configure rooms, experiment with equipment placements, see call log files, get equipment’s current network status, and much, much more.

To learn more about how Shure equips those with exacting audio standards, reach out to the official Australian distributor of the Shure Stem Ecosystem range of audiovisual business solutions, Jands. Jands has a range of AV specialists and installation experts who will be delighted to assist you with your next AV project.

Hear the difference for yourself.

The post Professional Quality Audio for Digital Communication & Collaboration appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.