The global pandemic and move to remote work has transformed offices spaces forever. Many companies are now adopting permanent hybrid work models that blend in-office and remote work. This creates new challenges for audio-visual installations that were previously designed for traditional office spaces. In this blog post, we will discuss how audio-visual systems need to adapt and some best practices for hybrid work environments.
The Rise of Hybrid Work
Recent surveys show that over 60% of knowledge workers want to maintain some level of remote work going forward. While not all jobs can be fully remote, many companies are shifting to a hybrid model where employees work partially in the office and partially at home. This hybrid model brings both opportunities and challenges when it comes to using audio-visual technology in meetings, trainings, and presentations.
Adapting Meeting Room Technology
Traditional conference room equipment like speakers, cameras, displays were designed for in-person meetings only. With hybrid meetings involving both in-room and remote participants, these systems need modifications:
Cameras: Conference room cameras need to be upgraded to high resolution PTZ cameras that can automatically track and zoom in on speakers. This enables remote participants to clearly see facial expressions and read body language.
Microphones: Speakers around a large table may not be clearly audible to remote users. Consider installing microphones with a wider detection range on the table or ceiling to capture voices. Noise cancellation technology also filters out unwanted ambient noise.
Displays: For hybrid meetings, a larger display is needed to share content with remote participants while allowing in-room viewing as well. Screens upwards of 75-85 inches give a good experience.
Control Systems: An easy to use scheduling/control system allows meeting organizers to instantly start video conferences, share content, make camera adjustments from their device or a wall touch panel. This makes the experience much smoother.
Soundproofing: It's important that conference rooms are properly soundproofed to avoid audio feedback or leaking into other rooms. This ensures a high quality experience for remote users on calls.
In addition to equipment upgrades, room layout changes like pulling out tables allow for more natural interaction between in-room participants while still catering to remote participants through cameras and microphones. Careful attention to audio-visual details transforms stale rooms into collaboration powerhouses.
Engaging Virtual Training Sessions
While online learning saw tremendous growth during the pandemic, providing an engaging experience remains a challenge. The following best practices can make training webinars and virtual classes more impactful:
High quality webcams: Trainers need webcams with autofocus and quality optics to engage trainees through their facial expressions and body language. This helps build rapport.
Dedicated camera operator: For larger sessions, a separate camera operator allows for optimized camera angles, close-ups during demonstrations and tracking speaker movement to emulate live experiences.
Interactive content sharing: Seamlessly sharing presentations, videos, polls and even virtual whiteboards maintains engagement and encourages participation. This counters the passive nature of long video calls.
Breakout groups: Using breakout room features on platforms like Zoom allows trainees to network, discuss concepts in smaller groups and apply learnings - adding a collaborative element missing in mass lectures.
Post-session feedback: Sending a survey after virtual classes or webinars gathers feedback on topics that resonated most, pain points to address and suggestions to further optimize the experience. This leads to continuously improving content.
Utilizing these techniques ensures trainees remain actively involved throughout virtual training sessions just as they would in a physical classroom. Careful planning is needed to transform digital events into fully interactive learning experiences.
Immersive Conferencing with Virtual/Mixed Reality
While video calls have become the norm, immersive conferencing using Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) offers a new dimension of interaction. Consider these possibilities:
VR meetings: Participants don VR headsets to join a virtual boardroom where they interact with holograms of remote participants and share content on virtual screens - creating a more realistic experience than typical 2D video calling.
Mixed reality demos: Engineers worldwide can collaboratively design products using Mixed Reality and share visuals by overlaying AR annotations in real-time on virtual 3D models hosted in the cloud - parallel to co-located brainstorming.
Remote assistance: Specialists assisting remote field workers can see what they see using AR smart glasses and draw annotations, highlight areas of interest or even swap their viewpoints - enabling real-time interactive problem-solving.
Virtual events: Companies are hosting immersive virtual events with VR attendees exploring interactive booths, networking in VR social spaces and even attending keynote speeches as photorealistic 3D avatars.
Spatial audio: Hearing sounds oriented in 3D space through VR helps simulate the ambient noises of a physical environment - improving realism over stereo audio on calls.
While bandwidth and hardware limitations remain, immersive conferencing holds immense potential for collaborative work. As the technology advances, it promises to support hybrid teams in entirely new ways.
Reimagining Spaces with Ambient Experiences
Rather than just functional workstations, reimagining offices and shared spaces as ambient experiences boosts employee well-being, creativity and brings remote teams together. Consider these ideas:
Digital artwork: Curated artwork, videos and ambient sounds are streamed through digital canvas frames on walls - transporting minds beyond four bare walls.
Immersive lobbies: Welcome lobbies featuring interactive large-format curved displays showcase company culture, products and employee spotlights - engaging visitors and remote staff alike.
Wellness rooms: Dedicated rooms with aromatherapy, light therapy, massage chairs and VR wellness apps allow recharging minds and bodies on breaks.
Nature brought indoors: Living walls, indoor vertical gardens and aquariums introduce biophilic elements proven to reduce stress. Cameras allow sharing these green oases digitally too.
Interactive social walls: Large multi-touch walls with collaborative whiteboards and calendars foster spontaneous brainstorming between hybrid teams and build camaraderie remotely as well.
Creating spaces that soothe senses through ambient experiences may foster higher productivity, creative thinking and connection between distributed workers in the long run. Audio-visual plays a key role weaving together the digital and physical office experiences.
Conclusion
To thrive in the hybrid era, embracing audio-visual technology is key to fostering collaboration, learning and well-being. Carefully adapting spaces, meetings, training sessions and conferencing tools according to best practices ensures seamless participation of both on-site and remote employees. While challenges remain, immersive strategies have potential to transform how distributed teams interact and work together. By successfully navigating this digital transformation, companies can realize the full benefits of the hybrid model for the future of work.
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