We recently had the pleasure of completing an AV upgrade to an executive conference room for a large corporation, based in Chicago and with two offices here in Syracuse. Their previous system, while impressive at first, had become a burden for both users and IT staff. This is the sixth room we've done for them in their Syracuse location.
Pain Points for Our Client
- Serviceability
- Functionality / User-Friendliness
- Obsolescence & Clutter
- The “Not-Quite-Right” Ceiling Microphone System
Serviceability ….Or lack of it
Serviceability was an issue. One of the problems with any high-end room with a high-tech AV solution is, in the majority of cases, it often becomes unserviceable over time, at least by your average IT person. Oftentimes people familiar with the system move on and the new kids on the block are clueless.
Even the pro-AV company down the block is ill-equipped and hesitant to “reverse engineer” someone else’s work to debug and fix problems. This is very time-consuming and expensive for the client.
The inner workings of touch-screen control systems are often off-limits to anyone but the original programmer. If anything goes wrong or if a new device is added, an expensive programming change is required. That’s assuming the original programmer is even still reachable.
In this case, the original installer was the only person who knew how to service this room package. I’m sure every time there was a service issue that IT couldn’t cope with, it cost the client $500 for a field service call to get it fixed.
After a while, it probably became a choice between paying hundreds of dollars to fix a small problem or finding a workaround to achieve the desired result and save money. So serviceability was high on the list of pain points.
Functionality / User-Friendliness
Even though this package was only 5-6 years old, “User-friendliness” was one of the biggest pain points of the old system. If executives cannot easily make this stuff work, the IT department is going to hear about it, and fast.
The touch panel became a burden. A control system should be very minimalistic - devoid of lots of buttons, arrows, symbols, etc.
When you need a laminated instruction sheet just to navigate the control system, you know you’re in trouble…
Laminated Instruction Sheet for Former AV System
The purpose of the control system is defeated when this happens. When a meeting is about to start, oftentimes analysis paralysis sets in and people just wing it to get through the meeting.
When it came to making a group phone call, it was one more step to navigate the touch panel menus to find the dial pad screen and only then find out there was no dial tone.
One occurrence like that in the middle of an important meeting and bye-bye touch screen dialing. That’s when people run out and buy a Polycom conference phone for basic phone calls.
It was a similar situation with the TV / video display. Why navigate a touch panel when you can pick up a TV remote control that everyone has in their living room and is already familiar with?
The same thing happened with the PTZ camera remote. The touch panel stopped working so they started using the handheld remote delivered with the camera. Navigating remote controls with 20+ buttons in the middle of a meeting was no fun. In the case of the camera, people just left it on one setting most of the time and didn’t take advantage of the pan-tilt-zoom features.
There was simply too many buttons and too little time to figure them all out!
The PTZ remote is on the right
Obsolence & Clutter
COVID and the sudden demand for hybrid meetings with remote participants was the final straw for this conference room’s AV.
Today’s cameras, including the one used for this project, have AI (Artificial Intelligence) auto-tracking features such as voice tracking and facial recognition. This alone made replacing the old “human-controlled” camera with the new automated camera a no-brainer.
The old installation also had so-called “pop-ups” embedded in the conference tabletop -- those little doors that you press and they pop open.
Yes, even those are getting to be old school, especially when they open and you immediately see a VGA connector that hasn’t been used for about 10 years.
What ends up happening is that people connect to these pop-ups and when they’re done, they leave the cable behind on the table. At the end of the week, there will be two or three cables left behind. We call that clutter.
The “Not-Quite-Right” Ceiling Microphone System
The client purchased three Ceiling Microphone Arrays. Three were needed to give proper microphone coverage to the table below due to the inverted umbrella-like pendant lighting fixtures blocking their path. These alone probably cost at least $15,000. For a room this size, this was excessive.
Ceiling microphone arrays - tiles with green lights
What the Client Desired
Standardization Regarding Serviceability and Troubleshooting
Even though they spent a small fortune on a bad-ass system only a few short years ago, it was already outdated by today’s standards.
Ideally, they wanted a single eco-system / AV platform where they could manage, troubleshoot, and fix any problems remotely if possible. This meant not waiting for an outside vendor to show up, paying them a small fortune, and still being at their mercy when the next problem arose.
User-Friendly Control System
Yes, today’s meetings need control, but not like the now old-school panel.
Old Controller
New "Tap" Controller
The new “Tap Controller” dedicated video conference tabletop touch panel control system didn’t even exist pre-pandemic. Now there are several on the market.
These days, people are comfortable with a control screen that's similar to what they see on their phones, utilizing icons, symbols, etc.
They chose the Logitech Tap Controller because of its simple screens with apps, arrows, symbols, and instructions that are immediately understandable and get immediate results.
New "Tap" Controller icons
New "Tap" Controller
The Tap Controller from Logitech has the bare minimum instructions. Our client is on the Microsoft Teams platform and the PC in this room (located behind the video display) came pre-imaged with the MS Teams video conference platform. This way, only MS Teams commands appear on the touchscreen panel. The opening screen shows only the video conference platform icons you use regularly and that’s it.
User Friendly Microphones
Lower on the priority list but still essential was the existing microphone system. This client is better off with tabletop mic pods because:
- People seated at the table need to be able to see at a glance (without looking at the ceiling) whether microphones are on or off
- They can easily and quickly manually mute a tabletop microphone
- The IT department can also see via remote device management what state microphones are in (on / off/ muted, unplugged, etc.)
Performance
“It wasn’t that the old system didn’t perform well when it worked, at least not in the beginning….”
I’m sure it worked well at the onset. But because they couldn’t keep it working easily and inexpensively, poor performance became a major issue. It didn’t work more often than it worked.
The Fix - Summary
Serviceability
Using Logitech’s “Sync” device management platform, the client’s IT technicians can now monitor each and every device in any conference room, in any building in Syracuse or Chicago to make sure everything is connected and working. Technicians can do this from any handheld device no matter where they are working, even from home if they are working remotely, as long as they have an Internet connection.
User Friendly / Functionality / Clutter
The outdated Touchscreen Control system is replaced with a modern, minimalistic and simplified touchscreen Logitech Tap Controller for only video conference calls and internet access. That’s all it does. It’s there to manage the call. This is literally all you need to run a meeting. No longer is a tabletop laptop required.
Control of other devices is done through handheld remote controls such as Dish TV, TV on/off, etc. that people are familiar with in their homes.
Pop-up Connection Points
Tabletop “clutter” is virtually non-existent now. The pop-up connection points built into the table are closed for good as there is no more need to connect a laptop for conference calls. The only computer in the room now is a mini-PC mounted behind the 90-inch video display.
The mini-PC can be accessed via a wireless keyboard/mouse on the conference table or via the Tap Controller for making video calls. Users connect wirelessly to the network. If a guest laptop has to connect, it can connect to the Tap Controller using an HDMI cable to display their content on the TV. (The mic pod cabling could have been hidden and mics could have been permanently mounted on the table. Doing this would require holes to be drilled in the table. The client chose to leave the cabling exposed rather than have the mic cables permanently recessed into the conference table.)
PTZ Camera
Human control of the old camera has been replaced with a fully automated Logitech Rally Plus camera with auto-tracking features to capture the people seated at and speaking at the table.
Microphone coverage
The $15,000 ceiling microphone arrays have been unplugged for good. They are replaced with the Logitech tabletop mic pods at a fraction of the price. These are actually miniature microphone arrays that detect the person(s) speaking and reduce unwanted background noise. Tabletop microphones positioned 3-4 feet from participants deliver superior audio pickup compared to ceiling microphones placed six feet overhead.
Our client now has a room that has been strategically designed to serve the client's needs for the foreseeable future.
Client is happy, we’re happy.
We can take care of your conference room AV headaches, big or small. You can learn more about our Corporate Meeting Room AV Installation packages. Or, if you are ready to discuss your project, contact us for a consultation.
