AV specialists Reflex, offer its advice on how to recreate the video calling desktop experience in a meeting room environment
With the rapid growth of soft codecs such as Skype for Business, more and more people are accessing video conferencing at their desktop. This ubiquity presents organisations with a challenge: how do they offer their users the same call experience and facilities in meeting spaces and group calls as they have at their desks?
This challenge is being met by an array of new, low cost, and simple to install products that can add high quality video call facilities to almost any meeting space.
We are seeing two main approaches emerging:
Bring your own device (BYOD) approach
In these calls, one participant normally brings their own laptop into the meeting room. With a single USB connection they can access an installed AV system comprising a high quality camera, multiple microphones, loudspeakers and one or two displays. They can also bring their own contacts list and content to the meeting.
Fixed Facilities
A resident PC can be loaded with a soft client codec and connected to the same high quality cameras and audio systems. This approach ensures that a device is always available in the room and still has access to content on the network.
With USB switching it’s even possible to enable both approaches in the same space, giving users the choice to work exactly as they prefer.
Reflex has extensive experience providing bespoke solutions to enable video conferencing in all types of meeting rooms and integrating them within simple control systems; however we are always looking for ways to simplify this process and to reduce the associated costs.
Here are a couple of examples of some great new products that are helping to simplify both BYOD and resident PC options:
Same Rooms – Yamaha CS-700
The Yamaha CS-700 gives instant access for BYOD users
This unique new product integrates a wide-angle camera, beamforming microphone array and soundbar, presenting a single USB connection to the user. This is a great solution for meeting rooms up to 3m x 3m, giving the BYOD user instant access to an excellent camera and audio system in a very compact and affordable package.
Medium Rooms – Biamp Devio
The Biamp Devio offers simple, seamless access to high quality camer and mics
In any medium-sized meeting room, the Devio provides a really simple way to offer seamless access to a high quality camera and mics, presented to users through a single USB connection. The system can be used with any USB camera and is provided with the option of high quality, 360-degree coverage desktop or ceiling mics. Simple to install, it can normally be mounted under the meeting table.
Larger Spaces
Reflex can integrate soft codecs into much larger spaces, all the way up to auditoriums. Solutions for these spaces are entirely bespoke, often comprising multiple cameras and flexible audio and control systems.
Please visit www.reflex.co.uk to learn more about the company
