Audiovisual Technology Trends

The reality is that the trend is towards people wanting their home and work lifestyle, environment, and technology to mesh seamlessly. BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – as the trend has been labeled, deals with the complexities of integrating home and work devices. One of the key factors involved in this audiovisual trend is that employees expect work devices/technology to be as sophisticated as what they have at home.

3 Key reasons for considering BYOD include; 

1. Increased productivity as employees generally have more cutting-edge devices and are more adept at using technology of their own choosing.

2. Employee satisfaction as they tend to value their personal devices and appreciate not having to manage multiple devices.

3. Sustainability as BYOD eliminates redundancies.

However, as with any new concept the implementation can be fraught with challenges. BYOD is definitely a trend that has significant pros and cons, but check out some of the business advantages to BYOD.

Unified Communication is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging, presence information, telephony, and video conferencing with non-real-time communication services such as voice mail, email and text. Increasingly people want choice and control when it comes to media and space, they are connected 24/7 and need their devices and applications to work efficiently.

According to a compensation survey of 1,400 CFO’s conducted by Robert Half International, 46% said telecommuting is second only to salary as the best way to attract top talent. 33% Said telecommuting was the top draw.

The bottom line? This trend must be taken into account in any workplace strategy. Companies, both large and small, must accommodate a mobile workforce. Incorporating spaces that allow for visual, local and remote connections such as Huddle Spaces are essential in today’s office. Technology that allows remote workers to schedule rooms such as Steelcase’s Room Wizard can make it easy for remote workers to connect and collaborate seamlessly.

According to Harvard Business Review, “Innovation is the ‘secret sauce’ of business success”.

There is no doubt that innovation is essential to compete in the global economy. Innovation is the result of collaboration. The kind of collaboration that gets you breakthrough ideas comes from people working together specifically to solve problems, and develop new insights and solutions.

As we work more in distributed teams, whether across a campus or across the ocean, people struggle to build connections with coworkers when the places where they work don’t support and augment their interactions. Teams need places that allow them to see their teammates comfortably, hear each other clearly and share information easily so they can build social capital and the “shared mind” that is necessary to bring innovation to successful conclusion.

Audiovisual technology must be able to support collaboration. It must be seamless, able to connect people regardless of geography and support a flexible work environment 24/7. A variety of solutions need to be offered for different spaces; resident spaces, huddle rooms, cafés, training rooms, formal boardrooms etc…

In addition, the equation becomes considerably more complex when we add that today, data must be easily accessed anywhere to support collaboration.

Top audiovisual trends that enhance collaboration include cloud based solutions and vertical planes such as walls becoming displays and data capture devices. Check out this Corning Glass video that gives you a sneak peak into the not so distant future!

Devices are becoming increasingly able to interact with system infrastructure at a much higher and more personal level. Security and payment preferences are to instances where personalization is already hard at work. Not only that, increasingly you are able to swipe an RFID Card or smart device to take ownership of space and personalize the environment.

Take a look at these forward looking examples of personalization, coming to a space near you!

Pizza Hut takes ordering your favorite pizza to a whole new level.

Gallery One is an example of how interactivity and personalization inspires people at the Cleveland Museum of Art.