AV Technology - March 2008 - (Page 22)

GETTING YOUR MONEY’S WORTH BUYING A VIDEOCONFERENCE SYSTEM THEY’LL ACTUALLY USE by Elaine Jones t’s an IT manager’s nightmare: You’re tasked with setting up a videoconferencing room for your company or campus. Everyone seems excited about the room, but once it has been integrated, the equipment sits there unused and your finance department is questioning the expense. What went wrong, and how can you keep it from happening again? Before you even buy the room, make sure you understand what your users intend to do with it, says Jonathan Shor, director of technology of McCann Systems LLC, an AV design/build firm in Edison, NJ. “Videoconferencing rooms seem to be ‘the thing to do’ these days, and some clients will ask us for a room without any usage planning,” Shor says. “Often, the people involved in the budget/design process aren’t the people who are going to use the rooms — and these people don’t talk with each other.” Shor says his company has seen situations where the actual user isn’t brought into the process until the room has been completed. “This person may have a comprehensive list of things he wants to do with the room and the room won’t meet those needs,” he says. I HIGH TECH ISN’T FOR EVERYONE The attraction of advanced technology can be a downfall. Planners envision their users coolly walking into a room full of high-tech “gadgets,” activating a flashy touchscreen panel, and smoothly bringing up all of the equipment and remote sites for the meeting. In reality, many users find the technology very intimidating and the fear of “messing something up” will keep them out of the room. The lure of HD videoconferencing is an example of technology that everyone seems to want, but not everyone needs. “It is almost like we are back in the early videoconferencing days of the ‘80s with dedicated rooms that cost a half a million dollars to fit out,” says Steve Thorburn, principal of Thorburn Associates, an acoustic and technology consulting company. “But I challenge clients to truly determine who they need to ‘video’ with before planning a room. We ask our clients, ‘Who are you going to talk to and what do you need to share?’ Once you know your position and can defend that, then the designers can help engineer the system and room that you need.” Thorburn notes that there are many standalone, off-the-shelf videoconferencing systems that may be perfectly adequate for the initial conferencing requirements of users. “Don’t get seduced by the technology,” he says. “You must walk before you run with the features. This is no different than trying to start your exercise routine with an ironman triathlon after 20 years of sitting behind a desk. If you try to do too much, regardless of best intentions, your team will fail.” Ron Maus, a senior project manager in the Real Estate and Workplace Services group at a Silicon Valley high-tech company, concurs. He maintains that advanced technology should only be purchased based on the technical sophistication of the users. “There is no value to state-ofthe-art if the user cannot understand how to initiate the device or how to use it to achieve their meeting goals,” Maus says. “If a room is not being booked at our firm or there are repeat complaints about it, the complaints often focus on the failure to build out the room for intuitive use by the widest range of occupants.” “Consider how you conduct meetings now, before purchasing your conferencing room,” says Thorburn. “You’ll need the same computer and graphic camera inputs and other devices that you are using now. If you use flip charts in your face-toface meetings, you should start with being able to display those flip charts at the far end, then, as you are weaned to a more efficient video-based collaboration system, you might try application sharing or something as simple as using a document camera. No matter what, the system should match your work flow — not the other way around.” Maus says his company provides videoconferencing facilities ranging from small systems to full training centers, and each room has been designed with a specific purpose in mind and a specific set of technology for the users. “Performance is relative to the room size,” he says. For example, Maus says, small rooms may find value-add in tabletop projectors or LCD/plasma screens, limited lighting controls, mechanical shades as necessary, and decent voice conference capability. Medium-sized rooms www.avtechnologyonline.com 22 | AVTECHNOLOGY | march 2008 http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - March 2008

AV Technology - March 2008 Contents Precedent Corporate: Whose Job Is It Anyway? Education: There’s No Business Like Show Business Government: Technology and the New World Order Buying a Videoconference System They Will Actually Use AV After Hours The Sound of HD Conferencing Assembling the Design Team Concert Hall Acoustics on a High School Budget Audio Architecture Keeping a Watchful Eye Product Spotlight Tech Horizons Product Review New Products AV MO

AV Technology - March 2008

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