AV Technology - March 2008 - (Page 24)

GETTING YOUR MONEY’S WORTH could integrate “smart” panels, more flexible lighting and controls, advanced AV control, and possible upgrade to HD depending upon the predominant type of video source and material. Large and multi-purpose rooms open the door to all the “bells and whistles” based upon need and the users’ technical sophistication. TRAINING AND ROOM MANAGEMENT Another key to success, says Jonathan Shor, is putting in the right level of support for the people who will be using the rooms. “It’s important to instill in the users’ minds the fact that they need continual training,” he says. “We warrant our systems for a year, including training sessions. After that year is up, we propose a service contract that includes preventative maintenance and additional training sessions.” Shor says many companies will try to ‘make do’ with the initial training but after a while, the personnel who were trained may leave the company and their expertise will be lost. A danger of losing that expertise, he says, is potential misuse of equipment. An example is the SmartBoard interactive whiteboard panel. Shor says this product, which shares whiteboard content between sites, can be an extremely effective collaboration tool for videoconferencing, but “if people aren’t trained, we’ve seen this advanced piece of equipment end up being used as a marker board with the users having no clue as to its capabilities.” If you’ve done your advance planning well and your conference rooms are getting a lot of use, Maus says you should consider hiring a third-party contractor to manage room reservations, catering, and support so that the rooms will operate more efficiently. “The firm we use [Sodexho] inspects and audits rooms before, during, and after use. They have a standard approach to obtaining needs from the user prior to booking them into a room,” he says. Maus says another contractor is utilized at their firm to conduct full building occupancy surveys; this contractor collaborates with the room management contractor to identify situations where a user group might be trying to use a videoconferencing room for something other than its intended purpose. “If a user wants to do customer training, or set up a PC/server lab or some other non-conferencing use, our space managers will work with that user group to identify appropriate space other than a conference room,” Maus says. With this type of management, he notes, the videoconferencing rooms at his company are in use constantly and are providing effective ROI for the company. “Once we are able to create an well-performing room for customers, it is heavily used and often taken on as a private room by an executive.” CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT In addition to usage planning and training issues, other aspects of the room’s design must be considered. “The architecture, finishes, acoustics, cooling, and lighting should be designed to support collaborative environments,” Thorburn says. Network connections must also be carefully considered; if your network will only support lower bit rate conferencing devices, don’t try to implement HD right away. “When you look at HD videoconferencing, your connection to the ‘communication cloud’ [the internet] needs to be fast,” Thorburn says. “You will need a T-1 data connection for HD and you will not have any bandwidth left for anything else — no VoIP, no internet, no VPN. Your clients need to be aware of this. You also need to make sure you have backward compatibility with sites that do not have HD capabilities. If not, your HD room may be useless for talking with non-HD sites.” Ultimately, the key to success with a conference room — or any use of AV technology — is advance planning. Talk with your users to find out what they need, give them the tools they need to accomplish their goals, and train them on correct usage. The result will be a well-used facility and satisfied clients, with few questions about the investment. Elaine Jones is principal of Elaine Jones Associates, a independent marketing/PR firm based in Salt Lake City. She can be reached at elaine@ejonespr.com. » MANAGING COST EXPECTATIONS W hen dealing with cost-conscious users and budget planners, it’s important to make sure they understand both the upfront and potential future costs of the project, says Dan Doolen, chief instructional media systems engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Many buildings are designed to last 80 to 100 years, or longer,” notes Doolen. “It’s hard to convince a cost-conscious project management team that the construction for this long-lived building should be influenced so heavily for the implementation of technology that may only last 5 to 7 years.” In order to promote the perception of a positive ROI on AV technology investments, Doolen cites four key expectations that technology managers and users need to address in the early stages of an AV project: ARCHITECTURAL COMPROMISES: Look out for unexpected compromises made in the architectural details during construction, which can cause a good system design to require a redesign, and will require time to readjust (downward) the expectations of the end users. 1 TELECOMMUNICATION/NETWORKING SUPPORT: Support must be coordinated for the increasing implementation of videoconferencing and audioconferencing. With the increasing use of IP-based equipment, many of the concerns of the telecommunication/network/AV groups are now complementary, whereas videoconferencing was just a focused niche in the past. LIFE-CYCLE REPLACEMENT AND MAINTENANCE COSTS: Many planners and end-users often don’t understand these requirements. When they are informed, they go into denial. Ultimately, the subject is deferred until it must be addressed, or the equipment is just not used anymore. It’s important to make sure planners and end-users understand that equipment will need replacement in just a few years and throughout the life of the system. TRAINING: Training has to be a part of the project budget for new installations, and a permanent line item in the operating budget to get the best utilization out of the room and, ultimately, to realize the best return on the investment for the technology. 2 3 4 24 | AVTECHNOLOGY | march 2008 www.avtechnologyonline.com 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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