A client came to us with a seemingly straight forward requirement. Primarily he wanted to improve the sound quality being sent and received in their video conferencing calls as well as other ‘basic essentials’.
- Google Meets is the standard and needs to run on an in-room PC
- Staff need to bring their own PC and connect to the room equipment for meetings via ZOOM/TEAMS and other VC platforms
- They didn’t want wireless dongles or devices that could be lost or misplaced
- Being a large room, extra mics were needed and the client didn’t want them on the table
- Speakers were also not to be table mounted.
- Dual screens were required
- An out of the box single vendor was preferred over a custom solution.
On the surface – seems reasonable. We get asked for this list a lot. However, this solution is one that very few vendors can meet out of the box. Let’s talk about choosing a room system that does ALL that AND is simple for the users.
Every AV/VC system have common requirements (monitors, mics /speakers) and we have covered them in previous blogs so review those for specific details on getting these right for your room. Check out our blogs here.
What we want to focus on is the differences between systems designed for a SINGLE platform like Teams or Zoom, systems designed for BYOD and systems designed for BOTH.
All the ‘future proofing” zealots will roll their eyes and think that obviously you should always cater for every application possible and why wouldn’t you always do both. Surely, all users being happy is the holy grail.
There are good reasons why you’d be selective. Certain rooms or use cases don’t support a dedicated room and BYOD together. Such as:
- Rooms over 12 metres long. Remember “out of the box” was preferred. (We define that as readily available, plug and play, easily configurable)
- Rooms with poor acoustics – odd shapes, lots of reflective surfaces, poor construction material choices, etc.
- Where you want the room system to support multiple vendor products (Teams + Zoom + Lifesize) for instance plusBYOD
- Where you are insisting on a wireless environment for content sharing and BYOD.
- Multifunction rooms, VC as well as presentation only or townhall meetings
These scenarios all add complexity, and this is best addressed by custom solutions, often multiple vendor, and usually relatively expensive. If these apply to your space – we can help. Just not with this approach.
Once you have passed that hurdle and the room is suitable, we then decide how you want the BYOD to connect.
- Network wireless
- Wireless dongle (connected to a share device)
- Cables (remember we need two audio and picture)
Then make some hardware decisions.
- Table or ceiling mounted mics? (This will influence vendor choice)
- Table, front, or roof mounted? (this will also influence vendor choice)
- Camera, does it need to zoom in for the smaller meetings that BYOD meetings often are?
Next decide on the interface.
- Will the user just plug in and the room recognise the BYOD and instantly change the audio, camera, and monitors over?
- Will the user need to use a touch screen to select BYOD? Touch screens can enable other functionality such as switching monitors or other content inputs.
Armed with this information, you can do one of two things. Start comparing systems online or call us by filling out this form here and have us take care of it. We know all the major brands and how they address all the items on that shopping list!
