Is your business equipped for hybrid meetings? 

Whether your office is adopting a hybrid work model or is entirely in-person, video calls are here to stay. As remote meetings with clients, contractors, job applicants, and training personnel become more convenient, video calls will remain ‘the norm.’

So how will your teams gather in conference rooms to join meetings—while ensuring everyone is seen and heard clearly? As many business owners and integrators are realizing, it’s not as simple as putting a laptop at the head of the table.

Luckily, tools like Teams Rooms and Teams-certified hardware open the doors to collaborative, easy-to-use conferencing spaces. If you’re curious about hybrid conferencing solutions, continue reading to learn how Teams Rooms work and what options are best for your business.

Ready or not, the digital transformation is coming. Flexible, agile, and nimble software-driven AV tools like unified communications, video conferencing, and digital signage are becoming commonplace office technologies in the hybrid workplace. And in response, AV systems management solutions need to become as flexible, agile, and nimble as the tools they’re supporting.

AV remote monitoring and management (RMM) is the support model of the future. Under a managed services agreement, you receive 24/7 proactive RMM for a fixed monthly price. In return, you’re not responsible for the burden and costs of making sure your systems work — your managed services provider (MSP) is.

Remote monitoring and management lead to fewer problems that disrupt your workflows and cost your business money, time and resources. Keep reading to learn how RMM as a service supports your hybrid workplace in Scottsdale, AZ, or elsewhere in the U.S.

Although the stirrings of a digital revolution have been present for years, the COVID-19 crisis that rocked the globe in 2020 catalyzed an abrupt shift from in-person to remote work for organizations in Scottsdale, AZ, and across the U.S. And now that employees have gotten a taste of the work-from-home life, there’s no going back to the way work was performed before. 

Organizations are beginning to accept that the digital workplace is here to stay. Successfully embracing the shift to digital means investing in the technologies that foster communications, collaboration, and innovation among remote and in-person employees. Technology manufacturers like Crestron are guiding the digital evolution with products like Crestron Flex and XiO Cloud that enable globally dispersed hybrid workforces to thrive.

Keep reading to learn more about where we see the digital workplace moving over the next few years. 

Employees want their employers to invest more in hybrid workplace technology. That’s the key takeaway from a recent study by Barco ClickShare, which surveyed 1,750 employees worldwide to get their thoughts on returning to the office in a post-pandemic environment.

Video conferencing technology tops the list of priority investments. On average, 77% of respondents said they use video conferencing systems at least once a week, with 28% using them every day. That isn’t surprising, considering the hybrid workplace model depends on robust video conferencing to facilitate communications and collaboration between globally dispersed workforces.

As employees return to the office, large and small organizations in Phoenix, AZ, and across the globe are scrambling to figure out the best way to provide video conferencing in the office. Two systems have emerged: native conferencing and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solutions.

A third option is rising to bridge the gap between native conferencing and BYOD to bring the ultimate video conferencing experience to meeting spaces. Crestron Flex is an all-in-one conferencing room system that combines the simplicity of native conferencing with the flexibility of BYOD modes.

Keep reading to learn more about native video conferencing, BYOD solutions, and why you can (and should) have both in your hybrid workplace. 

Once, in the not-too-distant past, office workers all had the same meeting experiences. Participants gathered in a conference room to discuss performance data, collaborate on upcoming projects, and brainstorm new ideas together. Then the coronavirus pandemic triggered a massive paradigm shift in how and where we work, ushering in a new era of remote workforces and digital workspaces. In the post-pandemic workplace, hybrid meetings with in-person and remote participants are the new norm, and now meeting experiences aren’t the same for everyone. 

Now, the goal of modern conference room design isn’t equality, where employees have the same meeting experiences, but equity, where employees have fair meeting experiences. Simply put: how can we make the hybrid meeting experience good for everyone?

Keep reading to learn three considerations for redesigning your conference rooms in Scottsdale, AZ, or worldwide to be more equitable for all participants.

As the modern workplace moves into the cloud, workplace management needs to follow. Crestron’s XiO Cloud is an IoT-based solution designed for the needs of digital and hybrid workplaces. XiO Cloud allows organizations to configure, manage, and troubleshoot all supported Crestron devices in a centralized, secure cloud location. It’s built on Microsoft® Azure®, Microsoft’s safe and reliable public cloud computing platform.

While video is a medium that older generations are still getting used to—as anyone who has FaceTimed with their parents’ or grandparents’ foreheads can attest—for the generations currently entering the workforce, video chatting and collaborating is second nature. Millennials and Gen Z's think nothing of walking down the aisles of a grocery store video chatting with friends, and they expect that same type of video communication to be available at work as well. For your business, video collaboration is a win-win that gives workers the flexibility they crave while also providing opportunities for cooperation and collaboration that can drive innovation and growth at your company.

Today’s companies are all about the flow of information from colleague to colleague and team to team. So when work at your organization gets stuck, lost, or forgotten, where does it usually come to a grinding halt? In email? On team collaboration boards? During meetings? If you find that work often stops until the next meeting or until a key team member gets back into town, there are faster, more efficient ways to keep work moving. One of those ways is to get on a video conference call right now.