Productivity.  That’s what we want to achieve when we connect multiple sites on a conference call or join together worldwide offices on video.  Whether we’re presenting information or receiving it, or even sharing data in a collaborative way to create something new, we want to achieve productivity.

Technology is the tool that can make it possible to share ideas without the costs of time and money associated with travel.  Today, we can do our jobs and meet business requirements faster and better than ever before and our expectations of these tools increases just as rapidly as we learn their possibilities.  We’re pushing their limits every day and realizing how to overcome what were once limitations.

For example, the best technology will not be able to defeat a room’s poor acoustical performance and adding tech, such as additional microphones over the conference table, will not help if you literally cannot understand the words being spoken by your team mates.  Few meetings go well if someone is asking for words to be repeated or, worse, moving forward with misheard and misunderstood content.

The answer is surprisingly straight forward and can be addressed either during an initial design of a conference room or as a retrofit, with amazing results.

Room Design

Materials in a room have a tremendous impact on a room’s acoustical performance.  If your room has a large granite table or glass walls, sound will bounce off these surfaces again and again and your ear will hear the same sentence multiple times within fractions of seconds.  Meeting participants will have trouble understanding the words being said.  Subtle changes to the absorption rating of acoustical tiles, fabric wrapped panels, soft high back leather chairs, and irregular shapes in the conference space all play an important role in creating the “Exceptional Client Experience” as it relates to conference room audio conferencing technology.

Good Meeting Manners

If you’ve ever seen the sound board at a concert, you can begin to appreciate the intricacy of what we hear when audio equipment is involved.  That intricacy is not difficult to manage, though.  We can practice simple, good habits during a call, whether audio or audio/visual, to help others understand us.  For example, we can be aware of tapping near a microphone and how that noise can hide what’s being said.  We can avoid resting our heads in our hands, which might muffle or distort our voices.  Of course, anyone sitting far from a microphone should either move or speak up.  Or both.

The science of sound and the technology used to communicate across the miles is itself somewhat complex but it’s relatively easy to experience an optimal acoustic environment, one that makes your voice sound rich and clean.

VisionPoint is experienced in conference room design and adept at helping companies understand how to approach the criteria that will have the biggest impact on audio quality for the long-term.  We highly recommend this article on reverberation as a great primer on the topic.  It will bring you one step closer to the best meetings you’ve ever experienced.  Call us today for more information.