Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration

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Angelica Fletcher
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Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration The traditional way of working where people gather at the office from 8 to 5 and work in a closed-space office or cubicle is disappearing.

1 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration The traditional way of working where people gather at the office from 8 to 5 and work in a closed-space office or cubicle is disappearing. Instead, the workplace is evolving to serve as a central place for collaboration. Employees, especially digital natives, expect more flexibility and collaboration in their work day. Companies are also consolidating offices to reduce real estate costs and to create more opportunities for collaboration across departments. Advances in technology have made meeting these demands possible. Workers now telecommute frequently; open, highly collaborative work spaces are replacing offices and cubicles; and according to an Ovum consulting study on meetings, 30 percent of all meetings are now virtual, with one or more attendees participating via teleconference. In the report, The Smart Workplace in 2030, by global manufacturer Johnson Controls, it depicts the future workplace as The Hive, a more agile workplace that responds to a complex and competitive world focused on collaboration, innovation, and creativity and eco offices as intelligent growth zones where individuals can meet and collaborate. As the start of this smart workplace transformation, more open collaboration spaces and huddle rooms are rapidly being developed to meet this need for small group collaboration. From getting two or three people together to quickly review a design to a product brainstorming session with a couple of marketers and engineers these spaces are ideal for informal, ad hoc purposes. These brainstorming areas offer flexible seating arrangements that include sofas and lounge chairs, soft lighting, and sound-masking systems to avoid disturbing surrounding workers. But the key ingredient to making these open collaboration spaces successful is quick access to technology. In one study, participants voted technology as the most important feature of these spaces. To meet this demand, these spaces must have the ability to easily connect multiple types of devices over Wi-Fi or wired connections, allow content sharing, provide the ability to brainstorm and annotate collaboratively, and allow for all this to happen virtually when one or more participant is off-site. In this brief, you ll learn about the technologies being deployed in open collaboration spaces and how they are fostering greater collaboration, creativity and increasing productivity. Employees, especially digital natives, expect more flexibility and collaboration in their work day. 1 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

2 Digital Displays Make Collaboration Possible Whether your team is gathering to discuss a go-to-market strategy or to review quarterly sales numbers, digital displays make these conversations easier. Digital displays can also increase productivity and reduce travel costs by incorporating real-time collaborative technologies such as content sharing and video collaboration for virtual meetings. It s important to select a digital display with a high-quality picture, the right resolution, and the right inputs for the peripheral devices you will use. You may need multiple displays to allow for multiple-window content sharing. On the high-tech end, these displays can incorporate interactive touch or gesture technology. To decide which digital display is right for your collaboration space, you will need to consider a number of factors, from intended applications to budget. Considerations Why It Matters Commercial vs. Consumer Display size Grayscale Display size is determined by the distance from viewers. The recommended viewer distance is anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 times the screen diagonal. Grayscale capabilities are important for PC applications. Both commercial and consumer displays are sold in a wide range of sizes and should be able to accommodate any size room. Commercial screens can produce vivid colors as well as grayscale with good linear color tracking, which is recommended for a diversity of PC applications. Consumer displays are skewed to the bright white end of the grayscale, which produces vivid saturated colors for TV/video applications, but limits the visual quality of some PC applications. Resolution 4K Resolution Because multiple device types may be connected to the display for presentation sharing, it is important that the display recognizes multiple resolutions and has portrait as well as landscape orientation capabilities. A new technology on the market, often referred to as Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV, 4K offers 4 times the pixels of HD TV and offers a sharper picture and more engaging content. Screen size and viewing distance will be a factor in whether the increased image quality is discernibly noticeable from HD TV (see chart). Currently there is little 4K content available, but you can expect to see it become more pervasive in 2-3 years. Bandwidth is another consideration. Streaming 4K content requires a 25Mbps or faster downstream. Commercial displays recognize PC resolutions, including wide formats and different refresh rates. They also offer landscape and portrait formatting. Consumer displays will have a limited ability to recognize PC resolutions and may not have portrait formatting capabilities. Available in both commercialand consumer-grade displays. Make sure the display has HDMI 2.0 ports. The first wave of 4K TVs used the previous HDMI 1.4 standard. 2 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

3 (Cont d) Considerations Why It Matters Commercial vs. Consumer Inputs It is important to purchase a display with the inputs you need for content sharing, live streaming or video conferencing. Commercial displays come with a full array of connectivity and external controls such as HDMI, DVI, VGA, LAN and mobile device content distribution, and USB playback. Consumer displays do not usually offer as many external display connections. Interactive touch Total cost of ownership Allows for a richer collaboration environment, including on-screen annotation, dual touch and inking capabilities. Initial purchase price is not the only consideration. Power use, warranty terms, and lifespan can also contribute to total cost of ownership. Available only in commercialgrade displays. Commercial displays typically have multi-year on-site repair warranties and the screens are designed to minimize power use and running costs. They also typically have a longer lifespan. Consumer displays usually have 90-day warranties with shipping required for repairs. Power use may also be high in order to support additional domestic features and applications not needed in commercial environments. Viewing Distance (feet) Viewing Distance Where Resolution Becomes Noticable Screen Size vs. Viewing Distance 480p, 720p, 1080p, 4k (2160p) all appear to be equivalent atthese far away viewing distances Benefit of 720p starts to become noticeable Benefit of 1080p starts to become noticeable Benefit of 4k {2160p) starts to become noticeable 480p 720p 1080p 4k (2160p) Full benefit of 480p visible Full benefit of 720p visible Full benefit of 1080p visible Full benefit of 4k {2160p) visible Screen Size - Diagonal (inches) Source: CarltonBale.com 3 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

4 Interactive Displays Make Collaboration Richer During an impromptu meeting about the new website being developed, an interactive display helps foster a more productive collaboration experience. With it, the team is able to pull up the website, annotate changes they d like to see, move photos and menu items around, and then save the file to send back to the design team for further refinements. Considerations Multi-display Multi-user Why It Matters Unlike traditional flip charts and dry-erase whiteboards, interactive displays allow content sharing and annotation from multiple types of devices, the ability to save notes and ideas, and make it easy to quickly erase and prepare for the next meeting. There are a wide variety of interactive displays on the market, from displays that have basic capabilities such as connecting to online content to those that provide real-time sharing, multi-display, multiuser, and multi-gesture technology. Multi-display capabilities allow you to view the same collaboration workspace with real-time annotation across all views on all connected displays. You can work on a zoomed-in detailed view while keeping the zoomed-out contextual view on a separate connected display. Allows two or more people to interact with content simultaneously and can increase collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. MICROSOFT SURFACE HUB The Microsoft Surface Hub was made expressly to facilitate collaboration among teams, including those working from remote locations. It s made for the way we prefer to work: at a moment s notice to solve problems, to brainstorm, to update stakeholders on a project s status. The Surface Hub s ultra high-definition display can be used as a digital whiteboard, allowing people onsite and at remote locations to see and hear each other while working on the same documents in real time. The placement of its dual cameras makes face-to-face collaboration with those offsite participants feel natural. The Surface Hub takes preferred workrelated technologies Skype for Business, favorite apps and combines them with the ability to annotate shared content, contribute from personal devices, and present detailed images on a large digital canvas. Multi-gesture Real-time sharing Integrated inking Space Cost Some interactive whiteboards only accept a pen or finger touch while others support a multi-gesture format. Those with multigesture capabilities can improve efficiency by allowing you to work more naturally write with a pen, move objects around with your finger and erase with your hand. Allows remote participants to view and/or annotate content in real-time. Improves the collaboration experience and increases productivity. Allows users to convert annotations to text or to write over a document and save annotations to the document. It s important to select an interactive display that fits the size of the room. There are a number of interactive displays on the market that can accommodate smaller spaces. The more capabilities built into an interactive whiteboard, typically the higher the cost. Your needs and budget will dictate what type of interactive product makes the most sense in your collaborative space. 4 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

5 Presentation Systems Allow for Easy Content Sharing As part of an effort to spur innovation, four design engineers have created a mock-up of a new product design and are meeting to decide which features make sense to incorporate into a final design. A good presentation system makes it easy for the engineers to share their designs simultaneously from any device, making this meeting effective and highly collaborative. Presentation systems include wired solutions as well as both consumer- and enterprisegrade wireless systems. Each solution offers different capabilities, security, and connection protocols. Some solutions also offer audio-only participants the ability to connect to a virtual meeting and content sharing session through a browser on PC or Mac. To determine the right solution for your organization, consider what types of devices and platforms you need to support, how many users need to share content simultaneously, if you need to connect with multiple locations, what type of security is required, and whether annotation capabilities are necessary. Considerations Why It Matters Enterprise vs. Consumer Solutions Devices and platforms supported Number of users supported Ability to share and annotate content in realtime It is important to ensure that the system you select supports all of the devices and platforms your users use for content sharing. Solutions range in the number of users they can accommodate. Some systems also allow simultaneous content sharing from multiple users. Improves collaboration and increases efficiency by allowing content sharing in real-time, enabling even remote participants to see, share, and edit. Enterprise solutions typically support all device types and are compatible with Windows, ios and Android. Some consumer solutions have limitations and may lack the ability to broadcast to a Windows phone or Windows RT device, display photos or personal videos directly from tablets, or broadcast from a web browser on Android or ios devices. Consumer solutions typically lack the ability to scale to multiple users. Enterprise solutions vary in the number supported, but often support anywhere from participants. They can also support multiple users simultaneously sharing content. Only enterprise-grade solutions offer this capability (and even then, only some). Ability to share content with remote participants If collaboration will occur with remote participants, this is an important feature. Some enterprise systems support multi-site connections across a network. Consumergrade solutions do not. 5 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

6 (Cont d) Considerations Why It Matters Enterprise vs. Consumer Solutions How it connects Whether you prefer a wired or wireless connection depends on your connection preferences, types of devices and platforms most frequently used, aesthetics, and your security preferences. Enterprise solutions vary in connection options, from wired network to wireless networkbased or Wi-Fi-based. Consumer solutions typically connect via Wi-Fi, but not all solutions are compatible with all routers. Wireless solutions improve aesthetics by reducing cable clutter and may offer easier connectivity if multiple devices and platforms will be used frequently. Wired solutions may be preferred for security reasons, though enterprise-grade wireless solutions offer adequate security as well. Level of security Many IT departments require a solution that meets enterprise security protocols. Enterprise-grade systems are designed to support enterprise network configurations and enterprise-level security protocols. Consumer-grade systems typically can t support an enterprise network configuration and don t provide enterprise-level security. 6 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

7 Remote Collaboration Offers More Flexibility Sometimes your team needs to meet briefly with a colleague who's working from home to discuss a project. This meeting may even need to include the ability to share and edit the same document. Video collaboration technology makes this possible. With recent technology advances, video collaboration has brought more flexibility to the workplace allowing workers to work where they want, reducing travel time and costs, and increasing overall productivity all while collaborating in real-time. To support video collaboration in open spaces, you ll need to select a number of technologies, including the right display, camera, speakers, microphones, and codec or collaborationhosting service. An all-in-one system that delivers all the technology necessary for a successful collaboration experience, is also something to consider depending on your organization's collaboration priorities and budget. Considerations BYOD-friendly solution Audio-quality Video quality Interoperability Unified communications Hosting options All-in-one room system Why It Matters With the increasing popularity of BYOD, it is important to select a video collaboration solution that is standards-based and can accommodate multiple devices and platforms. Consistent, high-quality audio is essential to a successful collaboration space. A small, professional-quality table-top or ceiling microphone that connects to an audio system will provide superior sound quality and reduce background noise. Headsets are another option in open collaboration spaces to help reduce background noise as well as reduce noise coming from the collaboration space.. From simple webcams integrated into a display to full HD cameras with voice-tracking software to locate faces of participants currently speaking, there is a wide range of video conferencing cameras available. At a minimum, a camera with pan, tilt, zoom (PTZ) and HD 1080p resolution and 60-framesper-second capabilities is recommended. Interoperability is critical to being able to maximize the value of your video collaboration solution by being able to connect with a number of different users and systems. Look for video conferencing solutions and room systems that are standardsbased. Many video conferencing solutions are proprietary, which can limit the ability of users to connect with other users that have different devices and vendor solutions. A unified communications (UC) solution is of high value in open collaboration spaces where spontaneous interaction and flexibility are essential. UC solutions, such as Lync and Jabber, integrate video conferencing with other communication tools such as chat, , contacts, and calendar scheduling tools so that you can collaborated seamlessly in real-time, in whatever communication venue is most productive. There are a variety of hosting options available, including on-premise and cloud-based. Cloud-based and UC options are increasingly popular due to their ease of use and off-premise support. Cloud-based and UC options are also more likely to be BYOD-friendly. A dedicated room collaboration system can offer all the necessary technologies and applications in one complete package, including a unified communications solutions such as Lync, an interactive display or whiteboard, content-sharing capabilities, and high-quality video and audio. 7 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

Control Systems Make Everything Simple Going to a meeting and spending ten minutes trying to run the technology in the room reduces productivity and is extremely frustrating.

8 Control Systems Make Everything Simple Going to a meeting and spending ten minutes trying to run the technology in the room reduces productivity and is extremely frustrating. A control system eliminates the headache of finding the remote, figuring out which buttons need to be pressed, and whether all of the cables are plugged in correctly. It also ensures that your open collaboration or huddle space is easy-to-use for even those most technically-challenged employees. A good control system makes managing the multiple technologies in your space -- including displays, presentation systems, and video collaboration software and hardware -- as simple as the press of a button. Because each collaboration space is unique, every control system is custom designed and configured according to the devices the system controls. The right control system will depend on what technology you want to control and compatibility with other hardware or building systems.capability to control and automate additional building equipment such as thermostats, lights and other peripherals that may reduce energy costs. Considerations Functionality Interoperability Automation Why It Matters The look and simplicity of the control system is important for a good user experience. The ability to support control apps for smartphones or tablets may also be important for some applications. It s important that your control panel can control all your systems. Make sure inputs and outputs are compatible, and, if integrating with older equipment, that the system can accommodate analog and digital signals. Automation takes simplicity to the next level, allowing all systems to turn on at the press of one button. Beyond AV equipment, many controllers have the capability to control and automate additional building equipment such as thermostats, lights and other peripherals that may reduce energy costs. 8 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

About AVI-SPL AVI-SPL AVI-SPL is the world s leading integrator of communication and collaboration solutions that support organizations of all types.

We also provide a wide range of remote and onsite support services, including cloudbased video conferencing.

9 About AVI-SPL AVI-SPL AVI-SPL is the world s leading integrator of communication and collaboration solutions that support organizations of all types. Our well-trained and certified engineers design, build and integrate systems for video collaboration, digital signage, 3D visualization, AV distribution, and intelligent building control. We also provide a wide range of remote and onsite support services, including cloudbased video conferencing. Conclusion Every collaboration space will have its own unique characteristics and every organization will have slightly different objectives they want to achieve. The information in this brief should provide useful assistance throughout the decision-making process to allow your organization to make the appropriate decisions based on budget and priorities to ensure you create open collaboration spaces that are ideal for your organization. 1 Collaboration 2.0: Death of the Web Conference (As We Know It), Ovum Consulting, London, United Kingdom, accessed Sept. 10, 2014, 2 The Smart Workplace in 2030, Johnson Controls, 2009, johnsoncontrols.com/content/dam/www/jci/be/global_workplace_ innovation/summaries/the_smart_workplace_in_2030_summary. pdf. 3 Creating Collaborative Spaces that Work, Knoll, 2013, knoll.com/media/315/283/collaborativeworkplace_wp.pdf. 4 Does 4K Resolution Matter? CarltonBale.com, accessed Sept. 29, 2014, 9 Create Spaces that Inspire Collaboration (+01)

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