Volume 11, Issue 16 — August 28, 2020

August 28, 2020 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 16

It’s been an active few weeks — er, months — in UCC, and this week is no exception.

Reflecting on the pace at which this vertical has evolved, I like what André Luis Atique wrote in his column (link below) about the symbiosis of architecture and technology: “Both closed and public spaces are adapting to the demands brought by humanity, becoming more adapted to the remote and the virtual. However, the spaces need to be well-harmonized to make this reality pleasant, exciting and able to generate even more engagement in people.” This was a great read, and it transitions us nicely into a few things we’re seeing in UCC today — like new CCaaS offerings from SYNNEX, solutions for IoT from Black Box, an AI-based content camera from Huddly, a new WCD from Avocor, and so much more I’ll have to trust that you read the issue rhetorical cover to cover to find out for yourself.

Before I let you go, please read SHEinnovates’ feature on Nancy Knowlton (of Nureva and, previously, SMART). Her sense of self and balance is so refreshing. The advice Knowlton would give to her younger self: “Be active; exercise. Get outdoors into nature. Get lots of sleep. Take care of your physical health.”

I think I’ll take her advice as we head into the weekend.

— Leah McCann

COLUMNS

+ A Secret Productivity Killer Called “Double Join” Haunts Most of Our Meetings – And We Deserve Better [Christopher Jaynes]

If I walk into a video-enabled room with my team to meet with external vendors, I’m not asked to join the meeting to turn on my camera. I’m already on camera with the team. This is also true of audio. Of course remote users can hear me; I’m in a room that’s in the call. So why, when I want to share content, do I need to join the meeting? The answer lies in some interesting history of how video conferencing emerged from voice technologies and ignored the content use case early on. This is true for Zoom, WebEx, Teams, GoToMeeting and many other systems. If you spend a few thousand dollars, you can build a pretty great video conferencing room – users can walk into the room, and, fairly simply hold a video/audio conference with remote users. But all this breaks down when content is shared (as it is in most meetings).

+ IT or X? It’s BOTH! [Mark Coxon]

Suppose you’re active in social media at all. In that case, you may have noticed that quite a few strong opinions are resurfacing about AV’s “Experience” movement that has been happening since InfoComm became AVIXA. I still believe that the experience movement is significant, perhaps even more so today as we reenvision public spaces, restaurants and corporate offices to offer unique outcomes that can’t be recreated remotely. I also know that the world has surged forward with mass adoption of digital tools to connect people and resources over the past six months, so the importance of AV’s IT-based segments are also more critical than ever.

+ Technology in Society and Its Impacts on Architecture Projects [André Luis Atique]

Today, computers that used to be used mainly for studies and work are multitasking platforms with cameras, speakers, digital recognition and high processing capacity. In the same way, cell phones have evolved, bringing even more resources than conventional computers, taking photos, making movies, paying bills, helping to invest in the stock market, organizing appointments, guarding cinema tickets — then adding weather, GPS, e-reader and internet browser capabilities, while holding the ability to make calls. All this hardware power gives people the possibility to make use of technology at its highest level, interacting in all spheres of their lives,