CREJ - Building Dialogue - September 2016
Our day-to-day professional lives are filled with interaction, and outside of small, one-on-one conversations, we frequently rely on audiovisual technology for communication. Communication is constant, necessary and, all too often, a process that is fraught with frustration. We’ve grown accustomed to spending the first 10 to 15 minutes of a scheduled meeting trying to connect a videoconference call, or trying to get information from a local laptop to be viewable by participants at the far end of the call. We might have to continually strain to adequately hear remote conference participants, or we struggle to read the details of a spreadsheet displayed on a small monitor located at the opposite end of the room. Maybe there’s so much ambient light in the room that all of the video content being displayed appears “washed out,” or there is so much text on a PowerPoint slide that it’s impossible to absorb. Maybe participants in a training session hear the presenter in the adjacent room as clearly as they hear their own presenter. We can’t continue to endure, or accept, these situations as “normal,” and we honestly shouldn’t have to.
InfoComm International, the association representing the commercial AV industry worldwide, developed a concept called The Exceptional Experience, which achieves the goal, exceeds expectations and engages participants from beginning to end. As much as we AV designers hate to admit it, AV isn’t the only variable in the equation required to create an exceptional communication experience. It is only when content, space and technology work in harmony that an exceptional experience can be realized. This requires the entire team – from architect and AV consultant, to IT manager and end-user/presenter – to commit to working together to ensure a successful outcome. The tendency might be to assume that an exceptional experience comes at a cost, or is limited to high-end, performance-oriented venues like concert halls or theaters. While these types of venues certainly can provide the forum for an exceptional experience, in reality, an exceptional experience can be had in just about any type of space that is used for communication. A typical conference room has an obvious, and dedicated purpose – to support a gathering of individuals who will communicate among themselves, and likely, to remote locations as well. If participants are able to start their meeting on time, clearly see the presentation materials, hear all of the remote participants, accomplish the meeting’s stated goal, and do it all quickly and efficiently, that’s an exceptional experience! A properly designed AV system shouldn’t get in the way. It should support the task, and ideally make it more efficient, and painless. The architecture should be purposefully designed so that there are no obstructions between participants or between participants and video displays. Ambient lighting should be controllable, and the acoustics of the space should not be detrimental to speech intelligibility by the overuse of untreated reflective surfaces. And what about the meeting content? If the meeting is held in a beautiful space with great acoustics, comfortable lighting, and a highly functional and user-friendly AV system, a poorly formatted presentation or an ill-prepared presenter can really affect the perceived outcome. Space, content and technology all combine to create an outcome, and if any of the three is lacking, an exceptional experience isn’t achievable. Every client has unique communications needs, and every space used for communication is different. While space is typically the main focus of construction projects, by considering content and technology as integral parts of the design process, it is possible to yield a frustration-free, exceptional communication experience. deb@k2audio.com