Jabra

Jabra is a leader in engineering communications and sound solutions – innovating to empower both consumers and businesses. Proudly part of the GN Group, we are committed to letting people hear more, do more, and be more than they ever thought possible. Through sound and video, we help transform lives. Jabra engineering excellence leads the way, building on 150 years of pioneering work. This allows us to create integrated headsets and communications tools that help professionals work more productively; wireless headphones and earbuds that let consumers better enjoy calls, music, and media; and pioneering video conferencing solutions, enabling seamless collaboration between distributed teams.

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Are you optimising your office costs? Video could help

Are you optimising your office costs? Video could help

The formula for collaboration is changing rapidly.

David Piggott, Managing Director – ANZ at Jabra

The formula for collaboration is changing rapidly. New technologies and attitudes towards employee autonomy means knowledge workers are no longer bound to their desks, or a centralised office. Work can now be completed anywhere, at any time. Working practices have changed and are being complimented by simple-to-use technology.

Intelligent vision systems, in particular, are delivering results beyond simple employee collaboration. For example, intelligent plug-and-play video tools can be used to improve office utilisation, and reduce operating expenses.

Extending the value of video

While face-to-face is still viewed as the best option for first meetings or to discuss highly emotive subjects, video is increasingly used to improve the effectiveness of remote meetings, as it allows facial expressions and body language to be included.

A traditional camera with a 70-degree field of view must be placed at least four metres away to capture participants. However, many of today’s huddle rooms are less than four metres long. One solution is to use a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera, allowing the camera to “follow” the conversation. A PTZ will focus on the active voice and not incorporate the quiet, which might skew the perception of how engaged participants are.

A camera with a 180-degree field of view can bring more office spaces into the video revolution. Small rooms can be set to include everyone (and everything) in the call at the same time. This ensures all visual cues can be used in the meeting and all participants can be truly engaged in the conversation.

Optimising office space even further

Business leaders might be aware of the amount of information being generated from our everyday activities, but very few know of the useful intelligence that can be gleaned from smart video collaboration tools.

With the average conference room costing $30,000 per year in real estate (average Sydney CBD price for a 10-person room), underutilising this space represents a real cost to the business. Intelligent video solutions can supply movement detection and people recognition to count how many people are using a room. If a regular meeting for two people is booked in a 10-person conference room, intelligent video can suggest an alternative huddle room to the organiser, freeing up the large room and improving productivity of the real estate. If no-one turns up, email remainders can be sent to the attendees, or the room can be re-opened to the wider business – maximising its return.  

Many multinational businesses need central facility management functions. Often with hundreds of meeting rooms to manage, it can be difficult and time consuming to monitor assets in every room. Furthermore, the equipment in each room, like projectors, speakers, etc., can quickly become an expensive asset pool. Intelligent video solutions offering an undistorted view of the room can deliver complete remote asset management. The video solution can track the assets over time and play a simple “spot the difference” game to alert facilities of any changes or movement within the room.

There are a host of other opportunities for this visual data, such as helping with office design and structure, building heat flows for architectural design, creating smarter buildings, designing seating plans, etc.

An Uber success:

Uber sought to streamline its enterprise scale video conferencing technology updates, while offering a superior end user experience. It selected Jabra PanaCast, the Panoramic-4K quality video solution, and Zoom, as the preferred VC cloud services provider for all 15,000+ Uber employees across its 400+ offices. The PanaCast and Zoom teams worked together to integrate PanaCast controls into the Zoom Room control panel via an open API, which simplified and enhanced participants’ experience. According to Uber’s Head of Collaboration and AV Services, Ravi Sharma, “PanaCast has significantly improved the productivity of our employees. The devices are now being used in about 850 collaboration rooms and spaces in Uber offices around the world.”

Though video collaboration is seen largely as an opportunity for improved employee engagement and productivity, opportunities extend well beyond this. Knowing how often a space is used, and by how many people, is incredibly valuable. Over the space of a year, this data repository can offer vast business intelligence, and with the rising cost of real estate, utilising it effectively is a priority for every company.

Contact Jabra on 1800 636 086 to learn more about its world-first video solution, Jabra PanaCast - engineered to be the world’s first intelligent 180 degree panoramic -4K plug and play video solution, and how it can help your business.

 

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