The last two years have seen a massive shift to hybrid work environments as companies adapted to the challenges of the ongoing pandemic. While remote work was a necessity during lockdowns, many employers have now adopted permanent hybrid models allowing employees to work both remotely as well as in the office. This transition to hybrid ways of working poses new challenges for audiovisual (AV) and meeting room technology management. In this blog, we will explore key considerations for AV management in hybrid work and discuss strategies to deliver consistent and collaborative meeting experiences both remotely and in-person.

Understanding the Hybrid Work Model
A hybrid work model usually involves employees splitting their time between working remotely from home or a remote location and coming into the physical office space as needed. This could mean different schedules for different teams or individuals coming into the office only for certain meetings or projects. The number of employees in the office on any given day is likely to vary.

This means meeting rooms and huddle spaces now need to accommodate both in-person and remote participants seamlessly. Audio and video conferencing systems become the backbone of collaboration allowing teams to meet virtually when not co-located. Robust and reliable connectivity is critical to support a distributed workforce. Good audio pickup and ambient noise cancellation become especially important to provide an engaging experience for remote users on laptops or mobile devices with limited hardware.

Assessing Technology Needs
When transitioning to a hybrid model, organizations need to carefully assess their technology needs. Conducting an AV audit of existing infrastructure and capacitites is recommended. Key questions to address include:

What is the typical meeting room usage and how many concurrent meetings are expected with remote participants?

Do all meeting spaces have adequate conferencing solutions installed or will new systems need to be deployed?

Is the network bandwidth sufficient to support video calls across multiple rooms simultaneously?

How will huddle spaces and ad-hoc meeting areas be equipped for virtual collaboration?

Do employees have the right devices, peripherals and software to easily join meetings remotely?

Understanding current realities and planning for future needs will help create a technology roadmap tailored for hybrid work. Standardizing on high quality solutions ensures a consistent user experience.

Streamlining Meeting Room Technologies
The goal with a hybrid setup is to provide the same meeting functionality and user experience whether participants are together in one room or calling in remotely. This requires integrating AV technologies seamlessly. Considerations include:

Standardizing on an all-in-one conferencing solution for medium to large rooms with integrated audio, video, presentation capabilities and wireless sharing.

Using portable personal devices or all-in-one solutions in huddle spaces to enable spontaneous collaboration.

Leveraging cloud-based videoconferencing platforms with calendar integrations for easy booking and joining of scheduled meetings.

Enabling one-touch join, dial-out capabilities and touchpanel controls for a simplified user experience.

Providing Bluetooth connectivity, laptop docks and digital signage to support wired and wireless content sharing.

Consistent and user-friendly interfaces across meeting spaces is key to ensuring remote and in-office staff can participate equally without friction. Automating routines improves hybrid collaboration.

Managing the AV Estate Remotely
With a distributed team, new processes are required for remote monitoring and management of meeting room technologies. Consider the following techniques:

Use cloud-based management platforms to configure, update and administer AV systems centrally without on-site visits.

Leverage management apps to receive notifications, respond to service alerts and enable remote troubleshooting.

Utilize occupancy sensors and booking integration to get room utilization insights for capacity planning.

Implement remote monitoring of peripherals, cameras, microphones, speakers and displays using networked control processors.

Training in-house resources to perform basic support and create self-service options using video guidance.

Outsourcing specialized maintenance to AV partners who can service on-premise when needed.

Proactive remote management ensures the AV infrastructure is always optimized for hybrid work styles and end-user issues can be addressed without delay.

Supporting a Distributed IT Team
To supplement on-site support with remote workers, collaboration between internal IT teams and external partners becomes vital. Options include:

Setting up escalation procedures and SLAs for emergency trouble calls to be handled after hours.

Partnering with MSPs/AV specialists who can act as an extension of the in-house team.

Creating detailed runbooks documenting systems, configurations, network diagrams and troubleshooting steps.

Hold virtual knowledge-shares to ensure all supporting teams have the same understanding of the environment.

Leveraging conference calls, screensharing, remote access for efficient collaboration on complex issues.

Communicating status updates via project management software for transparency.

The AV support model must flex with new team structures. Coordinating effectively amongst all stakeholders ensures smooth operations.

Ongoing Optimization of the Hybrid Experience
To maximize productivity for distributed and flexible workstyles, organizations should continually optimize the hybrid collaboration experience based on data insights and user feedback. Processes like:

Conducting surveys and interviews to understand pain points faced by hybrid workers.

Analyzing meeting and room utilization from management platforms to identify capacity issues.

Reviewing usage reports to gauge effectiveness of remote joining processes.

Tracking most common support requests to focus improvements or training.

Piloting new technologies to enhance features like digital signage, AV reservations.

Socializing best practices across all offices/regions regularly.

Staying agile to the changing landscape of hybrid working models is key. Continuous enhancement keeps the AV ecosystem supporting collaborative work seamlessly.

Conclusion
The distributed nature of hybrid work introduces new dimensions to AV and meeting room technology management. However, with the right strategies around needs assessment, infrastructure standardization, remote oversight and ongoing optimization, organizations can empower seamless engagement for employees working together despite geographic divides. Prioritizing user experiences and leveraging data insights will pave the way to fully leverage collaboration technologies in hybrid work environments.

Learn More:- https://www.tadalive.com/blog/94912/benefits-of-implementing-av-management-solutions/