The ability to include remote participants in a meeting is not a new thing, but the changes that have taken place right across the world mean that it is now more important than ever. Connecting remote participants into your existing conferencing system is a vital tool in allowing this to happen smoothly.
Remote meetings have always been important in a country as large as South Africa. It is much more cost effective to connect boardrooms in Johannesburg and Cape Town than it is to travel between the two for a meeting. But the challenges of keeping businesses open and working during the pandemic has changed the dynamic of this type of meeting. Now it is much more common to have a hybrid meeting where some participants are in the main room, others are taking part in a different meeting room and more still are connecting from home through a different platform entirely.
The good news is that modern conferencing solutions can cope with this reality to ensure that smooth meetings can take place. Equally important is the equipment you need to achieve this is readily available.
The first thing you need is a quality conference system to ensure that the participants in your main meeting room are covered. This should include microphones for every participant and ideally at least one camera which can automatically track who is speaking. This way remote participants will be able to see and hear who is speaking at any time. If you have multiple cameras in your meeting room, you will also need a video switcher that can be controlled by the conference system to accurately track the meeting.
To connect your conference system to online conference platforms like Zoom, Teams and Slack you’ll also need a few extra tools. An AV bridge will combine the audio and video feeds and make them easily accessible via USB to connect to a computer, which will also be used to handle the connection to the other meeting platforms. Finally, a video encoder will make all video available on the network and a display in the meeting room will allow participants in that space to see remote contributors.
Creating a conferencing setup similar to this will help to future-proof your company to cope with the new reality of remote business. The expert team at Prosound have the skill and experience you need to help make sure that you get the right system for your needs now and in the future. Get in touch to find out more.