Provide ‘Meeting Equity’ to In-Person & Remote Participants 

We’ve come a long way from flip charts and overhead projectors in the conference room. And truthfully, we’re far past simply hooking up a USB or computer to host presentations. What happens in the conference room isn’t isolated anymore—we need a way to connect and share with remote participants and revisit ideas later. 

When hybrid meetings began, remote workers were often left out during in-person meetings. Now, as hybrid work becomes more prevalent, in-room attendees are often at a disadvantage, unable to see screen-sharing features or capture their voice and face clearly over video. 

But with the latest conference room AV solutions, it’s entirely possible to bring ‘meeting equity’ to your calls—that is, ensure everyone can equally participate, whether they’re in the room or not.  

See all that’s new and noteworthy in the world of conferencing AV for your New Orleans business below. 

Find a Conference Room AV Solution that Matches Your Company Needs

Every business can benefit from a collaborative space to share ideas amongst employees or introduce new clients to your products. Though many companies offer one-size-fits-all conference room AV solutions, there are several reasons you'll want to opt for a custom one in your New Orleans, LA office.

Space limitations and room responsibilities will vary from boardroom to boardroom, so why shouldn’t your technology reflect that? Each section of this blog highlights ways a one-size-fits-all solution could fall short along the way.

It Won’t Match Your Space

Even though many companies still use traditional boardrooms that sit 10-15 people, they’re no longer the norm. Recently, many companies are transitioning to huddle room spaces with five to ten people instead. Opting for a one-size-fits-all solution could result in a display that is too big for a small space or microphones and speakers that can’t fill out a larger one.

For optimal results, you want a conference room AV solution designed with your space's size and layout in mind. With the ideal number and arrangement of speakers and microphones, everyone will hear without feedbacks or echoes. Optimize your display size, placement and resolution, so everyone has a clear view of the screen.

It Won’t Match Your Company

Do you want to use your conference room just for video calls or for brainstorming sessions as well? Do you plan on using the room for training or even podcast recordings? Most one-size-fits-all solutions come with pretty basic AV and collaboration tools. Will that be enough for your company?

Commercial Audio Video Technology Enriches Your Lafayette, LA Office

Your conference room is a critical space in your office for client relations. It's where you take meetings, give presentations, and finalize contracts, so you want it to be a welcoming environment that stimulates productivity for all parties. Commercial audio video technology plays an important role, by making it easy to share information and communicate with people who are operating remotely. Keep reading to learn how you can upgrade your Lafayette, LA office with commercial smart technology.

SEE ALSO: WHICH COMMERCIAL AUDIO VIDEO SOLUTION IS BEST FOR YOU?

Enhance Communication With HD Video Conferencing

A significant amount of your client interactions are done via video conferencing, which is why it's vital for your company to have HD video conferencing technology that allows you to communicate clearly with people who aren’t in the office. If you’re having a meeting with two partners of a company and one comes to your office and the other is conferenced in, you want your conferencing technology to make it feel like everyone is in the same room. If the video feed skips, lags, or cuts off, that inclusive atmosphere is broken.

With an upgraded commercial audio video system, you'll be able to have crystal clear conversations with clients from all over the world. Having a smooth, error-free conferencing experience helps make your company look more professional. To accomplish that, you'll need an office network that won't buckle under the weight of HD audio and video in addition to other smart technology. You need a system that meets the data requirements of your employees' computers, smartphones, and tablets. Our commercial installations evaluate the strength of your bandwidth and provide network solutions to guarantee that all of your technology functions properly.

Take Control with a Commercial Automation System

One of the best ways to create an inviting conference room space for clients is to install a commercial automation system from our brand partner, Crestron.  Their enterprise-grade automation solutions will wow your clients by bringing all of your office’s smart technology together in a streamlined central interface, giving you one-touch control of your commercial audio video components, lighting, motorized shades, thermostats, and any other smart devices.

People often ask us "Can you hook up our home electronics so we can operate it from our iPad?"  The easy answer is "Absolutely!"  While you're at it, what you really need to do is envision how your 21st century dream home or corporate office would function and, as a custom A/V integrator, let us help you make that a reality.  With that in mind I thought I'd bring you an EXTREME example to demonstrate what custom integrators can do!

GE, a global leader in energy research and technology, opened its new $40 million, 200,000 square foot Markham, Ontario Grid IQ™ Global Innovation Center dedicated to promoting its next-generation energy management grid. To help bring the new center to life in the most engaging, customer-friendly way possible, GE partnered with Advanced, Canada’s leading A/V integrator, to envision, design and install an integrated audio-video and IT solution that encompasses 55 rooms including a Customer Experience Center that features a jaw-dropping 58-foot Prysm LPD video wall.

Advanced utilized Prysm's video wall technology along with several wall-mounted touchscreens to enable customers to explore GE’s energy technologies firsthand and provide them with ways to discover solutions to improve and enhance their energy grids.

In fact, it's the world’s largest curved Prysm video wall, measuring 58 feet wide by 7 feet tall using 175 individual tiles with the thinnest seams currently possible.  Video processing is provided by the latest Extron Quantum™ Elite processor and a professional grade multi-zone audio system was installed to complete the media experience. The entire Customer Experience Center features Crestron automation and can be controlled through an iPad.

Acadian Home Theater is a Crestron dealer and we have automated many area homes with Crestron products and innovation.  Crestron has long been a leader in the "touchscreen control" of complex systems.  So a home can be programmed to have the HVAC system begin warming the bathroom 15 minutes before you normally awake, have the lights slowly fade brighter so your eyes can adjust and the flatscreen in your exercise room turn on and tuned to your favorite morning news program.

And, yes, if you want to override your regular settings, you can always operate it with your iPad!

by Bryan Naquin.  Follow Bryan on Twitter @ACIexperts.  And you can always contact him at 225.906.2589 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Bryan Naquin is president of Acadian Home Theater and Automation based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  CEPro Magazine has ranked Acadian in the top 100 consumer electronic companies in the U.S. for the third year in a row.

If you're like me, you already have used your smart phone or iPad around your house to stream music, control your DirecTV DVR or remotely control some device you have at home.

Of course, in my business, we create lots of home automation and control systems from manufacturers such as Crestron, Savant and Control4.  Invariably, everyone wants their smart phone or iPad to be programmed as a control device for whichever one of these systems we install.  And honestly, those phones and pads will work VERY well for that purpose.  Now as soon as I say that, let me be quick to add that those will not operate as seamlessly for that purpose as the manufacturer's own branded mobile device.

Still, for ease of use, each of those manufacturers has created apps for those commonly owned media devices for the simple reason that the consumer is already familiar with it and generally keeps them handy.  Those apps work as well as the control system manufacturer can possibly program those phones and tablets to perform that way.  But know that there will always be some kinda glitch--some incompatibility--that the consumer will experience when using their phone or wi-fi pad to control their home automation system.

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about.  Back in the day, you either owned a PC or a Mac.  If you created a document or spreadsheet in one type of platform and emailed it to s0meone who owned the other type of platform, they couldn't even open the thing let alone read it.  One day, the industry smartened up and started creating programs so the two could talk to each other.  Now the two could interface and everyone was happy.  But anyone will tell you that the two don't work together perfectly and your sometimes encounter formatting problems in documents or linkage problems in spreadsheets.

That's the way it is marrying the popular smart technologies with automated systems.  They WILL work and will be quite enjoyable when they do.  But for best results, use the mobile device designed for the product.