The recent UC Expo event highlighted changing attitudes to AV as UC adoption soars. A substantial change has been the prioritisation of collaboration over competition with enterprises looking to ensure the solutions they select offer compatibility with third party systems and technologies. This is increasingly important as UC offerings need to work with a wider array of devices – including both IT and AV equipment – than ever before.

The richness and completeness of UC experiences depends on high-quality audio and visual integrations and the show uncovered an increasing convergence of IT and AV professionals. IT departments are expanding their skills into the AV world with almost all enterprises choosing to make their IT workers AV savvy. This is a logical and consistent step because not all corporates have an AV department, so training an adjacent function with the necessary capabilities is sensible.

The importance of AV within UC was highlighted by the greater number of AV specialists at this year’s event showcasing solutions that have been designed to support UC. This trend is an approach that Shure has been working on for many years, focusing on improving audio quality across all enterprise platforms even before the pandemic radically accelerated the adoption of UC.

The show also found that many corporates are increasingly looking for a one-stop solution rather than assembling their solutions from multiple discrete vendors in different functional areas. This is reflected in the greater number of vendors offering AV, IT products and support as combined offerings at this year’s event.

A further sales dynamic centers around the supply chain crisis and the need to roll-out UC quickly. There is a clear need for systems that can be delivered immediately, and the global component shortage means that products that are ready to go are key to securing installation projects. Having available hardware is fundamental to rolling out comprehensive, high quality UC infrastructure that enables new modes of working. Therefore, lead times and in-country stock are among buyers’ main demands.

This equipment is crucial for effective collaboration and needed to enable huddle or break-out rooms, smaller meeting spaces that require social distancing and the requirements of distance learning and/or remote collaboration. Workers now expect the best possible audio and video experience, whether they’re in a fully equipped corporate conference room, working from home or joining from a hot desk.

“UC Expo is a key event in our calendar and this year we showed how Shure is providing studio quality sound to collaboration spaces and meeting rooms,” said Bob Farahar, Senior Market Development Manager, IT/UC Channels, Western Europe, Shure.“We are gradually watching UC become the platform to bring AV and IT together, that was certainly realised through the visitors to our stand.

“We also noticed that people are becoming more appreciative of the importance of good quality audio (to improve productivity and reduce meeting fatigue) and through our Stem and MicroFlex Ecosystems we were able to demonstrate flexible solutions, from immediate, hassle-free, large-scale deployments to highly configurable best in class audio.”

 

 



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