While the emphasis from Crestron earlier in 2020 was very much on stepping up to support working from home and wherever users found themselves in lockdown, as the world prepares for the ‘new normality’ their focus has shifted. Remote working has suited some better than others, and with many knowledge workers around the world keen to get back to the office, safe ways of doing this are urgently needed.
Back to the office in safety
I spoke with Director of Sales, Andrew Gross, to understand how Crestron is tackling the challenges of making shared offices and meeting spaces safe again.
“It has to start before you enter the room itself, with visual indicators in the hallway — so I can easily see without touching anything which rooms are available, by a green indicator or a red indicator. Once I approach a green room, I’m presented with a scheduling panel, which will tell me exactly what’s going on in that space.”
Gross explains that users can interact with that scheduling panel without touching it, via their mobile phones through Outlook. From there, they can easily schedule a meeting directly for that room. And then, within seconds, it shows that the room has turned red and the user can walk in and take their meeting without anybody interrupting them.
Once inside, as the room detects presence via ceiling-mounted motion detectors, the low touch /no touch orientation continues, with full meeting room control enabled via the users personal devices — which the experts do tell us are covered in germs, but only our own!
“Instead of me going to the device in the room and having to press to start my meeting, I can just plug in my laptop, and I can use that as my meeting controller. And beyond just allowing it to join say a Teams meeting, now I can join any meeting”
Users have the ability to join Zoom meetings, Google meetings, WebEx, and more. When they connect to one of the X series devices from the Crestron Flex line, the family of products allow bring-your-own-device (BYOD) capabilities — so that now the camera, speakers, and mics in the room are being leveraged for the meeting, not the basic ones on a laptop.
Organizations can be rest assured that Crestron’s Room Scheduling panels deliver a cost-effective alternative to consumer tablet devices and employ enterprise-grade networking with robust security features.
Other products under the Crestron portfolio that enable collaboration and productivity in a safe and effective manner include AirMedia wireless presentation system, which allows users to share their content directly from a personal device without the need to touch a screen and Crestron XiO Cloud, an IoT based software for safe remote assistance and management of Crestron and third party technology. Coupled with a camera with built-in people counting technology, such as the Huddly IQ™ camera, which is part of the Crestron Flex UC system, XiO Cloud can be set to automatically send an alert when the meeting room occupancy exceeds the set limit.
Low touch, no touch, control
But a meeting room experience is more than just the collaboration tech, and it’s important to be able to manage the rest of the environment without having to touch shared surfaces. This is why Crestron recently launched the Crestron ONE mobile app for room control, enabling users to insert a QR code right on the touch panel. Crestron One uses Bluetooth technology to discover and connect to rooms that have been set up for mobile device control, eliminating the need to connect to the corporate network.
Now, anyone entering a building can take their personal device, such as their phone or tablet, and scan that QR code. All of the controls — the lights up and down, shades up and down, etc. on the communal touch panel — have now just been transferred into their personal device from the QR code. “So, this is now my room touch panel,” Gross continued. “And I can do everything I did previously on the touch panel on my personal device.”
Being able to manage all aspects of the office environment while touching no device except your own, is clearly an essential feature for the workplace of the future, as envisioned in the Crestron’s recent white paper Workplace 2020 and beyond. Crestron understands that workplace technology in meeting rooms, where collaboration and interaction are key, will need to evolve to meet the new reality. Thereby, Crestron is committed to delivering new innovations now and well into the future that meet the needs of their customers globally.
As we move forward into the flexible future, even greater control with lower touch will be incorporated, such as enhanced voice control and biometric identifiers, that will enable us to collaborate safely, effectively, and efficiently — wherever we are, and whoever we are working with. Right now, Crestron is addressing the urgent tension between the need to collaborate closely together yet remain safely distanced and protected in our working environments, with these carefully considered and ready to install solutions.
