In business, tiny gains can be big differentiators.
They can help to improve functionality, processes and, ultimately, deliver better overall outcomes.
Of course, when envelopes are pushed in those ways – and new, higher levels of performance are produced – technology is often at the centre of things.
When it comes to videoconferencing in particular, technology plus science is a potent combination, capable of not only engineering those tiny gains, but also of turning them into tangible quality enhancements.
Audio clarity, meeting equity, voice intelligibility: all are critical components of a high-end conferencing experience; and all are highly dependent upon equipment manufacturers’ commitment to constantly raising the bar.
Partner with the right one, and organisations are able to provide their workforce and customers with a superior audio experience that sets them apart.
“Of course, conferencing is about video, but audio is king,” says Eric Warner, product marketing manager at global-leading AV manufacturer Bose Professional, whose range of products and solutions – for both small-to-medium and enterprise-level businesses – is the perfect case in point.
“We can turn off our cameras and still have a conversation. But if our audio fails or is sub-optimal, there is no conversation. Regardless of whether conference participants are in a specially-equipped room, an office, an auditorium, a coffee shop, or their own home environment, it’s crucial that they all have the same audio experience.
“For us, the goal is for all conferencing conversations to sound and feel completely natural; as if the participants are physically in the same room together. Intelligible audio – being able to hear everything that is being said – is obviously critical but is not the same thing as natural-sounding audio. We have done a lot of work to bring those two things together.”
For Bose Professional, that has meant a combined technological and scientific focus on the design and manufacture of both its microphones and loudspeakers.
The result is an ability for its Videobar VB1 and VB-S all-in-one USB videoconferencing solutions to automatically optimize voice and content audio whilst simultaneously adapting to different room sizes, configurations and acoustics.
“In a small office or home environment, reverberation is not particularly an issue, but a small to medium-sized office space may have a glass wall or windows and reverberation and reflection can be more problematic,” says Warner.
“We have continued to push the loudspeaker envelope so that these small, easy-to-use devices are able to handle larger rooms. Our algorithms can automatically detect the type of computer application connected to the Videobar, and then adjust the way in which the audio is delivered into the room.
“Similarly, the VB-S microphone has a tracking algorithm which automatically ensures that multiple people sitting at different distances from the device are heard equally. It is constantly calculating the audio level of all participants, and then making automatic audio adjustments to ensure all-important meeting equity. That scientific approach has always been a huge part of our DNA.”
The same smarts also contribute hugely to the reduction of hearing fatigue. In the enterprise space in particular, people can often spend several hours of every day in a video conference of some kind – a here-to-stay, hybrid way of working that can take its toll if the audio experience is below par.
“Our brains are amazing; even in noisy environments they enable us to pick out what we want to hear without us having to necessarily think about it,” says Warner. “But, after time, that can cause fatigue. For us, that’s again about the naturalness of our audio. If what you are listening to does not sound completely natural, or if you have to strain to hear or understand, your brain must work harder, and you become tired.”
It seems, in today’s modern workplace, the clarity and quality of the audio we consume each day is much more significant than we may think; and that it is inextricably linked to performance and well-being.
Surely, for the organisations that provide their workforce with the kit upon which it all depends, that is worth a close listen…
To learn more about how Bose Professional can help your business maximize the quality of its video conferencing functionality, click here.
