As the hybrid work model matures, so too do the challenges placed on the technology driving it. Nick Ross explores the notion of ‘meeting equity’ and how to achieve it.

After an interminable number of meetings, articles and lectures on how the pandemic has made hybrid work the new normal, we’re now in the position to ask, where do we go from here?

Unified communications and video conferencing is now all about that buzz phrase du jour, ‘meeting equity’.

So what’s changed? What are the new issues and what are companies doing to ensure that longer-term hybrid work is a positive experience for all involved?

Video is the new voice

Richard Neale, general manager for integrated solutions at Amber Technology, gets the ball rolling on this discussion, saying: “Voice and phone conferences have pretty-much disappeared. Multi-participant conversations are now video-conferenced.”

Bill Zeng, senior director, APAC at Poly adds: “Video is now the new voice. If anything, there are now greater expectations on how virtual meetings should be. As a result, many organisations and sectors are now adopting a no-compromise attitude to ensure the highest quality video solutions are in place that will ensure high-level productivity, resilience and customer service.”

He adds: “It’s become apparent that in order to be productive and stay connected, workers must have access to pro-quality sound, crystal clear video and an unwavering internet connection. Anything less just results in a waste of time, with people cutting in and out of calls and having to repeat themselves.”

What are the new issues?

A key problem that has emerged is ‘meeting equity’ or ‘meeting equality’ and it manifests in several ways. At its core is the principle that all participants in a meeting should feel included, be represented equally and have a positive experience.

Bill adds, “Not penalised with an inferior experience.”

Richard asserts: “The biggest issue is to make sure that people who are gathered in a room (as part of a meeting) are well represented to all the ‘remote’ parties. It’s reasonably easy to have satisfactory sound and vision at home when you are close to a camera and can wear a headset or use a decent microphone.”

He points out that, in this case, people ‘in the room’ will see and hear you just fine. But this doesn’t necessarily work the other way around.

“People gathered in a room (at the office) don’t have individual cameras and mics and so special attention needs to be given to cameras and mics that will deliver great pictures and sound. Features like auto framing, auto PTZ [pan, tilt, zoom], auto exposure (for cameras), de-reverberation, auto equalisation, acoustic echo cancellation (for mics) are all important to allow remote participants to see and hear the people in the room (as well as the people in the room see and hear the remote participants),” Richard says.

Aurangzeb Khan, senior vice president of intelligent vision systems and collaboration at Jabra, makes the point that ‘work’ is now more regarded as something you do rather than a place you go and that you need great collaboration products to work at home, in the office or somewhere in between.

He adds that in each context, we’re also now used to sitting further away from each other and this creates challenges for inclusivity. He points out that, in a meeting room, traditional cameras have a limited field of view.

“Opening up to 120^o (wide-angle) gives you a lot of distortion so that people look trapezoidal at the edges and skinny in the middle… [not] a full and equal participant.”

He also explains that there is a difference between inclusivity and equity in meetings but that the two terms are related:

“Inclusivity comes first in that you’ve got to show up: I need to be visible to you and you’re visible to me. Equity is a little different…when there are two participants, they take up the same screen footprint, but as more people join, we get into that tiled, gallery view.

“The notion of equity is that whether there’s a camera dedicated exclusively to me or if I’m in a meeting space and there’s three or four of us together, we want to be presented with a good amount of pixel real-estate. So that when we’re in a group, we’re not at a disadvantage to look very small compared to all the other folks who have a dedicated device focused upon them,” Aurangzeb says.

New hardware requirements

When it comes to identifying what the big challenges for hardware developers are right now?

Richard explains: “Hardware developers have to keep a keen eye on making their advanced new features usable by ordinary people. There are plenty of products that can do amazing things – as long as you have an AV tech in the room to operate them.”

He feels that hardware developer need to focus on a few key areas.

“Firstly, ease of use of their products as stand-alone devices (things like simple gesture control for cameras) and secondly, ease of integration into systems that are controlled through an integrated control interface. This is really where the magic happens: a well-designed, simple to use control system interface, that hides the magic and complexity from end users and allows them to use the advanced features without knowing how to activate them.”

Jeff May, regional sales director at Konftel is on the same page: “Ease of use is vital. Our ‘Bring Your Own Meeting’ (BYOM) concept means people can bring their own laptop to a meeting and connect quickly and simply via just one USB cable.”

But as Bill points out: “Not all solutions work for all spaces and the individual needs of each business must be considered.”

There’s consensus on this plus the notion that the UC industry is perfectly placed to advise businesses accordingly.

Jess says: “There’s lots more choice now so Konftel has created an interactive room-type guide which makes it easy to choose the right solution for the right room.”

Meanwhile, Neale says Amber’s UC range, “utilises a large cross section of brands working together to create an effective virtual meeting environment for any scenario.”

However, he also warns: “Supply chain issues continue to be challenging for our industry, so you need to be agile in your thinking to find alternate solutions if your first choice becomes unavailable.”

Certification

Another core concern has become certification. Richard explains: “Zoom and especially Teams have become much more complete and competent platforms in the last two years. Zoom hasn’t been discarded, but the maturing of Teams in the last few years has seen Zoom’s dominance significantly eroded (compared to March 2020). Many (most) large organisations already pay for Teams as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription and now they are (finally) using it!”

He adds: “Conference systems based on hardware in customer premises have vanished. People are now building almost exclusively for Zoom-and-Teams use. So, certified products are desired – things that can easily be assimilated into the Zoom-and-Teams controls and interfaces.”

Zeng concurs, “Any new technology investments must be assessed to see how they intersect with tools like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.” But, while May agrees, he also adds that, “People are now getting invited onto lots of different platforms rather than perhaps just one or two in the past. It’s important not to be tied down and instead have video technology that works across all software services.”

A renewed focus on people

Another welcome insight from the UC industry is the renewed importance on focusing on employees, both in terms of retention and new hires.

Tony Sandberg, Barco’s vice president of sales, meeting and learning experience, makes the point that the pandemic forced enterprises to become aware of the importance of internal engagement.

He summarises the journey by saying: “Future-ready employers who are serious about attracting the best talent and creating a flexible work culture understand that what matters is, not only what a workplace looks like, but also how it works. Hybrid technology and flexibility no longer are simply a means of operation, but rather a differentiator in recruiting and retaining top talent.”

A recent Poly survey found that 53% of Australian businesses believe that if they don’t address their hybrid work processes and plans, they’ll start to lose staff and will be unable to attract new talent.

Poly’s Bill adds: “Whatever new technologies are being implemented, it’s important to take a people‐first approach.” He adds that implementing a good mix of solutions, which can be tailored to suit different people and spaces, is the best way forward and that this represents a shift from traditional technology priorities, which tended to be more customer focused.

Tony sums things up: “In the next normal, we see organisations redesigning their office spaces to reduce operational costs while promoting collaboration within a socially distant physical environment for their onsite workers. Here, we encourage them to think of creative solutions that can lead to human-first, purpose-oriented workplaces of the future.”

He adds: “We find that employees immersed in comprehensive experiential environments are able to make more efficient decisions with technology that enhances visualisation, leading to stronger business outcomes.”

With so many areas still rapidly evolving, it appears that the recent UC boom is far from running out of steam.