News & Trends

Returning to the office will be different for every person, company, and location, but there are some general themes that emerged from InfoComm 2020 Connected on the topic of workplace reopening in a COVID-19 world.

AV technology will play an even more vital role in how people connect and collaborate. Look for increased adoption of an IoT-IT-AV ecosystem. Building sensors and AI will connect and process real-time information on occupancy and health safety guidelines, while digital signage systems will need to communicate updates on traffic patterns and sanitization efforts. And meeting rooms, well, they may look less like rooms and more like open collaboration areas.

RELATED: Back to the Workplace: Harnessing Data in AV Designs

For more insights on the role of AV integration in these evolving office technologies, check out the following sessions from InfoComm 2020 Connected.

Seven Things You Need to Know About the Future of Workplace Design

Working from home has been productive for some, but moving forward, it will be vital to have policies and procedures in place for optimal collaboration between remote and office-based teams. And assisting in the realization of those guidelines will be a whole bevy of “touchless” technologies.

As workplaces rethink things like airflow and HVAC design, sensors will provide feedback on any problem areas. AI will help to analyze the information, along with capacity and traffic patterns that might cause “pinch points” as people move through a space. This information will need to be communicated to those in the office, so they can change their paths accordingly.

As chairs are pulled out of meeting rooms and setups evolve for hosting fewer people in a space, it’s also important to design for the specific use cases of a collaborative space. And regardless of a space’s purpose, it will be essential that remote and in-office participants have equal presence. When everyone was remote, everyone had the same basic setup in video chat platforms, and workers will expect that same equality in participation.

Workplace 5.0, Just When You Thought We had it All Figured Out …

There will be many devices and applications for the “touchless” office, including thermal cameras, facial recognition, wireless USB, NFC (Near-field communication), QR codes, personal devices and apps, voice, sensors, wearables/AR for meetings, and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for occupancy. This session covers them all and gets into how the AV technology industry will play a role in deploying these for clients. But here’s one thing to consider as we move to a more common work-from-home world: personnel development and mentoring.

The Role of the AV Professional in Future UCC Landscapes

Remote support of technology has been an ongoing evolution long before COVID-19, and that’s been an asset during this time. But there are still hurdles in enabling the office to optimally support remote meetings. It’s time to really start collaborating across design teams to make things work best to support people in the workplace.

It’s also important to recognize that we’re learning new facts about the virus every day, so the workplace will likely continue to evolve as new understanding develops.

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