AVT Question: Please address pain points faced by AV/IT departments today and share insight into how your company supports AV/IT end users in creating a successful installation.
Thought Leader: Josh Blalock, Director of Collaboration, Ecosystem and Engagement at Shure
Two of the biggest pain points AV and IT teams face today are rising complexity and increased expectations for reliability—both driven by shifts to hybrid work and room preferences, and a new level of user entitlement to seamless experiences.
As the technology ecosystem expanded during the pandemic, organizations rushed to deploy hardware. Now, IT teams are reevaluating those decisions as expectations shift. Users want the effortless, personal experiences they mastered from their home offices. This includes plug-and-play simplicity, clear audio, and no learning curve—and this should be replicated in every space.
Our advice is to standardize your organization on technologies that reduce complexity." —Josh Blalock, Director of Collaboration, Ecosystem and Engagement at Shure
Behind the scenes, IT teams are now tasked with managing not only rooms and devices, but also AI-powered experiences. Audio quality is critical to the transcription accuracy, attribution, and value that organizations can derive from AI-powered tools.
IT’s role has also fundamentally changed from reactive support to proactive support. Users will no longer troubleshoot IT problems and will instead abandon a space after a bad experience. Teams need solutions that can self-resolve and be centrally managed so IT teams can focus on high-level issues instead of constant fixes to audio issues in meeting spaces.
Our advice is to standardize your organization on technologies that reduce complexity. Prioritize reliable, high-quality audio products that support both the human experience and the added AI layer. Equip rooms with solutions that eliminate friction, disappear into the background, and provide IT the visibility and control they need. When technology is invisible, collaboration becomes effortless.
