AVT Question: Please share insight into the importance of AV control in today’s environment and what to expect in the near future. [June 2022]
Thought Leader: Michael DiBella, Director of Product Marketing, Commercial at Crestron
The need for more robust control was accelerated by the pandemic, and we saw that with a spike in demand for many of our offerings, especially Crestron Virtual Control (VC-4). We’re seeing more technologies than ever before being integrated into meeting spaces and campuses.
Pre-COVID, we saw an explosion of huddle spaces which were relatively simplistic. But post-COVID, we’ve learned you cannot have a space without video conferencing—which obviously is a peripheral. And with that, we’re now seeing the need for sound reinforcement, the need for more tech such as lecture capture, and all these different technologies that are becoming mandatory for us to communicate and work.
You now have software-based controls, which means less worry regarding hardware appliances that come with labor-intensive aspects." —Michael DiBella, Director of Product Marketing, Commercial at Crestron
Couple that with the advancements as sensors and smart lighting: While all those technologies had been in the marketplace for years, the proliferation of COVID at first made us very, very squeamish about touching shared surfaces. Control solutions that drove automation suddenly became very popular—and that hasn’t really gone away. Add scheduling to the mix, and you’ve created tremendous efficiencies in every AV-connected space in your firm—energy dollars, HVAC costs, all of that can be reduced by rooms that shut down by themselves.
We’ve all become very comfortable with these systems. The controls you’ll find in most every office are very intuitive, but as end users, these solutions are as familiar to us as our smartphones.
Lastly, I’d note the fact that you now have software-based controls, which means less worry regarding hardware appliances that come with labor-intensive aspects. It’s becoming ever easier—and less expensive—to bring control solutions into every connected space.
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