On Workplace 3.X: Da-Lite

Wendy Cox, Director of Product Management at Da-Lite
(Image credit: Future)

AVT Question: Please share insight and best practices for ensuring meeting equity for all employees and how to deliver the best collaboration experience regardless of location.

Thought Leader: Wendy Cox, Director of Product Management at Da-Lite

With virtually every meeting now requiring a video conference component, we have to look at how we adapt conference spaces and technologies to enhance the experience for both in-room and remote participants. Companies struggling to overcome reluctance about returning to the office might want to look at what 21:9 displays and projection screens bring to the video conferencing space. It could potentially serve as a new reason to be at the office in person.

It’s essential to re-orient people in the room around a camera and projection screen, with enhanced room speakers and microphones." —Wendy Cox, Director of Product Management at Da-Lite

A lot of this shift is being driven by conferencing software companies like Microsoft and their Teams Room Front Row layout. They are zeroing in on the wider format that provides space for a row of participants across the bottom, a center space for the presentation or common workspace, and two side areas for chat, ancillary data, or anything else that might enhance the meeting experience. For it to work well, a wider-format projection screen or display keeps the center space from being split down the middle with a bezel. 

In terms of optimizing the space, it’s essential to re-orient people in the room around a camera and projection screen, with enhanced room speakers and microphones. Lighting and acoustics need to be considered at a much more granular level than before in order to ensure everyone can be seen and heard in this new environment. 

It’s still early days for this format and the potential impact on conferencing. We might see adoption in home theaters or command and control centers. It’s worth keeping an eye on developments and how they can help enhance end-user experiences.

Cindy Davis
Brand and content director of AV Technology

Cindy Davis is the brand and content director of AV Technology. Davis enjoys exploring the ethos of experiential spaces as well as diving deep into the complex topics that shape the AV/IT industry. In 2012, the TechDecisions brand of content sites she developed for EH Publishing was named one of “10 Great Business Media Websites” by B2B Media Business magazine. For more than 20 years, Davis has developed and delivered multiplatform content for AV/IT B2B and consumer electronics B2C publications, associations, and companies. From 2000 to 2008, Davis was the publisher and editor-in-chief of Electronic House. From 2009 to present, as the principal of CustomMedia.Co, Davis developed content plans and delivered content for associations such as IEEE Standards Association and AVIXA, content marketing for Future Plc, and numerous AV/IT companies. Davis was a critical member of the AVT editorial team when the title won the “Best Media Brand” laurel in the 2018 SIIA Jesse H. Neal Awards. A lifelong New Englander, Davis makes time for coastal hikes with her husband, Gary, and their Vizsla rescue, Dixie, sailing on one of Gloucester’s great schooners, and sampling local IPAs.