On Workplace 3.X: SurgeX

Steve Trunkett, Director of Global Sales at SurgeX
(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: Steve Trunkett, Director of Global Sales at SurgeX

Seamless and reliable communication across teams has remained a top priority for corporate meeting spaces, especially in accommodating the influx of hybrid teams over the past few years. While collaboration hardware and software upgrades have been essential in supporting today’s enterprises, decision makers are also learning that their power infrastructure must be just as rock solid as modern networking equipment. When on-site and remote team members notice interruptions to their meetings, they might blame their devices, the software, or even their integrator or IT team. However, many commercial spaces are pressuring power infrastructure to support more technology than ever, and poor power quality can impact that technology’s performance and the company’s bottom line. Decision makers must be prepared to specify the proper power management, conditioning, and backup requirements for their meeting spaces so meetings can proceed uninterrupted. 

The conditions of power in the corporate meeting space are very different from those at home and can pose problems for video conferencing with remote workers. It’s important to educate everyone on how to overcome these challenges." —Steve Trunkett, Director of Global Sales at SurgeX

To avoid downtime and damage caused by power problems like surges, sags, and spikes, systems integrators should work with enterprise teams to incorporate voltage regulation with power conditioning. While there are many solutions on the market, these two features are core components of a stable hybrid meeting space. Working together, power conditioning and voltage regulation remove distortions from the electrical current delivered to connected devices. For additional protection, incorporating true surge elimination technology protects the technologies without degradation from repeated exposure to anomalies over time. An integrator can also help set up remote monitoring features so issues can be identified and addressed in real-time.

Finally, to optimize the meeting experience for employees—not just those in corporate offices—companies and installers should also provide advice on home power management solutions. The conditions of power in the corporate meeting space are very different from those at home and can pose problems for video conferencing with remote workers. It’s important to educate everyone on how to overcome these challenges.

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.