SCN: How long have you been with this company, and what are your responsibilities?

Mike Gleason: I have been with Utelogy for over a year. As a growing company, we are lean by design, which means I wear many hats. In my role as chief revenue officer, my core responsibilities include developing and executing revenue strategies, leading sales teams and initiatives, and aligning our growth with strategic partnerships.

SCN: Utelogy is all about remote monitoring, but how much can that really save in labor costs and truck rolls?

MG: In the AV world, the vast majority of support processes remain manual and reactive. Utelogy is changing that through automation and intelligent service management workflows. We differentiate ourselves by enabling end users and MSP partners to manage their AV/UC environments in a proactive, rather than reactive, way.

Our platform can perform automated, self-testing room sweeps, eliminating the need for IT staff to manually test every conference room each morning. We also enable self-healing capabilities, allowing the system to automatically detect when a room’s baseline configuration has been altered and restore it to its original, validated state without manual intervention. Our cloud first platform allows admins to monitor their environment from anywhere in the world and react to issues in seconds without on-site intervention.

SCN: Utelogy likes to use the term “360-degree view,” but what does that mean for your customers?

MG: This means you can manage your environment without jumping between multiple manufacturer-specific portals, which often leads to portal fatigue and longer mean time to resolution. As a vendor-agnostic platform, Utelogy provides a true single pane of glass to monitor and manage your entire environment from one portal, regardless of manufacturer.

When a meeting space goes down, IT support teams put both their reputation and internal operating costs on the line. With Utelogy in place, they can be confident that issues are detected quickly, root causes are identified, and a single source of truth is provided to accelerate resolution.

SCN: What sort of analytics can Utelogy’s platform generate, and how are they helping organizations?

MG: Our analytics focus on giving organizations meaningful, actionable visibility, not just status charts. The platform generates insights into device health, room usage and utilization, and alert metrics made available through customizable dashboards, reports, and on-demand data exploration. Just as importantly, customers can access this data however they need to: through APIs, webhooks, or native integrations with ITSM platforms like ServiceNow.

This flexibility is critical. By making data accessible in multiple formats and pipelines, organizations can feed it into their existing ITSM and AIOps tools to processes and correlate it with broader IT data, and build more proactive, efficient operations.

SCN: How is AI impacting Utelogy’s effectiveness?

MG: AI is becoming a much larger part of how we deliver value and how we run our own business. Recently, we announced Utelogy Predict, actively in development in collaboration with Intel. This new feature will bring advanced predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and deeper insights to the platform. This allows organizations to identify issues earlier, understand long-term trends, and operate their estates far more proactively.

We’re also investing heavily in agentic AI that will run on Utelogy’s MCP servers. With natural-language interaction, users can run diagnostics, retrieve status updates, analyze trends, and gain actionable insights that enable AI-driven control across their operational environment offering a secure enterprise-ready solution. This empowers teams to preempt issues earlier and make more informed decisions at scale.

And importantly, AI isn’t something we only build for customers. We leverage it internally across our own teams for data analysis, support workflows, product planning, and operational decision-making. It helps us move faster, understand our users better, and focus our engineering efforts on the highest-impact areas. In short, AI is shaping both our platform and the way we work.

SCN: Why is the Utelligent Partner Alliance so important?

MG: Our manufacturing partners are a critical part of Utelogy’s success. We invest in them, and they invest in us. We partner closely with their teams to ensure visibility into their APIs, enabling us to build the integrations that provide our clients with the data they need to make informed decisions. We work with over 200 manufacturers and support over 3,500 unique models, an achievement that would not have been possible over the past 16 years without their strong alignment and partnership.

SCN: What’s next for the Pro AV industry?

MG: The AV industry is entering a new phase where software, data, and automation are no longer optional, they’re becoming the foundation of how modern environments are operated. For years we’ve talked about AV/IT convergence; now, we’re finally seeing it materialize through networked devices, cloud-connected systems, and tighter alignment with IT workflows and security practices.

What’s next is a shift toward ecosystems that are measurable, manageable, and integrated. Organizations want and need AV to behave like the rest of their technology stack: centrally monitored, data-driven, automated, and connected to ITSM and AIOps tools. This doesn’t diminish the importance of AV, it elevates it. When AV data can flow into the same platforms that track service health, security posture, and user experience, it becomes far more strategic to the business.

This evolution will challenge teams who rely solely on manual checks or isolated, hardware-centric approaches and those who have been unwilling to change, but it opens meaningful opportunity for those who embrace vendor-agnostic platforms, open standards, and automation. The move away from reactive support toward proactive, analytics-led operations positions AV professionals as true partners in workplace experience, not just responders when something breaks. The organizations and integrators who adapt to this model by combining AV expertise with data literacy, IT alignment, and software fluency will define the next decade of the industry.

For industry leaders of all shapes and sizes, powerful collaboration technologies work in tandem to build more connected and engaging hybrid work environments.

When it comes to today’s workplace, COVID feels like a waning threat to office productivity. However, organizations all over the U.S. are still struggling to bring people back into the office and to create a cohesive and high-vibe work environment for both in-office and remote workforce. Accomplishing both these goals falls squarely on the shoulders of AV/IT managers, who have the tough task of finding and implementing technology that will not only attract employees to the office but also build morale for workers—all while making the experiences of all employees consistent and dynamic. 

The AV/IT team at Sharp Business Systems (SBS)—the direct business-to-business sales division of Sharp Electronics Corporation—is trying to make this goal easier through showrooms across the U.S. designed to illustrate smart office technology that elevates the work experience and addresses the needs of the modern hybrid workforce.

Supercharging Office Displays

The stars of these showrooms are Sharp and NEC displays demonstrated in various vignettes, from conference rooms to common spaces to training rooms to breakrooms. SBS has standardized Mersive Technologies’ Solstice Platform in these environments to maximize the use of each display, creating a more engaging, unifying, and informed hybrid work experience via Solstice’s collaboration capabilities, operational analytics, and digital signage. 

“Mersive Solstice helps us supercharge our displays and show organizations how to use them in more ways and get more utility from the technology,” Chris Chopp, national director of Visual Solutions for Sharp Business Systems said. “Each of our primary showrooms includes multiple Mersive Solstice Pods.”

SBS uses the Solstice platform for simple wireless presentation, collaboration, and conferencing applications, alongside peripherals from Bose Professional, Huddly, Yamaha UC, and others. While SBS looked at other collaboration offerings for its showrooms, it chose Mersive Solstice for its unmatched features. Solstice’s multi-participant content sharing, control, and markup improve user engagement and meeting productivity. The intuitive Solstice app plus app-free sharing options also give users choice and flexibility in the meeting room. 

“SBS showrooms are great examples of how technology can help a workplace become a destination,” Erica Carroll, director of Product Marketing and Training at Mersive said. “People walk into these innovative environments and it makes them think about how their work life could be richer and more empowered than working at home alone. A large part of that is through effortless connection with coworkers and therefore a more exciting and impactful experience.” 

Connecting Beyond the Showrooom

Sluss+Padgett’s Atlanta HQ is a great example of this in a real-world, non-showroom environment. Industry leaders in commercial mechanical, plumbing, and control systems, Sluss+Padgett strives to improve the lives of its customers, employees, and community while providing value to each project.

Eric Sluss, chief executive officer of Sluss+Padgett, endeavored to create a more cohesive hybrid work environment for the Atlanta offices. “When COVID hit, we didn’t have a technology piece where we could continue our contractor training,” he said. “After COVID, we continued to grow and began to outgrow our training facilities. We needed to upgrade to support anywhere from 30 to 50 people at a time during training.” Additionally, Sluss wanted to update conference rooms and executive offices with better business solutions. 

“To make the workplace a destination again post-COVID, Eric had to rethink his office to make it more interesting and collaborative,” Chopp said. “Even though not everyone is in the office all the time, this technology brings people together and makes it the place to be.”

SBS delivered a state-of-the-art training room that includes Sharp commercial displays, Biamp speakers, a multi-angle camera system, Yamaha UC microphones, and Mersive Solstice Pods. The solution perfectly serves the needs of workers both in-office and off-site. 

“One of our superintendents used to spend more than two hours a day in Atlanta traffic just to get to our facilities. He was frustrated. With the new setup, our team can log in from anywhere, saving time and money. Additionally, we now use the training room all day, every day,” Sluss said. “Getting connected via Mersive Solstice is so much easier than our previous solution, which was a disaster to get logged into. Now, everything just works.”

Analytics Inform Room Use

Mersive Solstice Cloud is a secure cloud portal that allows administrators to easily manage Solstice Pods. Solstice Cloud also includes in-depth operational analytics, which is a big advantage for SBS showrooms. This meaningful data empowers both Sharp and potential customers to better understand, optimize, and determine ROI on their Solstice-enabled meeting spaces. They can categorize Solstice Pods; collect and analyze data such as peak meeting hours, average meeting duration, and more; and leverage those insights to optimize current spaces and plan future ones. 

“Our customers want to know: ‘Are we using that space?’ and ‘How are we using that space?’ Mersive Solstice’s room analytics data is both valuable and impressive in this regard,” Chopp said. 

Digital Signage for a Hybrid Workforce 

Mersive Solstice Pods act as digital signage players and are compatible with a wide variety of digital signage providers, including 22Miles, Appspace, Carousel Digital Signage, and others. The one-two punch of Sharp displays and easy-to-manage and secure Solstice Pods supercharges SBS showroom displays with powerful digital signage that shows customers how they can unite their hybrid workforce and reinforce corporate messaging. 

“With today’s hybrid work scenarios, not everyone is in the office at the same time, so visual communications have to be more impactful. We have to overcome businesses thinking they can run to a big-box store to buy a residential TV for their conference room,” Chopp said. “The reality is, you need purpose-built displays designed for 24/7 operation that excels at signage. They are brighter, have a less glossy finish, and often have better image characteristics for visual communication.”

SBS uses office space in its showrooms to illustrate how visual communication can drive home corporate messaging and get everybody on the same page. This ultimately helps alleviate remote workers feeling disconnected. “Whether the message is about employee appreciation or recognition, the result is more camaraderie. People feel like they're a part of something,” Chopp added.

Sluss+Padgett, for example, has a large Sharp display in the lobby that showcases the awesome work that the company is doing. There is also digital signage in the break room. Not only does this signage communicate to employees things that are happening within the company, but it also personalizes the experience for office visitors. 

“If we have customers coming to the office, we can put their name up on the display to welcome them, which provides a very nice personal touch that makes them feel at home. It’s also great for recruiting people,” Sluss said. “In the break room, if one of our guys goes back to get a cup of coffee and they see something on the display that makes them feel closer to the team, that’s a win.” 

Integrated with the help of SBS systems architect Doug Harris, these supercharged systems are sophisticated but not overly engineered. “There is no learning curve, and anyone can use them,” Sluss added.  The solutions are so effective that Sluss+Padgett sister companies in Douglasville, Georgia and Tampa, Florida, have plans to create similar office solutions. 

Chopp summed it up: “Return on investment is obviously important when it comes to office technology. In the case of the hybrid work environment, however, it’s more about return on objective. Now more than ever, there is a strong case to be made for amplifying your displays to deliver on the objectives of team-building, welcoming visual communications, and an inviting work environment that makes the office a destination.”

From the pitch to the gridiron, football fans around the world enjoy the game in a wide array of ways. Whether its live production on multiple TVs at home, or huge dvLED displays at the stadium, bringing replays and graphics to the gameday experience, technology is a large reason fans enjoy the game.

But what about behind the scenes? Skarpi Hedinsson, CTO, Los Angeles Rams and Danny Karbassiyoon, head of football platforms, Arsenal FC, joined Heather Karatz, founder, investor Shake/Angel City FC on the C Space stage at CES 2024 to talk about technology in football, specifically, the data behind player development.

Hedinsson was the mastermind behind the technology implemented in the Rams’ new SoFi Stadium. And while one of the NFL’s newest stadiums is a technological marvel that already hosted a Super Bowl, executives in the front office are using new data to analyze players.

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“The overwhelming thing that we are paying attention to is the sheer amount of data that is being generated around the sport,” Hedinsson said. “The players are instrumented and we get data off the equipment in the weight room and the training ground. That is not going to slow down any time soon. For clubs and organizations, it is about managing that data, gleaning the insights, and understanding what you can ignore and what is critical.”

Karbassiyoon, a former player for Arsenal FC from 2003-05, was originally a scout before starting his own startup where he built products from the ground up, giving him an understanding how to hone in on this data. He now uses data for a scouting platform and performance platform for the club which is key because recruiting is tough in soccer with the breadth of players globally as one of the world’s largest sports.

Neither the Rams nor Arsenal are technology companies, so identifying the right data technology that is valuable is imperative. In the last 10-15 years, the explosion of data has been helped by better tools to process it, in three areas in particular.

Recruiting. One of the problem sets in recruiting is identifying talent through draft and free agency. The Rams don’t simply need to know if the player can catch and run, but does he fit how they play football. Hedinsson pointed to wide receiver Puka Nakua, a fifth rounder that flew under the radar and became a record-breaking rookie. Successfully navigating the correct data helped discover Nakua.

While Karbassiyoon admits nothing can replace live scouting, there has been a big shift in the past 10-12 years where data is a big player in recruiting. It helps flag and identify the right players and limit the scope of which scouts have to travel. It can’t do it alone, but data helps eliminate some of the risk.

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Performance: The Rams, like all NFL teams want players to be bigger, faster, and stronger, but now data is helping in a more important area: recovery. A lot of data goes into what kind of strain players are under and how that affects the playing staff and position groups. It helps greatly with load management and practice structure to hopefully keep athletes healthier.

None of the performance tracking technology was around when Karbassiyoon played for Arsenal. Now, his players wear a harness that has a GPS to  track accelerations, decelerations, distances run, and other metrics to manage a player’s workload. However, both Karbassiyoon and Hedinsson constantly drove home an important point: You can have all the information and data in the world, but if you are not actioning it correctly, it’s useless. Arsenal is using data to help see what the athlete should look like on gameday, after the match, and two days later.

Tactical matches. Here’s where AI comes into play. There is now technology available to help identify what the Rams think the opposition is going to do and how to set up for success. The NFL provides data on every single player and every single game and players are sometimes instrumented 20 times a second and the ball is instrumented 40 times a second. There are billions of rows of data. Again, the challenge is how to turn all that into something actionable… which is still a work in progress.

One of the largest challenges ahead for both Karbassiyoon and Hedinsson is building an infrastructure to see data in an elegant way and present it to shareholders so it makes sense. Visualizing all the data is imperative so its not just a spreadsheet with numbers. As Karbassiyoon concluded, it’s a challenge, but an exciting one. 

With AI and data analytics at the heart of today’s digital signage platforms, maintaining consumer and visitor privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated these concerns as technology developers are both leveraging existing tech and inventing new systems that perform thermal monitoring, density monitoring, and even face mask detection. While most people would agree it’s important that our workspaces, learning facilities, transit centers, and retail outlets are safe environments, it’s fair to ask, How good a job is the industry doing at protecting people’s privacy?

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“I think that overall, in terms of privacy, as long as the controls are used properly, we’re doing a good job as an industry,” said Marielle Crisanti, business development manager and associate consultant at VWMason Technology Consultants, an AV and acoustical consulting firm headquartered in Calgary, AB. The issue is that people aren’t necessarily aware of how the technology works, she conceded. “We’ve heard of cases where people discover that a camera has been hidden in a wayfinding kiosk and things blow up because people think that their information is being stolen, or the data is being collected and stored, when in reality it’s stored for a very minimal amount of time and [the camera is] not actually collecting any personal information. As long as we’re transparent about how the technology is being used—and you’ve got a privacy policy in place that people can easily access—I think that we’re doing a good job.”

For Benson Chan, senior partner at Strategy of Things, a Hayward, CA-based technology design and consulting firm that specializes in creating safe spaces and smart cities, one challenge is that not all organizations have good privacy policies, or have invested effort in considering how they will react to specific data. “Let’s say they have a kiosk that does temperature scanning, and it detects someone with a high temperature. What do you do next? Do you take that information and say, ‘I’m going to report you,’ or ‘I’m not going to let you into the office?’ What do you do with that information?” he illustrated. “This is where it gets a little bit scary because they don’t have the policies in place for [how they will take action].”

While it’s not the role of AV design and integration firms to develop privacy policies for their clients, Crisanti argued that it’s necessary to take those policies into account. “When deploying digital signage as a whole, you have to look at the corporate policies in terms of how the data is being collected, even when it’s not automated content,” she said. What if employees’ names are being displayed? In this scenario, it’s necessary to determine where that information can be shown, and whether or not employees are aware that their names figure into the content in the first place. “As an integrator, you have to be aware of [the client’s] privacy policies and data policies, and where that data may be displayed. It’s not just a matter of [deploying the system] and then not really taking into account each client’s privacy policy.”

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Further along these lines, Crisanti encourages designers and integrators to engage with clients to gauge the relevance of the data they wish to collect. “What data is pertinent to the information you’re sending? Is it actually useful? How is it being collected? How is it being stored? Is it accurate?” she illustrated. While there’s a temptation to gather as much information as possible in the event that it may be useful in the future, does it actually apply to the goals that digital signage content designers and managers have set out to achieve? “These are all things that we need to discuss, both as integrators and designers, with our clients.”

Jonathan Brawn, director of the Digital Signage Experts Group (DSEG), an education and certifications provider, acknowledged that the pandemic has led to increased data collection—often of what could be perceived as sensitive information, especially when it comes to thermal monitoring. “Are companies being responsible with that data?” he asked. “I think most of the vendors that work with those types of software solutions have had to deal with sensitive data before, and so I do think a lot of them are capturing what they claim to be capturing: anonymous analytics.” In other words, while that thermal monitoring kiosk is scanning someone’s face, it’s simply capturing their temperature—not personally identifiable information.

It’s the concept of anonymous video analytics that Brawn believes could be better communicated to clients. “We say, ‘Oh, it’s anonymous,’ but we also need to educate them a little bit about what we’re actually capturing, how we’re sensing it,” he pointed out. Brawn counsels integrators to host live demonstrations to show clients the data points the software captures, how this information can be used, and how long it can be stored.

Chan emphasized that if organizations are to be effective in addressing privacy concerns, they require sound, transparent policies that are well documented and communicated. “It’s okay to say, ‘We’re going to monitor you and we’re going to use this information for this,’” he said. But this is just the first step. Supporting records and documentation should demonstrate how long data is stored, the process followed for data deletion, and even the actions taken when, for example, someone with a high temperature was detected. “They have to show that they did something useful with that information and not anything that was outside of the scope of those policies. All of those things build trust.”

Business leaders know that truly understanding their customers leads to better service. At the brick-and-mortar retail level, this means gaining a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior such as the number of shoppers, how they circulate inside the premises, what catches their attention, and how effectively sales associates tend to their needs.

Retail managers also face the challenge of adhering to new health and safety protocols as they relate to physical distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE) while providing a pleasant and engaging experience that keeps shoppers coming back. For digital out-of-home advertisers, it’s all about anonymous audience measurement.

The digital signage industry, and the integrators that install and deploy DOOH networks, are gradually addressing these needs with marketing analytics. Through integration with digital signage software, integrators can supply their end user—often retailers and quick-service restaurants, along with other physical businesses—with the tools they require to continuously improve how they welcome and serve customers.

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In measuring and monitoring a facility’s foot traffic at the granular level, this technology contributes to a broader customer experience integration project that helps the end business develop a true omnichannel strategy. With the appropriate focus, marketing analytics will touch everything from store access and layout to product selection and placement, in-store advertising, and even staffing. While marketing analytics platforms are typically a separate and standalone platform, we have a reached the stage where there can be true convergence with the digital signage ecosystem familiar to AV integrators.

Foot Traffic and In-Depth Marketing Analytics

Digital signage software integrated with marketing analytics monitors a visitor’s journey as they circulate through a physical retail space, providing managers with valuable information to enhance each customer’s experience, improve operations, and ensure the health and safety of visitors and staff. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the technology performs in-depth crowd analysis and content triggering based on real-time visual data it receives through its interpretation of live video feeds.

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Performing much like web analytics, in-depth marketing analytics provides decision-makers with insight into how a physical business is performing down to the micro level. These tools analyze demographics (such as the age and gender of visitors), foot traffic (the route visitors take as they make their way through the site), dwell time (how long shoppers remain in a department, zone, or even in front of a specific display), the amount of time it takes before they are approached by a sales representative, how long shoppers must wait in line at the checkout, and how much time they spend in the store. Importantly, the best software will be able to identify and distinguish between new customers and returning ones.

All this information provides management with data that will inform staffing decisions. With insight into how many team members are required during specific times, as well as employee performance level, management can also make decisions that affect budgeting and the bottom line. In addition to helping manage staffing levels, these analytics offer guidance about areas where employees require more training.

Tracking the Attention Span of Visitors for DOOH Advertising

When paired with digital signage software, marketing analytics will help retailers make key decisions about their merchandising strategies by assessing visitor focal points.

An exciting element for the integrator is where these two elements—digital signage and marketing analytics—intersect with more traditional AV systems for added value. Cameras represent one very notable and important element for their end customers. The ability to interpret video feeds from cameras brings the added benefit of identifying which signage displays gain the most attention, and which are neglected. This presents an Opportunity to See (OTS) scenario for retailers that examines specific display placement to establish whether displays readily fall into a visitor’s line of sight, with metrics on the efficacy of in-store advertising campaigns. These same “level of attention” metrics can apply to specific items and product themes, as well as merchandising layouts and paths to purchase.

When calculating the number of people who were exposed to a specific ad, the interoperable systems will work together to consider anyone who looked directly at the screen, take note of their personal attributes, and determine how long they paid attention to the content while it was playing. This information is invaluable to advertising agencies and DOOH network operators who rely on programmatic systems to properly monetize their content.

Foot Traffic and Access Control

The pandemic has greatly impacted brick-and-mortar retail spaces. In response, innovation was accelerated that would help businesses return and reopen their stores to shoppers. AI-powered access control has been one very critical development, helping organizations meet new health and safety standards. Integrators have found opportunity by integrating these security solutions into the digital signage ecosystem, as well as camera systems that help them activate imperative occupancy monitoring requirements to meet emergent health and safety standards.

With more shoppers returning to stores, analytics software can further contribute to how businesses manage crowds. Retailers now have no choice but to monitor multiple entry points simultaneously, and the ability to count, screen, and guide visitors keeps crowds manageable and businesses in compliance with occupancy regulations.

To protect customers and employees, computer vision-enhanced digital signage solutions can detect whether visitors are wearing protective masks, and identify details about each mask’s fabric, shape, color, and pattern. This further empowers retailers to potentially customize health and safety-related occupancy instructions (or “house rules”) specific to a given location, so long as the business remains in compliance with local regulations. The ability to distinguish between visitors and employees will present management with the most accurate data.

Naturally, both integrators and businesses must address the legal concerns inherent in personal identification systems and remain fully compliant with privacy standards. This means choosing a marketing analytics platform that does not collect personally identifiable information (PII), or store or reuse personal data. Silhouette detection that includes face mask is acceptable, while facial recognition is not. In other words, all data collected by the system must remain anonymous and in compliance with local privacy laws.

With brick-and-mortar retailers, DOOH ad networks, and advertising agencies competing for consumers’ attention more fiercely than ever, providing an engaging, worthwhile experience is paramount. When businesses leverage the power digital signage software and marketing analytics have to offer, they gain a precise understanding of their customers’ behavior. This equips them with data that enables them to tailor their operations accordingly—on an ongoing basis, and in many cases in real time. The result: a more loyal, engaged customer base.

For systems integrators, this presents a new opportunity to build a more powerful retail customer experience strategy for their customers, along with a security element that potentially opens doors for future add-ons. For brick-and-mortar retailers, it’s a true opportunity to keep customers coming back versus relying almost exclusively on e-commerce.

Florent Hédiard is global marketing director at Navori Labs.

Soon after AV equipment and hardware became IP-addressable, manufactures and solution providers added monitoring capabilities to measure everything from projector lamp usage, to room occupancy, and device usage. But it is only in the past few years that some have developed relationships with companies such as Microsoft to analyze information gathered to provide actionable data. 

If anyone had been doubting the value of monitoring and analyzing enterprise AV/IT data, the argument in its favor could not be more germane to shaping the health and sustainability of businesses in 2021 and beyond. 

Dependent on several variables such as market vertical, vaccine completion, and the economy, reports of the amount of the remote workforce vary widely. One does not need to look much further than what is going on in the commercial real estate (CRE) industry to understand the current volatility. 

CRE Barometer

In December 2020, the Deloitte U.S. Center for Financial Services published results of its 2021 Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Outlook. More than 200 industry leaders weighed in on how their companies are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The following are excerpts from Deloitte’s analysis that most closely align to how AV/IT can impact the future of its businesses through analyzing data.

Leveraging Tenant Data and Analytics: Companies could use different analytical tools to generate insights and facilitate decision making. Now more than ever, CRE companies need to capture and analyze high-frequency data to create a meaningful tenant experience. This could include data around how tenants use different amenities, and/or engagement and performance levels. Companies can analyze tenant engagement levels and behavior to understand preferences and provide a more customized experience. For instance, owners/operators can combine and analyze the occupancy, movement, and temperature sensor data and assist tenants in creating COVID-19-safe seating and space utilization decisions. They can also use tenant data to predict lease renewals and devise appropriate strategies for tenant retention.

Operations: More and more companies are rethinking how and when they use office spaces. Increasingly, offices will be reserved for face-to-face interactions and team-based activities, and enhancing collaboration and innovation, while employees would continue to work remotely for more individualized tasks and assignments. In a 9,100-respondent pulse survey published in The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020, more than 60 percent of respondents say they want the option to work remotely more frequently, even after the pandemic fades. Nearly as many say they would prefer to use videoconferencing instead of traveling for work. 

Using Technology to Reposition CRE Space and Facilities Management: With tenants and end users likely to leverage different CRE properties to make emotional in-person connections, spaces are likely to be valued based on the experiential value rather than just traditional metrics such as cost per square foot or sales per square foot. Our survey responses also suggest that unlike the prior emphasis on location, health and safety-related smart building features and occupation density may play a more important role in leasing decisions going forward. Only 38 percent of respondents say their organization has increased collaboration with tenants to understand end-user preferences.

Organizations should use sensing tools, alternative data sets, and analytics to evaluate and predict the impact of changing investor and tenant/end-user preferences on CRE usage and demand. In some instances, companies may have to be creative and adapt spaces for complementary or new purposes. 

In most other instances, companies could increase the value of their properties by deploying smart building design and maintenance capabilities and offering more relevant services to tenants and end users. These services include using sensor technologies and predictive analytics to monitor facilities remotely and offer preemptive or usage-driven maintenance activities; or using smart building technologies and 3D visualizations to help landlords assess operational readiness of physical spaces in real time, implement more rigorous cleaning systems, and monitor HVAC systems.

Creating an Enabling Culture: Companies that fall into either the progressive or visionary profiles may have to make higher investments in technologies, tools, and processes to install the appropriate infrastructure for long-term hybrid work. These investments may include productivity and performance measurement tools, training leaders to manage virtual teams, and redesigning spaces to facilitate collaboration and make employees feel safe.

In Their Own Words

We asked experts from leading AV/IT companies to share insights on what challenges can be expected in monitoring a hybrid campus and how the data can help make future decisions about real estate, office planning, employee staffing, and enrollment at universities.

Barco

Lieven Bertier, Workplace Marketing Director 

Lots of systems today capture workplace data and provide good insights on meeting room and/or meeting room technology usage. In this way, workplace managers are provided with actionable insights and analytics, and know, for instance, when to expand the number of rooms, or when users are struggling with technology adoption. But in a hybrid environment, the home user is the complicating factor. How do you measure their contribution? How do you make them join the meeting? That’s a key challenge to solve moving forward.

The big challenge for the hybrid workplace will be to find the balance between the in-room participants and remote participants. The keyword here will be engagement. There’s a lot of technology enablement in the workplace, such as whiteboards, whiteboard cameras, UC&C platforms, et cetera, but as shown in our Future of Meetings research, the key question is how to make people engage, and how to make people realize a company’s purpose in their day-to-day hybrid interactions. Giving employees a sense of purpose and belonging will differentiate the winning from losing technologies.

Intel

Brian Cockrell, Intel Unite Solution Product Owner and Co-founder

There are challenges and risks associated with monitoring a hybrid workforce. As it turns out, however, productivity isn’t one of them. The current pandemic forced employers into a grand experiment that has allowed them to see firsthand what many have known for some time: Employees working remotely are at least as productive as those at the office.

Some of the bigger issues with remote work are not related to lack of productivity, but burnout, isolation, and “Zoom fatigue.” Given the growing understanding of these psychosocial costs of 100-percent remote work, and the benefits of in-person collaboration, the need for collaboration spaces will likely increase—not decrease. Workers won’t return to the office building for day-to-day tasks—which can be just as easily tackled remotely—but for the opportunity to come together to engage, interact, and share thoughts and concepts in an environment more suited to social animals.

What this means for businesses is a reorganization of floor plans to provide the spaces for collaboration. This is where usage data from the collaboration platform is invaluable. Knowing which rooms are used, when they are used, the frequency of use, meeting duration, and occupancy can all help optimize occupancy, scaling, and configuration of collaboration spaces. Just as important is monitoring the activities and the use of the various technologies during sessions. This applies to both onsite and remote participants. Collaboration technology is a crucial tool, and usage data could point to underuse of collaboration-enhancing features, or suggest new features and use cases. 

Another somewhat novel, but arguably more critical, application of usage information, at least in the near-term, is data-directed hygiene. With a platform like the Intel Unite solution, a combination of sensor data and space management tools can create “heat maps”—helping to guide infection-reduction strategies such as limiting contact in hallways, targeting rooms for cleaning, and monitoring adherence to occupancy restrictions. 

Of course, cameras, microphones, digital whiteboards, and other peripherals must be ready to support collaboration. The ability to monitor their health is crucial. The challenge is finding a solution that can manage and self-heal all these varied devices. 

Looping back to productivity, collaboration isn’t about maximizing throughput; it’s about generating new ideas and getting unstuck from problems that require more than one mind and perspective. The objectives of monitoring should be to ensure the right mix of collaboration tools and that these tools are ready for use.

Kramer

Matt Kopin, Product Manager

Hybrid environments present new challenges compared to traditional workspaces. Traditionally, there were confirmed numbers of employees or students that would be attending meetings and classes. Today, those numbers are not only reduced, but tend to fluctuate from day to day, or week to week. Data and analytics will be key to determining the trends of in-person meetings and the number of people on campus. This information can be used for scheduling and allocation of the meeting spaces that are available—ensuring that spaces are not overpopulated. Virtual attendees will also need to be a consideration, as there is a cost associated with licenses for videoconferencing software and the necessary network bandwidth required for virtual meetings.

When it comes to data collected from AV equipment on-site, it should be generic and not specific to the user or the user's content. Connection information can be used to determine the number of users in a space and for how long they are using the space. The data does not need to include unique usernames or the content that is presented, but can still provide insight into how the space is being utilized. Automation can also be used to help increase productivity. Meeting rooms can be ready to go before a meeting has started and meeting room calendars can automatically be freed up when meetings end early. For the remote worker, again, data should be generic and not specific to the user. Generic data can still be used to determine how much time users are spending in meetings versus working on their own.

Nureva 

Nancy Knowlton, CEO

For some time, manufacturers/developers and managers/users have been considering how data collection from various AV devices and other sensors in meeting spaces can be used. With a return to office seeming like a very real possibility by mid-2021, there are some concrete and valuable uses to which data can be put, such as device availability, device performance, occupancy, and proximity.

All of this data can be delivered to centralized device management systems and alerts triggered by detected out-of-bounds states. Action can be taken from there. But, it’s also important to understand how data can support teams in the room with real-time messages about out-of-bounds conditions so that changes can be made dynamically.

Beyond these obvious needs, there are other concerns for IT managers such as integration of device information. Many systems now provide device monitoring, but it will be less than optimal to manage the data through disparate systems. Aggregating and integrating this data into a single system will be key. While subjective, integrating user feedback input is nonetheless important.

Utelogy

Nicole Corbin, Director of Product and User Experience

The challenge of hybrid campuses is being able to monitor and manage the diverse range of technologies deployed across legacy and new environments, both on site and remotely. These can be mitigated by increasing estate awareness. Deeply understanding your AV estate will allow for the most informed decision making when it comes to future planning for offices as well as employee and student engagement.

One of the largest challenges I see from a hybrid campus is creating a first-class user experience for staff and students alike. People are becoming more accustomed to working and learning from remote platforms. If you have a better user experience at home, why would you want to step foot on a campus? The technology deployed on-site, as well as the facilitators of this technology, need to create a seamless transition from remote to in-person. This seamless transition ensures a consistent first-class user experience—keeping staff and students engaged.

A wide range of helpful data can be captured from monitoring AV and UC devices without compromising privacy. Deploying management platforms such as Utelogy will provide a company with actionable, intelligent data, without storing any private or personal information.

Actionable, intelligent data will help you gain estate awareness—learn which hardware and software gets utilized, see what workspaces get booked most often, and gain a better understanding of meeting attendance and participation via occupancy sensors and audio/video call metrics. Utelogy will also help you gain insights into which devices and at which location(s) trigger the most alerts, so your company can transform from reactive to proactive support. 

Being a proactive company will drastically improve productivity as well as employee satisfaction and engagement. Employees will opt to utilize collaboration spaces if they have the confidence that it will be well-equipped, as well as functioning and running smoothly. That first-class user experience should transcend the office to remote workers. Utelogy doesn’t care whether a device lives at home or at the campus; so long as it is connected to the network, data and insights can be gathered and acted upon. 

The What: Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) has launched Synappx WorkSpaces, the latest in its line of Synappx smart office solutions that allows organizations to streamline technology operations while improving the analytics needed to enhance efficiency.

The What Else: Synappx WorkSpaces enhances the functionality of the Windows collaboration display (WCD) from Sharp by leveraging the device's data collection modules into a dashboard to provide organizations with the critical data and analytics needed to make informed decisions about their WCD technology and workspace productivity investments.

Related: Sharp Debuts 120-Inch 8K Professional Display

Synappx Workspaces helps organizations meet their productivity goals by providing data on whether employees are using Windows collaboration displays, tracking who is booking a shared workspace and determining if meetings are taking place as scheduled. In addition, this type of analytical data is becoming increasingly valuable as many businesses begin assessing how to return to the office once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and ensure they do so with increased employee productivity.

"Our evolving workplace environment requires deeper analytics to inform smarter organizations, especially as we make the move from a home-based to a more hybrid workforce," said Vince Jannelli, associate VP, software product management at Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. "Synappx WorkSpaces provides the insights needed to determine the success of collaboration technology, helping organizations invest smarter, positively impact productivity and promote employee satisfaction."

The Bottom Line: Designed to address common workspace challenges for businesses of any size, Synappx WorkSpaces monitors ambient conditions, such as temperature changes and attendee impact on the meeting environment. Its analytics provide alert notifications about factors that can impact employee productivity, such as temperature, humidity, and air quality. It does this by combining data collected by the IoT sensor hub on the Windows collaboration display with data from Microsoft 365.

A good deal of time is spent evaluating and selecting the right conferencing and collaboration technology. And yet, without broad-based adoption, the expected return on investment for new communication, collaboration, or meeting technology is almost never achieved. That being said, return on investment for each project may be tied to more specific business goals, such as reducing conferencing or travel costs, enabling remote work, or providing business continuity in the event an office location is inaccessible. In virtually every case, achieving unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) project goals requires strong adoption.

Before discussing how to measure and drive adoption, it is important to understand the difference between usage and adoption. Here’s how I distinguish between the two:

Usage: quantity of things—calls, meetings, minutes, messages

Adoption: which people—who is logging in daily, who is organizing meetings, who is attending meetings, who is using video (and often of equal importance, who is not adopting specific features and modalities).

Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Office more broadly, includes a number of adoption-related reports. Skype for Business, like many other UC&C tools, does not include adoption reporting; however, it is possible to develop custom SQL queries to generate adoption reports for Skype for Business.

Related: AV Companies Share Video Meeting Best Practices

Certainly, quality and reliability are important factors that potentially increase both usage and adoption; however, experience has shown that user satisfaction ratings are a far better predictor of adoption. It turns out that quality, which is the focus of many reporting tools, has virtually no correlation to user satisfaction. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, quality is often expressed as a Mean Opinion Score (MOS), which is a numerical calculation intended to quantify a subjective user opinion. Creating an algorithm to estimate opinions is problematic. Secondly, in many systems, the MOS only reflects the network effects on quality. This is a holdover from the legacy telephony days when fixed, purpose-built desk phones were the primary communication device; in this case, the only variable that could be changed was the network. Today, overall communication quality is shaped by numerous factors including the endpoint device, the version of drivers installed, what other applications were simultaneously running, what audio and video devices were being used (built-in or USB attached), whether the network was wired, wireless, whether the user was moving during the call, whether the user was connected to a VPN, and more.

Reliability is arguably a better metric than quality to focus on. Most typically, reliability is defined as the ability to join a call or meeting (sometime referred to as dial-tone reliability) along with the ability to complete a call or meeting without an unexpected error terminating the session. This is far less subjective than a calculated quality score. And yet, sessions reported as having perfect reliability and quality could have still subjected a user to long wait times to join the call or meeting, yielding a poor user experience. 

Certainly better than algorithmically estimated quality ratings and even reliability ratings, user satisfaction is the best predictor of adoption, or as Kramer from Seinfeld might say, “Why don’t you just ask them how they like it?” 

Unlike the majority of UC&C tools, Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business both have a built-in “rate my call” mechanism that can be used to automatically solicit feedback from the user after a set percentage of calls (by default 10 percent of the time, or after approximately one in 10 calls). Users are prompted to score a call between 1 and 5 stars (very poor to excellent). Additionally, users can note the occurrence of one of more audio and/or video problems (if video was used) by selecting check boxes when prompted.

Rate My Call

Even knowing that you should monitor user satisfaction, the challenge becomes sorting through the proliferation of built-in and third-party reporting tools. Over time, it appears that focus has been placed on quantity and “sizzle” when it comes to reports.

With Teams, Microsoft offers no less than four reporting tools that provide analytics related to usage and adoption, quality, reliability, and user satisfaction:

• Office 365 Admin Center Reports
• Teams Admin Center Reports
• Call Quality Dashboard Reports (including the ability to create and import new report templates)
• PowerBI Reports (A pre-built Office 365 Usage and Adoption report along with seven new Call Quality Dashboard reports)

The new PowerBI Call Quality Dashboard reports (which are available for download from GitHub) are especially well designed visually; and yet, this beauty can distract from the key purpose to which all reports should aspire: helping deliver improved business outcomes. In other words, reporting and analytics needs to help advance UC&C adoption, which in turn, helps deliver on the business objectives you defined for your UC&C implementation. (You did define, document, and build consensus around your project objectives, right?)

A New ‘Beautiful’ Call Quality Dashboard

But even if you can decipher the reporting tools in order to measure adoption, how exactly do you increase adoption? It turns out that the primary drivers for adoption are not technical. Communications, ongoing training, and change management are key:

• Communications: Why is the organization changing tools, how does it benefit the organization, and how does it benefit the individual?
• Training: incremental and ongoing
• Change management: detailed instructions explaining old process and new process (hopefully emphasizing some improvements with the new process)

The form that communications and training should take is often debated. The reality is “the proof is in the pudding.” What is best is what works and yields measurable results (adoption) in your organization. Cultures differ, workforce demographics differ, incentive plans and motivations differ. What remains consistent is that you need to work, measure, and then refine. 

Working to drive adoption and then analyzing and refining your efforts is complicated but necessary. Training existing IT professionals or finding external resources to assist you do this is one way you can greatly increase the probability your UC&C project will be successful.

Kevin Kieller is a UC & collaboration success advisor and partner at EnableUC, a company that helps measure, monitor and improve UC and collaboration usage and adoption through a unique set of products and services.

The What: InReality has launched new suite of Safe Space Solutions powered by its integration and analytics platform. The Thermal Mirror, an Enterprise-focused turnkey fever-scanning solution displays almost immediate temperature results, either anonymously for visitors or via facial recognition for employees. The Occupancy Monitor automates in-venue traffic counts in real-time sensed via mobile devices and/or camera-based technology options.

The What Else: For each of the Safe Space products InReality offers, businesses can easily customize and configure metrics and KPI reports. The system allows for flexibility and customization to support CX, process compliance, and reporting needs. Data management can be planned to meet IT and legal requirements, and installation points can be remotely managed and updated—all from one simple platform.

Related: BrightSign Unveils Touchless Engagement Solutions

“We’ve spent almost a decade focused on evolving and supporting our venue analytics platform,” said Ron Levac, InReality co-founder and CEO. “It solves how to correlate disparate IoT sensors and external data points into simple metrics and KPIs, then uses the information for predictive and responsive purposes. When COVID-19 hit, we looked around and found no readily-available solutions with features necessary for enterprise-wide deployment and management, nor did they appear flexible to support yet unknown legal, IT, and HR requirements. We saw the potential of our platform to turn on these kinds of advanced features, and more. We’re engineers and inventors at heart, and the need was obvious. So, we got to work.”

An additional use case currently in the works for the Safe Space suite of solutions is the InReality Pandemic Resiliency Temperature Monitoring Initiative. By aggregating all of the temperature results anonymously, from retail locations, restaurants, and places of work, InReality will provide summary snapshots of trends via real time APIs to government and health officials to track and flag flare ups and anomalies as they occur. The data will include the number of tests (by day) and the results distribution. Provided at no charge to both site owners and approved officials, it will leverage the InReality platform capabilities to learn what a normal pattern is, then highlight anomalies, serving as an extra layer of insight to identify hot spots for taking immediate, proactive action.

The Bottom Line: The integration of the InReality software platform transforms off-the-shelf technologies into smart solutions for managing in-venue health concerns, but with enterprise-level features that make sense for business management.

To stay up to date with the impact of coronavirus on pro AV, subscribe to our enews. 

The What: Creative Realities announced the launch of an AI-integrated, contactless temperature inspection station.  The ThermalMirror is a turnkey, plug-and-play solution that addresses the urgent need for businesses and employers to build consumer and employee confidence as the world goes back to work as stay-at-home orders are reduced or relieved throughout the United States. It is available immediately.

The What Else:  Rick Mills, Chief Executive Officer, remarked, "Due to COVID-19, every single vertical we serve is facing the challenge of how to mitigate fears of safely visiting and returning to work, irrespective of industry. Our core business is built around technologies that inspire better customer experiences, and this is the most critical barrier brands and businesses are facing today."

"We felt an obligation to assist in addressing this concern, and we believe that the ThermalMirror is an ideal solution," Mills continues. "We’re able to put our digital integration experience to work, to wrap the software interface with a customized experience designed for virtually every commercial use case. Moreover, we can capture analytics that help our clients meet their operational, compliance and HR requirements.”

The ThermalMirror leverages thermal technology, which captures infrared radiation from objects and creates an electronic image and results based on temperature differences. Thermal cameras have been used before, but have been cost prohibitive to significantly scale up their use. By integrating the technology with an AI-enabled software platform powered by our partners, InReality, important functionality like response customization, analytics, networking and synchronizing of ThermalMirrors, anomaly alerts and compliance logs for legal audit trails become available, making them more practical for large-scale use.

 “CRI and InReality are technology companies, but this challenge starts with human psychology. The fact is, we don’t have all the facts. When perception is reality, this is one thing we can do now. It’s important that we’re sensitive-we don’t know how people and employees will respond to each new circumstance that comes about as a result of COVID-19," comments Laura Davis-Taylor, InReality Chief Strategy Officer. "We see our responsibility as creating the most effective interaction design possible while working to meet compliance requirements. The partnership with CRI allows us to design, develop and deliver a rapid solution at the speed and scale the marketplace requires at this very vulnerable time in our lives.” 

The Bottom Line:  What makes the ThermalMirror a safe space solution is the artificial intelligence and full analytics capabilities behind it. Combined with the ability for to data integrate with other cloud-based systems, as well as networking, this becomes an enterprise level solution that elevates its position in the marketplace. 

The What: NanoLumens has introduced a locally hosted version of its AWARE LED and LCD display management system. The locally hosted version of AWARE runs on a dedicated on-site Linux server and is identical to the cloud-based version in operation and functionality so ad space owners can craft messaging, measure engagement, and meet customers’ needs without compromise.

The What Else: NanoLumens initially developed AWARE to help digital display managers maximize revenue from digital infrastructure of any size and to take advantage of modern analytics in ways that traditional, more narrowly focused CMS options simply weren’t built for. This original cloud-based version was limited for businesses with strict data security mandates but the new server-based edition renders the powerful diagnostics and analytics tools of AWARE viable on a secure, on-site local area network.

[NanoLumens Debuts Website for its AWARE Platform]

“We developed the locally hosted version of AWARE to meet the needs of those companies who, for a variety of security reasons, are moving away from the cloud and back to server-based solutions,” said Brice McPheeters, NanoLumens director of product line management and customer service. “Businesses that handle sensitive data such as financial records and accounts, medical records, or travel documents must maintain higher network security than ever before, and with the locally hosted version of AWARE these customers can leverage 100 percent of AWARE’s capabilities without sending any data outside their internal network.”

McPheeters added that the AWARE API based remote diagnostic capabilities built into the locally hosted version of AWARE are the same as those incorporated in the cloud-based version. “We simply extended the existing API capabilities to the locally hosted server so operators with existing services can easily integrate the AWARE system into their Network Operations Center (NOC).”

The Bottom Line:  The new server-based edition of the original cloud-based platform is suited for businesses that have strict data and internet security needs like banks, airports, and government agencies, allowing them to make use of the functionality AWARE brings to display network management.

The What: Qligent has updated its Vision Analytics solution with an improved open-platform that harnesses the power of data mining, machine learning, and predictive data analytics. Vision Analytics exists to address three main concerns: user engagement, silent sufferers, and audience churn. Qligent will exclusively showcase Vision Analytics at a special stand (14.C19) from September 13-17 in the RAI Exhibition and Conference Center; Qligent will also retain its usual location at Stand 8.E47.

The What Else: Qligent has added several important new features to Vision Analytics for IBC2019. Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) to show specific performance parameters for broadband and internet delivery; service-independent correlation engines to identify and reconcile problems over any delivery network; an intuitive Reports Builder application that allows users to create actionable reports, customizable to each service; a new Dashboard Constructor for web and mobile devices that allows users more flexibility in adding widgets, graphs, and other customized reporting elements meaningful to their operations; and a refined predictive analytics model to more effectively combat buffering issues for IPTV, OTT, and mobile delivery services.

[Big Data: Analytics Shape the Business of AV Integration]

“Vision Analytics not only monitors network performance in real-time, but leverages machine learning and other data science technologies to predict conditions that, left unchecked, could sour viewers on the media brand,” said Ted Korte, CTO, Qligent. “Users will know which events cause viewers to become disengaged, and how to keep track of subscribers by merging Quality of Experience with Qligent’s true end-to-end technology. This gives service providers a powerful prevention-oriented toolset, as well as cloud-based quality assurance across every distribution network out to each viewer’s home and mobile device.”

Qligent’s unique deployment of networked and virtual probes creates an end-to-end, controlled data mining environment to produce trusted and secondary opinion datasets within Vision Analytics. The analytics engines are immune to variables, such as operator error, viewer disinterest, or user hardware malfunction, assuring that the integrity and variety of the data is maintained. All findings are presented on a user-friendly dashboard and reports that summarizes key performance indicators (KPIs), key quality indicators (KQIs), and other vital criteria pertaining to multiplatform content distribution across creation, delivery, and consumption.

The Bottom Line: Vision Analytics addresses the “4 Vs” of big data: velocity, volume, variety, and veracity. Its engines leverage scalable cloud processing to manage a nearly limitless number of static, dynamic, or event-based datasets to help broadcasters, MVPDs, and OTT service providers quickly address issues and take corrective and preventative action. The software samples video content and aggregates data from a variety of systems and components throughout the ecosystem to understand and correlate the factors that contribute to higher engagement. With a reliable data set, users can develop a host of analysis results, visualizations, and automated reports to suit unique business needs.

The What: Utelogy has launched an all-new version U-Manage, the platform’s management, monitoring, and analytics portal, at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019 in Amsterdam.

The What Else: As a core part of Utelogy’s centralized approach to deploying and managing AV systems, the new features of U-Manage include:

• Redesigned user-interface and navigation;
• Managed Service Provider portfolio overviews and individual customer views;
• Customized dashboards to display system information in a visual manner;
• Data filtering by location, date, time, and device;
• Extensive report library including asset reports, firmware, warranty, utilization, and more;
• Configurable alerts and notifications;
• Rest APIs and data connectors to expedite third party development including BI platforms.

“A key frustration for organizations has been the lack of data on workspaces and the devices within those spaces,” said William Tinnel, COO, Utelogy. “The previous version of U-Manage did a great job alerting when a device in a room was offline, but these latest enhancements to the portal provide the extraction of actionable data. 

“Now organizations will have the ability to view alerts and usage reports for rooms and all technology, including other control systems, as well as asset details like firmware versions and warranty reports. Most of the monitoring and management platforms on the market can only manage their own equipment. This new functionality provides incredible value for end users and it opens up new opportunities for integrators and other service providers to offer managed services because you can now monitor legacy control systems.”

The Bottom Line: U-Manage is designed to provide enterprise-wide visibility to rooms, equipment, issues, performance, and usage. It tracks all connected devices and delivers insights on those devices and the system as a whole, to enable more informed support and investment decisions to optimize the performance of rooms, real estate, and equipment. The Utelogy platform is vendor-agnostic, and allows organizations to centrally manage its entire AV infrastructure for better efficiency, cost savings, and improved uptime.

The What: Utelogy has delivered its latest software release, which is designed to further enhance user productivity.

The What Else: This latest release includes Utelogy Visual Framework (UVF), to allow programmers, end-users or integrators to build or restyle their user interface. The UVF includes a component reference guide, that allows users to take standard, out-of-the-box components, and use them or with the Component API and Theming Guide, developers can build their own components and custom themes to create their own UI.

“UVF provides a configuration approach to expedite UI programming,” said Scott McGarrigle, Utelogy CTO. “With UVF, enterprises like the ability to alter the UI to take on the personality of the organization and it also aids with agility and scale to reduce deployment times and enhance maintenance and future upgrades.” 

This latest software release also includes two additional key features: U-Schedule and U-Access. U-Schedule, which allows for calendar integration with Google Exchange and Office 365, supports viewing the current room schedule status (available/busy) as well as the day’s schedule of events on a door marquee. U-Access allows organizations to use Active Directory to authenticate users and to evaluate access rules to determine which users can use which rooms.

The Bottom Line: “Utelogy is an open system, and with the new features like the Visual Framework, this creates flexibility within in the product line, which will enable enterprises to help bridge that gap between people and technology,” said Ron Willis, CTS-D, senior associate at Shen Milsom & Wilke, after a demonstration. “The Visual Framework solution allows customers to choose between the monitoring solution for their existing rooms while migrating to the control solution as the systems are updated. This provides a tool for current users and a way forward for all customers.”

One of the biggest catchphrases in the AV industry of late has been the “integrated experience.” What does this entail for spaces like meeting rooms?

A true integrated experience needs to account for all considerations that make an impression on users and provide positive feelings and a successful outcome before, during, and after being in the meeting space. This experience includes their ability to easily find the space, their comfort level within the rooms, their ability to leverage the technology for their needs, and most importantly, the satisfaction they have in accomplishing their goals for the meeting, presentation, lesson, or entertainment.

Here are some critical design and control considerations that lead to a highly valued integrated experience.

MAKING SPACE

First, let’s start with the space: the size of the room should be appropriate for the number of participants. One solution for addressing space considerations and rooms management would be through use of a room-booking and wayfinding system. Furthermore, through development of middleware, external software applications can be integrated with local room control systems allowing data to be exchanged, facilitating automation and optimization. A room-booking system not only helps identify the most appropriate space for the size of the group and technology needs of the meeting or event, it could also set up the room for use based on the scheduled activity. In addition to reserving the room, integration with a calendaring system provides participants with an appointment and reminders that could include details of room location, meeting agenda and content, remote connection details, and even Wi-Fi access details for guests.

The use of middleware connecting enterprise-level room scheduling software with an AV control system within the room can be a big step in creating an integrated experience. Not only can control of the space can be automated and provide a personalized touch specific to the needs of the user, it also helps to optimize room usage and system performance. In ideal scenarios, technology should be transparent to the user unless they choose to interact with it. By integration of environmental controls like HVAC, lighting, and shades along with scheduling and digital signage to guide, welcome, and inform, users will be treated to a higher level of care. This can be taken further by automatically activating aspects of technology that enhance the meeting or event like conference calls, live streams, video playback, or recording. Attendees can also be provided personalized controls via a mobile app or website link that supports communication with other participants, collaborating on documents, requesting help, reporting feedback, and even ordering refreshments. At the close of the event, it is just as important that participants are comfortable leaving and knowing where they need to go, understanding how to end the session or shut down the room, and automatically receiving materials that they need for follow up.

All of this demonstrates how automation can truly provide an integrated experience; however, it’s not done with magic. A lot of effort needs to be invested in the planning, design, software, and most importantly operation of these systems to create harmony that any user will value. It starts with the design of the facility including all spaces with which the participant will interact. With strategically placed signage to communicate meeting schedules, event details, room bookings, and locations of spaces like restrooms, break areas, and exits to the building, users will be comforted and their stress and anxiety minimized. Everyone hates getting lost, being late, and being distracted before an important event.

INTELLIGENT ROOMS

Other key elements within the space are the use of sensors. Knowing when rooms are in use or vacant, temperature, light level, the number of occupants, and possibly who is present will provide the ability to offer automation and adjustments that contribute to better management of the spaces, and enhanced comfort level and experience. Automation of a space is only possible when the proper input and feedback are available from the equipment and systems. A room can be set up for a meeting or event in advance; however, perhaps the activity does not kick off until the following criteria are met: the start time is reached, 80 percent of participants have arrived, and the organizer and key attendees are present. Selection of equipment that provides a robust API and predeveloped control modules plays an important role in ensuring the system is operating at optimal performance. Receiving feedback from the equipment on its current status as well as its “health” and usage history will help to provide finer control and information for proactively addressing needs before they lead to problems.

The last element that is important to consider is the investment in a software monitoring platform that can manage, monitor, control, and maintain all of the spaces within a facility or enterprise. This software needs to be flexible, scalable, and universal enough that it is not limited to integration with one particular brand, but can universally interface with anything that contributes to the integrated experience. As organizations grow and their needs increase, this software will be at the central point of their command center where ability to schedule, launch, support, and manage events is found. The ability to identify status, control activity, and respond to requests with concierge or VIP service can provide the ultimate level of client care and lead to an ideal integrated experience. Additionally, by collecting feedback from the users in conjunction with monitoring the system performance, adjustments can be made to continuously respond to user needs and preferences.

As with most successful outcomes, the integrated experience involves a conscious effort, time, detailed information, and effective planning. By first starting with the result in mind and working backward, the story will be painted as to desired experience and challenges that need to be addressed. Next, the solution will stem from defining the software and automation requirements, which will then dictate the design and hardware elements. As it all comes together, testing and user feedback will provide opportunities for fine tuning and integration. The interactive experience is an ongoing effort rather than a project finish point.

Info

control
concepts.net

Steve Greenblatt, CTS, is president and founder of Control Concepts, a provider of specialized software and services for the audiovisual industry.

We may never feel as vulnerable as we do in a hospital bed. Amidst the chaos of hospital staff, the fear and confusion of trying to comprehend the medical issue at hand, and the flurry of friends and relatives who are struggling to find ways to be useful, it’s understandable then that we can feel overwhelmed by the simplest of needs—like knowing when we might get a meal.

“I can’t tell you the number of times a day I see a patient limp out of a room to ask what time lunch is coming,” said Dr. Judd Hollander, an emergency physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA in a video explaining their partnership with the IBM Watson Internet of Things. “If we can get them the answer without them having to come out and search for someone to answer the question, it’s a win-win for everybody.”

The hospital’s use of artificial intelligence has shown one of the many compelling ways the technology can improve people’s lives in meaningful ways. In voice enabled rooms from IBM and Harman Professional Solutions, systems may use Watson AI with Harman AKG microphones, JBL speakers, and AMX AV control and switching systems, allowing users to interact with cognitive technologies that are embedded in devices, which then access the Watson cloud and Watson IoT services, which in turn provide answers and can even interact with in-room subsystems. The results at a place like Jefferson Hospital include not just patients and families who are more at ease, but the ability of doctors and nurses to focus on medical needs, and not, for instance, room temperature.

“If we can help the patient in Room 20 without leaving Room 18 while that person’s having a heart attack?” Dr. Hollander said. “That’s why I went into medicine.”

And that’s just the beginning. The potential for AI includes things we haven’t even dreamed of yet, in verticals across the industry.

“The enterprise and entertainment market possibilities are massive, as IBM and Harman seek to connect people more intimately with their environments through cognition and natural language processing,” said Harriet Green, general manager, Watson Internet of Things, customer engagement and education, IBM. “We are leveraging Watson and AI to bring connected environments to a multitude of locations, from hotels to hospitals and offices, where they are transforming everyday experiences.”

That potential is only growing for the commercial AV industry, which is just gaining strides with the residential industry’s use of AI, says Richard Lewis, senior vice president, research and technology, at LG Electronics USA Business Solutions.

“As we see its growing popularity and incredible usefulness in the consumer market, businesses have begun to consider AI’s role beyond the home,” he said. “If I had to sum up the state of AI in the hospitality industry right now, it would be ‘exploration.’ With exploration comes both excitement and challenges. Commercial AI is still very much in its infancy as the industry continues to tap into and unveil the many exciting ways this technology can be harnessed for a more seamless experience in B2B applications.”

For its part, LG has been exploring the potential of AI through ThinQ, the umbrella name for its AI technology, which includes voice control and “basically learns and adapts over time,” Lewis said. Their approach with ThinQ, he explains, is for “open platforms, open partnerships, open connectivity,” which encompasses LG’s consumer smart home appliances and consumer electronics, as well as other consumer products outside the LG portfolio that utilize artificial intelligence.

“ThinQ provides convenience, control, and seamless connectivity at home and on the go, which we’re dedicated to providing through LG commercial display technologies as well,” Lewis said. “There’s been a big emphasis on simplifying and commercializing natural interfaces seen in the home, and as LG continues to drive innovation in the commercial display industry, we’ll also continue to consider the ways that our products enhance the end user experience and streamline the installation process for system integrators across diverse technological ecosystems.”

Defining Commercial AI

Despite the excitement about the possibilities, the commercial industry is at a crossroads. As businesses develop cool, innovative AI technologies, they should also make time to consider how those technologies fit into the overall picture of commercial AI, both now and into the future.

“The biggest challenge facing the commercial sector lies in defining AI outside the home, whether it’s natural language processing, hands-free display control, connectivity, or a combination of all of these,” Lewis said. “System integrators and manufacturers face the interesting and critical challenge of not only defining commercial AI, but also mastering the newly added layer of complexity that it adds to cloud-based processing solutions.”

When it comes to defining commercial AI, it comes down to the same question as in building any other technology: Is the user going to get any value from it? For Ricoh, which has also leveraged IBM Watson IoT, the approach to creating its Intelligent Workplace Solution, a cognitive-enabled interactive whiteboard, was to figure out ways for meeting participants to streamline discussions by using real-time analytics, language translations, the ability to capture side conversations, and more.

“Our goal is to provide employees and businesses with effective and smart tools that automate administrative office processes and empower people to focus on tasks and ideas that drive business value,” said Hidetsugu Nonaka, corporate senior vice president, Ricoh, in a statement. “Instead of being a screen, the cognitive-enabled, interactive whiteboard powered by Watson [is] an active participant, capturing meeting notes and action items, and building bridges between employees at different locations.”

Another example of creating value for the user comes from AdMobilize, which has developed a range of touchless technology products that provide real-time analytics by capturing information from the physical world, from the number of motorcycles that pass a given roadside billboard to the types of emotional responses from people who stop for information at a digital sign in a mall.

“Integrators are really embracing this for three main reasons,” said AdMobilize CEO Rodolfo Saccoman. “One is they’re able to generate additional recurring revenues by utilizing the technology as software-as-a-service, which sometimes can become generous for them. Two is they’re really giving their clients a cutting-edge, actionable technology. Third, those end users love it because they have an advantage over their competitors. The integrators look like superstars because they’re enabling their clients to really be on the cutting edge.”

Privacy Concerns

Eliminating tedious tasks, increasing productivity and revenue, and generally making the user’s experience a little more pleasant, has all been, of course, the overarching goal of technology since its inception. The added complication of AI—and what’s at the top of mind for those who’ve been following the news in the past year—is keeping personal data secure. For instance, as it considers more commercial applications based on success in the residential market, LG’s approach to privacy concerns involve expectations of users—the privacy of the home versus a public space versus a hotel room.

“Users—as they should—expect privacy protections,” Lewis said. “LG takes individual privacy in the consumer and commercial spaces very seriously. Our consumer TV firmware, for example, has been encrypted with a digital signature attached to each partition and integrity verified during the TV booting process. This process has been extensively tested and certified by UL’s cybersecurity assurance program. Furthermore, LG’s end user agreements are among the most consumer-friendly in the industry because they are written in a natural language, require opt-in, and LG has separated the functions and features, which allows consumers to control the information being utilized by the TV. In the B2B space, LG intends to uphold the same commitment to end user security, and we’re keenly aware of the need for secure AI solutions both now and in future technological developments.”

Another example is when AdMobilize employs technology to distinguish between men and women or delighted and frustrated responses. Users may have concerns about their faces being captured and used in other ways, by other people or companies. So, ensuring people’s privacy is paramount to developing AI technologies, Saccoman says.

“With our analytics technology, everything we do there is anonymous,” he said. “The data the moment is captured, it’s converted into binary numbers, which is aggregated, and from that aggregation everything is anonymous. You have to always protect that, create mechanisms to allow people to have control.”

The recognition of technology’s impact on humans is now perhaps greater than it’s ever been, concluded Saccoman. “One has to be cognizant of 15 years from now—what will the power of this technology be? You want to use it in ways that help humankind.”

AdMobilize will showcase artificial intelligence (AI), audience analytics, and crowd analytics solutions at InfoComm 2018 in Booth N3536.

According to AdMobilize co-founder and CEO Rodolfo Saccoman, InfoComm 2018 will demonstrate just how far its analytics and measurement platforms have come over the last year in becoming the standard for the growing and expanding digital signage industry. The company will showcase the power and reach of its international partnerships with commercial AV and DOOH advertising market leaders that include Signagelive (UK), avt (Australia), Ayuda Media Systems (Canada), PersonifAI (Lithuania), Invian (Peru), MediaEdge (Japan), UBI Communications (Canada), Grupo EDM (Mexico), SmartLink Systems (USA), NanoLumens (USA), and, most recently, IAdea (USA).

“Integrators now understand that the era of robust, reliable, easy-to-install and maintain audience and crowd analytics is at hand and this era promises to make channel-specific visualization solutions much more effective customer engagement solutions,” Saccoman said.

According to Saccoman, the AdMobilize Crowd Analytics solution empowers customers to anonymously quantify any space anywhere by utilizing customized audience measurement, report aggregation, and audience triggers in distinct environments like retail, shopping malls, college campuses, airports, other transportation centers, arenas, as well as in outdoor public spaces. The solution is compatible with major IP/security camera systems, and enables clients to leverage the company’s proprietary computer vision technology to analyze any space to quantify people using a variety of disciplines. The solution’s dashboard metrics include person count, real-time area volume, zone counting (in/out), session time, and heat mapping. Data can be viewed either in real-time or in aggregate.

Customers have the option of working with two versions of the solution. AdMobilize Crowd Edge is a hardware kit combined with a camera that runs all of the included AI software on the processing unit, providing accurate real-time data capture capability within a small form factor device. The AdMobilize Crowd Cloud option enables customers to simply connect Crowd Analytics to an IP camera to acquire the same metric information. Areas and zones can be set up from the dashboard using the camera’s video stream.

The AdMobilize Audience Analytics solution can track real-time ad performance and customer engagement; segment campaigns and content by hour and site; target content by both audience demographic and emotion; and optimize store traffic flow. All captured analytics are fed to a cloud-based dashboard (real-time in less than 15 milliseconds) or API that allows end-users to assess results and performance, identify trends, and make any necessary adjustments to the displayed content.

“AdMobilize continues to bridge the gap between the digital revolution and disruptive computer vision analytics, ultimately infusing machine learning into formerly ‘unintelligent’ physical assets,” Saccoman explained. “Our turnkey technology allows integrators to activate their digital signage solutions and physical-world installations into sophisticated audience measurement devices and environments enabled with interactivity and dynamic triggering. Our growing portfolio of partners reflects the new reality that every vertical market can benefit from AI-enabled digital signage displays. We look forward to demonstrating the remarkable capabilities of our solutions to InfoComm show attendees.”

Nortek Security & Control (NSC) has acquired San Jose, CA-based IntelliVision Technologies Corp., a developer of artificial intelligence, smart cameras, and deep learning-based video analytics software. IntelliVision will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of NSC. IntelliVision will continue to support its customers and products.

“This acquisition is a great fit for us,” NSC president Mike O’Neal said. “The IntelliVision team brings incredible strengths from which we will together build rich, future-ready solutions, with intelligence that will transform the NSC product line. This will extend our leadership position in security, automation and entertainment technology, with significant benefits for our partners and customers.”

IntelliVision AI and video analytics solutions provide actionable insights for security and monitoring in smart home, smart enterprise, and smart city applications; business intelligence for smart enterprise and smart retail; and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for automobiles. The company’s software includes licenses for dozens of patents and has been deployed globally in over 4 million cameras from more than 50 top-tier brand customers and consumer electronics manufacturers. Customers include Comcast, ADT, Netgear, Ring, and Disney.

“We are thrilled to become part of Nortek Security & Control,” said IntelliVision CEO Vaidhi Nathan, who will stay on to lead video analytics and artificial intelligence development under the NSC umbrella. “We now have the support and resources of a major market leader. Plus, integrating IntelliVision’s AI and video analytics technologies into NSC’s security, control, and entertainment platforms will create clear leadership advantages in the markets we collectively serve.”

NSC executive vice president of marketing and innovation Joe Roberts said that IntelliVision technology will be embedded in key NSC products and systems. “The video analytics and AI technology will empower us to offer incredibly personalized control and automation solutions, and will add significantly to our security platforms. This will create important new benefits for our dealers and exceptional experiences for the end users of our products.”

Roberts cited IntelliVision’s strengths in face detection, recognition and search, intelligent motion, object detection and tracking, intrusion/perimeter watch, object classification (people, vehicle, pet), license plate detection and recognition (LPR/ANPR), and audio recognition. “For example, imagine a security or access control system that can recognize an approaching person,” Roberts said. “The system itself can provide a hands-free, multi-factor authentication that nearly eliminates false positives all while improving the user experience. And for automation, knowing who is in the room enables setting the lighting and climate scenes according to that person’s preference.”

According to Roberts, the acquisition also strengthens the company’s ongoing investments in voice and natural language technologies and significantly adds to the company’s growing patent portfolio.

AdMobilize's Audience Analytics System is now available to be integrated with the IAdea XMP-7300 media player.

According to AdMobilize Head of marketing and sales Michael Neel, AdMobilize and IAdea will demonstrate the integrated solution at InfoComm 2018 at AdMobilize booth N3536 and IAdea booth N3238. A bundled package will also be available for inquiries.

“IAdea is a leader in the rapidly growing and expanding global digital signage market,” Neel said. “The company’s award-winning, commercial-grade digital signage media players and integrated displays set the standard by which other manufacturers are measured. By focusing on partnership, IAdea has created one of the largest ecosystems around open standards across a wide variety of business markets, and now, AdMobilize is proud to become a part of this vibrant and growing ecosystem of third-party solutions providers.”

According to John C. Wang, CEO of IAdea, “We are excited to make the AdMobilize Audience Analytics System available as an option on our True 4K, high-performing XMP-7300 media player. The AdMobilize platform delivers a level of real-time accuracy, flexibility and segmentation that is unmatched in the market today. The addition of this analytics platform further enhances the performance value of our XMP-7300 media player, making it an even more complete solution for systems integrators and end-user customers.”

With all of the features incorporated into IAdea’s full HD players, the XMP-7300 integrates full 4K video with 1080p HTML5 playback for dynamic presentations. It supports H.265/HEVC codecs for playback of full resolution 4K video at high bitrates for artifact free crystal clear UHD video. Like all IAdea HD players, the XMP-7300 runs fanless and operates in high-heat conditions up to 50C/122F.

The XMP-7300 player incorporates IAdea’s AnyTiles technology that is designed for high-end video wall solutions. This scalable digital signage device is well suited for professional installations, outdoor environments, in-train advertising (anit-shock and anit-vibration) and video wall applications.

The AdMobilize Audience Analytics solution can track real-time ad performance and customer engagement; segment campaigns and content by hour and site; target content by both audience demographic and emotion; and optimize store traffic flow; among other features. All captured analytics are fed to a cloud-based dashboard (real-time in less than 15 milliseconds) or API that allows end users to assess results and performance, identify trends, and make any necessary adjustments to the displayed content.

Coincidentally held around the same time the azaleas are in bloom in Augusta, April 10, 2018 kicked off the 17th year for the annual Crestron Masters.

For the past three years at AV Technology, we’ve been moving the conversation beyond the AV and IT conversion to data. But data is really nothing without the ability to parse and deliver it in a way that can be analyzed and visualized. Without it, a data dump is exactly what it sounds like.

All About the Cloud

Could this be the year that AV firmly plants both feet into the IT world? I think so. The groundbreaking news at Masters 2018 was the official launch of Crestron’s XiO Cloud hosted by Microsoft Azure. When XiO Cloud, Crestron Fusion, and Microsoft Power BI are used together, an incredible visualization of collected data is available.

“If a company already uses O365 (MS Office 365) then they will not have a problem with XiO because it’s hosted in the same data centers,” said Jon Ottesen, enterprise solutions architect at Crestron. “We use the exact same transport mechanisms, queuing, and security that Microsoft uses.”

This is a significant step forward in the evolutionary ecosystem of a 12-year-old product—Crestron Fusion.

“This effort actually started about seven years ago,” Ottesen said at the Designing for Enterprise Management session at Masters 2018. “It required us to reorganize and restructure our entire firmware library from the first variable up. Now if that doesn’t mean anything to you, disassemble your life to the moment of conception and start over. That’s what we did to get to this.”

Ottesen then went on to explain where Crestron XiO Cloud fits into the hierarchy of the company's platforms, beginning with Crestron Fusion, with its primary job of providing proactive monitoring and data collection. With Crestron Fusion Cloud, users can manage and monitor devices. To get devices setup quickly and easily, Crestron XiO Cloud allows the integrators the ability to claim the devices via MAC address and serial number to configure the equipment.

“Crestron Fusion is still needed to manage systems and device status,” said Richard Sasson, global director of technical services. “But the bottom line is that XiO Cloud is a cloud-only configuration and management tool that enables large-scale deployments in warp-speed. Combine XiO Cloud with Crestron Fusion and Power BI, you get real-time analytics.

“We have created dashboards so that we can own the experience without having to own Microsoft Power BI,” Sasson said. “In essence, creating templates and dashboards that our customers can use to have a good experience but were not going to maintain Power BI.” Templates can be customized for a service fee.

An Industry Evolves

Approximately six years ago, Crestron Authorized Independent Programmers became known as Crestron Services Providers. “We’re telling you, you need to offer services beyond programming,” Sasson said. “Will programming exist? Sure. The bread-and-butter is going to be mass deployments, configurations, reporting, creating a service that customers want and real value that customers need—a real return on investment.”

Programming of custom-controlled, one-off boardrooms and auditoriums isn’t going away. The paradigm shift is that systems such as XiO Cloud can now enable the configuration of 50, 100, or thousands of rooms at a time.

Power BI was introduced at InfoComm 2017, and at the time, the interest came more from end users. This makes sense given that technology managers, facilities managers, and CIOs need real information for lifecycle and real estate planning. “After we explained the benefits of the MTA program, we had unprecedented spike in people wanting to change their coursework to obtain the MTA certification,” Sasson said.

“We realized we wanted to offer Masters level training to a wider audience,” he said. “By creating the Masters Technology Architect program, we can really help the industry. We must be able to create a great experience for the end client by having the design community and the programming community work together to create the best solution.”

NanoLumens is joining forces with artificial intelligence and computer vision company AdMobilize to co-host a webinar on the importance of audience measurement and LED display performance. The webinar, titled “Using the WHO to Explain the HOW: The Importance of Audience Measurement with Regard to Display Performance,” will take place on April 19, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Registration is now open here.

“LED display technology is a game-changer, but in order to maximize its potential you need to be able to measure its performance,” said NanoLumens vice president of global marketing Joe’ Lloyd. “At its core, an LED display is designed to communicate with an audience, so the performance you assess will naturally be framed by the nature of that very audience. Your business has information, emotions, and behaviors that you want to impress upon and inspire within your audience, but to determine how effective your messaging is or will be, you need to grasp who exactly you are reaching out to. Who makes up your audience?”

On the webinar, the LED experts of NanoLumens and video intelligence specialists from AdMobilize will delve into the importance of understanding and measuring audiences, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Together, they will address their collaborative audience measurement technologies that keep display owners a step ahead of their competitors—and their consumers. The experts will explore how audience measurement technology works and why it is so effective, where the technology will go from here, and how business owners can incorporate it into their display networks.

“As a holistic data collection infrastructure for digital signage systems, AdMobilize specializes in providing display owners with actionable data-driven insights to help businesses quantify the ROI their display technology provides,” said AdMobilize head of marketing and sales Mike Neel. “Though LED displays can shine brighter than the sun, it is the integrated AdMobilize audience analytics tools and diagnostics controls that truly guarantee display owners will never be left in the dark.”