The What: BenQ has added to its Premium RP Series of interactive flat panels (IFPs) with voice control powered by AWS. Directly integrating AWS with BenQ's Saffi voice-assistant technology, the RP Series IFPs use a voice-enabled remote that is designed to simplify instruction tasks and introduce more flexibility in the classroom.

The What Else: The voice capability is available as an Amazon skill and can access the deep features of the Premium RP Series through simple voice commands. Perfectly suited for active learning classrooms, the voice-activated 4K UHD IFP lineup includes the 65-inch RP6501K, 75-inch RP7501K, and 86-inch RP8601K. A quick firmware update is available to integrate Saffi to units already out in the market.

"When we introduced the RP Series IFPs, our goal was to deliver a new and powerful way for teachers to command the classrooms and to drive learning potential for students through cloud collaboration, multiuser account management, and support for campus text and video broadcasting systems," said Bob Wudeck, senior director of business, education and CinePro solutions at BenQ America Corp. "Voice control is a natural expansion of these features. For over a year, we've been working with AWS to perfect the integration of voice. With our latest update, teachers and students will enjoy a more seamless, flexible and productive experience. BenQ's Saffi IFPs are the future of smart collaboration."

The new BenQ Remote offers tools to help teachers keep the classroom on task. These tools include a pointer that creates a virtual spotlight that highlights areas on the screen and brings students' focus to key content. In addition, the remote features a freeze screen function, enabling instructors to check and ensure the safety and legitimacy of content on their laptop before sending it to the screen for students to view.

When combined with BenQ's EZWrite 5.0 platform, the IFPs become a hub for sharing ideas, notes, and opinions. Participants can capture images of the screen and make annotations on the screen from their devices, regardless of their location. In addition, files can be downloaded and uploaded to cloud services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, directly from the screen without the hassle of connecting USB cables and other devices.

The IFPs also come with dual pens that allow two users to write or draw simultaneously with different colors. Within Brush Mode, participants can also use a physical paintbrush to meld technology and art. With the handwriting recognition feature, the IFPs instantly convert written text, numbers, forms, and drawings into easily legible digital text without having to switch modes.

The Bottom Line: With AWS built into BenQ's Saffi remote, the Premium RP Series IFPs further the line’s interactive experience and collaborative technologies. Once the Saffi skill is enabled, staff can simply access the flat panel's extensive menus via voice for easy operation. In addition, they can play specific content on the screen, change modes, and more without having to be next to the panel—saving time and making operation smoother.

The explosion of Voice Assistant (VA) technology in the consumer segment has been phenomenal, with 37 million units of smart speakers installed worldwide as of the end of 2017. This technology is starting to make waves into the B2B environment, with Futuresource Consulting predicting that by 2022, 82 million professional AV displays and room control devices shipped will be voice-enabled. This excludes usage of dedicated consumer smart speakers in healthcare, hospitality, and education.

“Much activity has been occurring within the consumer space around voice assistants and smart homes and this is translating into greater interest in the B2B space,” said Chris McIntyre-Brown, associate director at Futuresource Consulting. “End-users and service providers are asking OEMs if they can also take advantage of VA and voice control. Increased productivity and efficiency along with improved customer service are two of the primary drivers.”

This new report from Futuresource Consulting maps out the B2B applications and competitive landscape for voice control and voice assistant technologies. It is clear that the major brands reviewed in the report want to be part of the action as it is strategically important. Controlling the user interface will enable companies to deepen their relationship with users, offer personalized services and the ability to undertake deeper user analytics.

Amazon is leading the voice revolution in the consumer space and is continuing to build out its Alexa-for-business suite of capabilities with new features, including smart scheduling integrating with Office 365, Exchange, and G-Suite calendars. Amazon has also partnered with leading companies like Crestron, Polycom, and Cisco for office control, automation, and communication applications.

IBM, another pioneering company in the B2B space, announced earlier this year that its AI platform ‘Watson’ was being extended with a white label VA solution for third parties. It’s no surprise that there is lots of interest and excitement in the application of this technology. However, McIntyre-Brown said that, “It will take time; most companies are in the evaluation phase of how best to implement voice and what level of capability and intelligence will be most suitable for their customers' use cases. In terms of adoption, B2B will lag behind consumer adoption, not least because of data privacy and security concerns. Voice is not quite there yet, but it is not far off, and the number of pilots and meaningful integrations and partnerships is increasing.”

According to Futuresource, corporate will be the lead off vertical for implementation of VAs. This is where the firm sees the greatest benefit being offered in terms of improved productivity, time saving, automation, and more obvious compelling hands-free use cases. However, the report highlights some interesting user case studies that are being implemented in other verticals such as healthcare, hospitality, and education.

Design matters. This is a universal truth for all aspects of our lives, from business to technology. Now more than ever, design is critical to the success of the new technology that is gracing our homes and our offices. One area where the design importance may surprise you? Voice control.

While AI personal assistants are already pervasive in our cars and homes, they’ve been slow to move into the workplace—until now that is. Soon, AI assistants and the use of voice control will be used within our business offices to create productivity and a higher level of collaboration. Before we can take advantage of this technology, we must consider the design of our offices and meeting places and how these voice activated devices will fit in existing designs.

Businesses can purchase the best equipment on the market for voice control. However, without the correct placement of the equipment and lack of correct room design, it will all be in vain. Let’s discuss the impact of AI assistants on room design and how you can prepare.

The Importance of Design on AV

Your voice control equipment is an important part of your AV or audio-visual system. In your meeting spaces and conference rooms, you may have large monitors for project viewing, speakers and microphones for voice, and even lights for better visuals. When it comes to this system, the room design is of utmost importance.

For example, a meeting space with only one monitor for viewing would not be behind the audience. Lights that are made for better visuals would not point directly into the audience’s eyes. Design can create a space for collaboration or a space for frustration. And now, a meeting space must be made for virtual meetings, as well as physical ones.

With voice control now on the horizon, design becomes paramount for effectiveness. Even if you have a perfect meeting space now, there will be changes you will need to make for using AI assistants such as Alexa for Business. Let’s discuss some of these changes in more detail.

Speaker and Microphone Placement

Depending on the devices that you choose, there will be limits to how far you can be from the equipment for the command to be heard. And before you choose devices, you will want to get an idea of the size of your meeting or conference room.

Businesses will want to be able to issue commands gently, without needing to repeat or use a louder tone. During meetings or conferences, it is impossible to yell across the room to a device that is located too far away from your voice. The key is to create a more productive meeting, not a louder one.

Businesses will also need to consider other voices during discussions and how this will affect the voice control system. An AI assistant that picks up on words from the audience may try to interpret them as a command, creating confusion for all.

All About the Acoustics

As much as speaker and microphone placement matters, the acoustics in your conference room matter too. Unnecessary echoing can inhibit the proper use of your voice control devices and can harm the audience’s ability to understand.

Room designs will need to incorporate sound-absorbing ceilings to their meeting rooms to reduce noise and create a better environment for listening and speaking. These ceilings and other sound-absorbing materials will also help to reduce echoing in large conference rooms, creating a space for listening and speaking together.

Room design also hinges on the furniture and fixtures that are placed in your meeting spaces. To ensure proper sound, echo reduction and ease of communication between you and the voice assistant, furniture should be soft to absorb sound. Hard furniture will deflect sound, create sound waves that bounce and effect echoing and noise.

We may also see the use of acoustic panels for both design and sound-absorption in office spaces. Placed on walls around your room, these panels absorb noise to create clearer soundwaves between the speaker, the audience and the voice control devices.

Proper Integration Requires Collaboration

Proper integration of an AI assistant and voice control system requires collaboration between the business and the vendor integrating the devices. Business leaders will need to understand how they conduct meetings or conferences and be able to demonstrate their needs and concerns. Testing may need to be carried out to ensure the voice control devices are in the proper areas and to make sure any issues are caught prior to their use.

It is critical that both AV systems and AI assistants are implemented and created for each specific user environment. With this technology being used in many different arenas, the main task is to implement it specific to the business’ unique needs. From small meeting rooms to large and open conference spaces, voice control has the ability to change the way you communicate and the way these spaces are designed in the very near future.

This blog was originally published on New Era Technology's website.

Since the stone age, our industry has sought a method to incorporate increasing levels of technology in support of curriculum and pedagogy into the class environment. Many times, sadly, technology has been installed purely for technology’s sake, and had little to do with specific curriculum.

It had become a practice to install lots of devices like video/data projection, dedicated computer sources, VHS/DVD players, sound systems for pre-recorded content and voice amplification, distance learning, recording, and camera manipulation—just in case there was a need. The shortcoming here is that by the time the technology was needed, the instructor had long forgotten how to use it or the technology itself was outdated or non-functional. Even worse, educational institutions were making investments in technology that were inappropriate for the curriculum with the intent to prepare for the future.

Pipe Dreams

What if the industry standard when designing the classroom environment and its related technology was to enhance the user experience, to be more intuitive and easier to adapt to changes in pedagogy or space, and more manageable, with less hardware and computer code writing for integrated control systems?

Why do classrooms need to be saddled with complex devices and control interfaces that make the space less useful than envisioned, and more technology laden than necessary?

User Control Interface Utilization and Challenges

The advent of voice recognition has enhanced the user experience in our cars and homes, reducing the need to punch buttons and scroll between screens while driving or enjoying our home entertainment centers.

Today, devices such as Alexa, Google, Bixby, Invoke, and Watson, to name a few, can offer options in classrooms that respond to individual requirements for each room and/or instructor, using a standardized and customizable set of voice commands that can automate and simplify the user experience to the technology in the space. Is voice recognition technology the answer to all spaces and needs? That’s debatable, but certainly an option to be considered.

Voice recognition has come a long way in the past couple of years, but it is not perfect. Voice commands must follow a structured command protocol. If it falls out of a specific order, the result can be a less than desirable experience for the user. For example, the user is presented with a control panel (buttons or touchpanel) that often requires them to follow logic in selection of sources and the requisite display of content onto a projection device or devices. The user would then press a few buttons and when things appeared to be unresponsive, the disruption would cause instructors to become frustrated and create work-around solutions to achieve the expected results. The remote-control system, and the hours of computer programming necessary to create a ‘user interface’ that is understandable and adaptable to new technologies and applications in the classroom have become quite complex to design, install, and debug.

As a result, technology that was designed to enhance the educational experience can end up standing in the way of instructors conducting their designated class. If we add the complexity of the flipped classroom, active learning, team-based learning, and problem-based learning environments, this discussion is exacerbated even further.

Intertwining of Design and Education

Technology manufacturers have been developing consortiums to develop standards that will bridge operability between systems to expand operational control that rivals the more traditional, labor-intensive touchpanel form of remote control. However, will voice recognition replace the touchpanel control system that we have all come to know and love? I am not sure I would take that leap yet.

The future will undoubtedly see greater development of options intended to enhance the user experience in the classroom, not only for the instructor but for the student as well. This includes expanding the functional control of the classroom beyond the purview of the instructor and to its students. The active learning classroom is an example of this: the need to enhance the experience of everyone within the room.

One such active learning classroom configuration utilizes collaboration stations with five to seven people throughout the room. Each collaboration “pod” might include a flat panel display for students to share individual PC outputs, or combine them onto their local screen. During sessions, it is often desirable for groups to “report out” certain findings or results of their work with the entire class. This requires any given pod to be able to gain access to the other pod displays, or a large screen display elsewhere in the classroom, that all can view. Additionally, many such environments offer the instructor the capability to share information from their PC onto a single large display or to each pod, thus reducing the need for a traditional teaching wall.

The ability to manage these signals from multiple pods, as well as the instructor’s PC, to various distributed displays or a large classroom display can be confusing for instructors and students alike. The end result is that many such applications tend to be curtailed either by a remote control system that is overly complex, and/or an instructor that simply does not want to deal with the complexity of managing these devices.

The holy grail of maximizing flexibility while minimizing user frustration and reducing costs. Voice control might provide the key to this, allowing persons to more easily communicate the desired function and improve the overall user experience.

AdMobilize will introduce its MATRIX Voice dev board to the digital signage industry at DSE 2018 in booth 2369 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Put simply, the company that introduced AI-powered audience analytics to the digital signage industry is now bringing voice recognition functionality to both manufacturers and systems integrators alike through its MATRIX product line,” said AdMobilize co-founder and CEO Rodolfo Saccoman. “We believe that voice engagement technologies will make digital signage a more compelling and sticky communications solution for an even broader range of vertical markets. The combination of audience analytics and voice recognition functionality truly represents the next chapter in this constantly evolving industry and AdMobilize is at the forefront of making this chapter a reality.”

Available for $55.00, MATRIX Voice will integrate with any voice recognition service (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or any other third-party service) at any time. “MATRIX Voice puts the power of flexibility directly in the hands of the manufacturer and systems integrator, freeing them from being confined to any one of the currently available voice services,” Saccoman said. “This enables plug-and-play custom voice solutions to go mainstream.”

MATRIX Voice is also designed with security concerns in mind. For retailers who do not want Amazon listening to, recording, and storing all store information on its cloud, MATRIX Voice provides the capability to process voice recognition at the edge and not strictly in the cloud.

MATRIX Voice can be run on a Raspberry Pi or standalone, thanks to an optional module (ESP32) that equips it with a micro-controller as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. MATRIX Voice has an eight-microphone array, a 3.5mm audio output jack, two speaker outputs, a 3A audio amplifier, 24 expansion GPIO ports, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of Flash, and the second-tier Spartan 6 FPGA that allows manufacturers and integrators to customize the functions of the GPIO pins as well as implement one’s own audio and voice algorithms.

From a software perspective, the company has created three library layers to program the MATRIX Voice. The first layer, HAL, allows integrators to program it in C++, providing the closest access to the hardware. The second layer, MATRIX Core, contains protocol buffers and ZeroMQ that enable designers to program the MATRIX Voice in more than 40 languages for interoperability with any pre-existing code base. Finally, the third and highest layer, MOS (MATRIX Open System), empowers users to program the MATRIX Voice in JavaScript with as little as one line of code, as well as take advantage of the company’s remade infrastructure, which includes dashboard, remote deployment through its CLI tool, simple communication between devices (crosstalk), and much more.

“Let’s say you have 50 digital screen directories already installed within a mall,” Saccoman explained. “With MATRIX Voice you can now place it within the top or bottom of the directory (depending on space and optimal audio clarity for the microphones) and then use a third-party voice recognition service to create custom wake words and responses to enable the shopper to ask, ‘Directory, where is Macy’s?’ and have the directory respond with the route to Macy's from the shopper’s location. All sorts of voice activated cues and information can now be programmed into a digital signage network, opening up the door to a whole new series of applications.”

According to the company, AdMobilize’s aim is to bridge the gap between the digital revolution and disruptive computer vision analytics, infusing machine learning into formerly unintelligent displays.

The company’s plug-and-play Audience, Crowd, and Vehicle Analytics solutions convert digital signage solutions and physical-world installations into sophisticated audience intelligence devices and environments capable of capturing metrics such as dwell time, viewer age, gender, and emotion; people count, and much more. Its growing portfolio of global partners reflects the new reality that every vertical market can benefit from computer-vision enabled digital signage displays.