Saturday, January 4, 2020

Better than Being There – Three Keys to Delivering UC&C


I want to preface this by stating an important point. Nothing will ever replace the value of face-to-face meetings. A firm handshake to close a deal or the ability to spend time with people building strong relationships is incredibly important. This article is about building on top of the personal relationships and handshakes by using technology, processes and space planning. The emphasis has to be on the building on and adding to and not trying to replace.

I can’t help but get incredibly excited about where we are heading with Presentation, Collaboration and Conferencing or Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C). This message is really directed at the AV/IT players in the industry. When we look at UC&C and what AV/IT can do with this space, the impact is fascinating. The AV guys are already masters of the physical space with lighting, acoustics, displays, sound and control options, but when you add in the full offerings of UC&C, the usage model changes in unbelievable ways. Let’s explore some examples together and then we can break them down into a few categories to see what really makes this work for us.
I feel I have to re-emphasize that when I refer the UC&C, I am referring to a system that includes all that the telephony systems, IT systems and audiovisual systems have to offer. In this article I am going out of my way to emphasize the audiovisual part.

These are just three of the many advantages of AV/IT delivering UC&C:
  • The Environment - These advantages include a more natural environment for videoconferencing with proper audiovisual integration that includes proper lighting, acoustics, camera, microphone, loudspeaker placement and display sizing and placement. All of these things can give the users the feeling that the remote participants are in the room.
  • Collaboration - Another advantage is the ability to use audiovisual integration by placing document cameras in the ceiling and using processors that can support the ability to literally slide a document across the table to remote participants and have them edit and collaborate on these documents using the network.
  • Escalation and Integration - One more advantage is having the systems fully converged so when the users are on a VOIP call and they need to move it to a videoconference, they can just shoot an Instant Message to invitees and open a video call on the fly. The user should even be able to book resources on the fly as needed for Ad Hoc meetings and escalate a meeting from a call to a full-fledged collaborative videoconference with just a few clicks.

One thing that is mind-blowing to me is this thought: what if we actually put cameras, displays, loudspeakers and microphones in the chairs of “remote participants?” Some UC&C integrators (AV Systems integrators) are doing just that to give participants the feeling that remote participants are “in the room.” Schools do this for kids that can’t attend school because of illness. As a product there are robots that travel the halls and attend classes via videoconferencing for students and allow the students to be a part of their regular school environment while they recover from a medical procedure or medical treatment. Why can’t we do this for business remote collaborators as well? See. Told you. Mind blown.

When looking at how UC&C will evolve in the near future, we see how UC&C meetings will actually be better than being there (remember I said that it will never replace the handshake, but at times when added to face-to-face it can be better). How can I say that? I say that because there are times when these meetings take place that participants will need access to resources that are only in their home office locations. Having a UC&C meeting means that participants can be in two places at once. This means that they can have access to all of their resources that are in their home location and be in a remote location at the same time. To me, at times, that can be better than being there.
These days I have the pleasure of working for an amazingly advanced company, WolfVision. WolfVision has one of the most powerful collaborative, presentation and conferencing products on the market. I am humbled by the products that this company produces and the people I get to work with here and abroad.

The vSolution Cynap is an example of one of the phenomenal products that these amazing people produce and support. Cynap is a multifunctional collaboration, presentation and conferencing system. It is an all-in-one collaboration and presentation solution for BYOD, recording, streaming, with a document and media player. The Cynap system is equally suitable for both education and business. It has an attractive intuitive user interface with unique flexible control options. It's perfect for standalone usage, or further enhanced when used with a WolfVision Visualizer. Cynap has powerful processing and a proprietary FPGA that ensures smooth handling of all content materials and best in class graphics processing (allows simultaneous 1080pHD 30fps recording and streaming when needed). The supported output resolution is 4K / UHD and it has 2 HDMI OUTPUTS that support separate independent outputs for dual screen mode when moderating content in presentations or collaborating.

Here is an overview of the major features of Cynap:
  • Cynap has a Media Player – that can play, display, record, and stream all commonly used media. This provides incredible versatility during meetings, lectures, and collaborative sessions. Information is easily available, whether it is recalled from a locally connected USB stick, accessed via a connected network drive or accessed via the cloud. The Cynap is not bound by many of the limitations often found on other devices in this category.
  • Cynap does Webcasting – Lectures, presentations, and meeting content can be streamed, and additionally, students or work colleagues on the same network as the presenter can receive and record a stream using our vSolution Capture app. Recipients can even personalize their own copy of the recording by adding notes and annotations in real-time.
  • Cynap has Recording built in – Cynap is ideal for recording online content material for use in classrooms, online learning / distance learning environments. For business applications, Cynap offers a quick and easy way to record and distribute meeting content.
  • Cynap integrates with OpenCast LMS as a Capture Agent - When automation of content distribution is desirable, recorded files can be tagged with identifying metadata, enabling automatic file upload to specific destinations on an FTP server. This enables easy access to materials via LMS such as Blackboard or Moodie, and means that Cynap can operate as a fully integrated lecture capture or meeting recording solution if required.
  • One of the keys to the Recording and Streaming features is that both can be done simultaneously. Being able to do recording and streaming at the same time is unique for products in this class.
  • AND BYOD - The Cynap System offers an BYOD solution, suitable for smartphones, tablets, and laptops alike. Using an iOS, Android, Windows or Mac device enables information to be accessed from almost any source. AirPlay, Chromecast, and Miracast mirroring is supported, and up to 4 different devices can connect wirelessly to Cynap, and display on-screen content simultaneously in up to 4K UHD output resolution.
  • Additional System Benefits:
  • Web Browsing – Cynap has an embedded web browser. Users can go straight to the web and present or use content in collaborative environments without having to bring in additional computing devices. Cynap is a computer and needs no other devices for this type of feature. This also means that Cynap can access
  • Cloud Services – like Google Drive, Dropbox or Box and make all of the resources that a user would normally have available to them when using their own computers available when using Cynap. This also hold true when the user wants to access Network Drives. Because Cynap can access Network Resources and FTP – Cynap is perfect for enterprise environments where everything exists on the network as a resource. And when users need to conference in other rooms or other people to have face-to-face meetings,
  • Conferencing: - Cynap can use USB connected cameras and microphones and use the Integration with WebRTC – to host standards based conferencing in real-time. This is where true collaboration and presentations take on a whole new meaning, because adding the elements of annotating over all of your content for all participants (remote and local) to see and also annotate along with you truly allows for full collaboration..
  • Annotation/Whiteboarding – . You can use the annotation in a conference or you can just use standard whiteboarding and make up your own content on the fly or do some good ‘ol brainstorming. The moderated collaboration within annotation feature brings a whole new element of collaboration to annotation allowing for up to 100 users to collaborate via the network at the same time.
  • Sanpshots - While you are presenting, whiteboarding or annotating you can take snapshots of what you are doing and save them to USB, the network or wherever you would like for retrieval at a later date and time. The Snapshots – can come in quite handy for meeting notes, lecture capture support along with the recording feature and for the capture of brainstorming discussed earlier in this article.
  • Cynap has an optional feature pack to integrate with your existing O365 accounts and point-to-point Skype for Business conferencing. There are also feature packs for live streaming for webcasting and learning management systems.

These are just the major features of Cyanp. Contact WolfVision to learn more - www.wolfvision.com or sales@wolfvision.us

Now, WolfVision is truly one of the industry’s best examples of when Presentation, Collaboration, and Conferencing or UC&C can be better than being there. 

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