The Challenges of Multi-Device Meeting Rooms and How It Hampers Meeting Room Experience

Financial Services

In the modern working environment, efficient meeting rooms are at the centre of optimised operations. Able to seamlessly connect in-office staff with remote workers, as well as banking staff with customers, meeting rooms are essential to operations. 

With telebanking and virtual client meetings on the rise, meeting rooms must offer a seamless experience. Otherwise, staff, stakeholders and customers suffer. For staff, an under-optimised meeting room makes it hard to connect with fellow employees and discuss processes.

For stakeholders, organising meetings with an array of different organisational heads and deputies can cause a logistical nightmare. For customers, an inability to engage in basic and yet professional forms of communication can mean that they take their business elsewhere.

In a highly competitive banking environment, internal operations must be efficient and effective in order to achieve positive external outcomes. By operating with meeting rooms that are filled with different devices, the challenges are endless. 

Luckily the solution is relatively straightforward. By implementing video conferencing solutions, meeting room devices can be cut down to just the basics. Despite removing numerous devices, there is no value lost, only value gained. 

What using multiple devices means for your organisation 

Advancements in technology mean that there are now many different devices, from many different companies that essentially perform the same function. With so many devices on offer, it would make sense that each employee within an organisation has a preferred device.

However, while facilitating methods of communication, both internally and externally, bringing all of these devices into one meeting room can be detrimental to the meeting outcome. In fact, multi device setups can make the meeting room experience fragile and under-optimised. 

Uncertified products

When compared to certified products, uncertified products pose both short term and long term risks. For example, uncertified products are synonymous with technical difficulties. Resulting in meeting participants transmitting and receiving bad audio and video. 

In the long term, uncertified products provide no future proofing. This is because, with uncertified products, there are no guarantees that, should a platform update their services, the product will still be compatible and therefore, able to be used. 

Not seamless at all

Multi device meeting rooms actively work against providing a seamless and productive experience for those hosting and attending meetings. For example, one worker might be due to present, but face difficulties and cause time delays as their device hasn’t been set up to connect to the meeting room. 

In another example, a virtual client meeting might be scheduled to take place, however, the finance and banking employee cannot find the right cable to connect their device to the overall display. Resulting in a meeting that either can’t take place, or a revised meeting that must take place only over the phone. 

Consistently inconsistent

When it comes to multi device meeting rooms, the only consistency is that these setups are consistently inconsistent. Whether there is an incompatibility with room infrastructure, individual device issues, or products that need upgrading, there are always hurdles present.

This in turn ensures that meetings, the cornerstone of operations in the modern banking and finance environment, are far from comprehensive and smooth. Affecting everything from productivity levels to the institution’s perception amongst customers and stakeholders. 

How multiple devices diminish the meeting room

In an increasingly contemporary modern working environment, meeting rooms are proving crucial to operations. Without meeting rooms, there is no way to bridge the gap between remote and in-office workers.

Additionally, without meeting rooms, it becomes hard to service the needs of modern finance and banking customers. This is particularly important when you consider that new age customers expect telebanking and virtual client meetings as basic requirements of banking.

However, multi device meeting rooms can act as a barrier towards offering these basic requirements to modern customers. In fact, multi device rooms impact everything from the dynamics of the meeting room to the user experience and importantly, meeting outcomes.

The dynamics of the meeting room

Multiple products means that there are multiple dynamics at play. Some may be looking at the meeting room’s central infrastructure while some may be operating off their own, individual devices. 

As a result, there are multiple devices and associated cabling to contend with. This means that some people may not have enough room to set up their own devices to take notes. It may also mean that audio and visuals are obstructed. 

This in turn works to ensure that there is a hierarchy present in meetings. With meeting room dynamics different for each participant, employees might conform to stereotypical roles. This means that higher rank employees share their thoughts while newer employees stay silent.

The experience of the meeting room

The above dynamics mean that everyone within the meeting will have a different experience. Thanks to a lack of consistency, there is no capacity for synchronous communication. This essentially means that the person on the other end of the meeting is at a loss.

As different, uncertified products project varying quality in terms of audio and visuals, there is the potential for audio to cut in and out. Video can also be affected. Namely, through lagging issues that cause screen sharing information to appear blurred. 

Meeting outcomes

When the dynamics and the experience of the meeting room is different for the host and each of the attendees, consistent, productive outcomes cannot be reached. With the meeting room integral to seamless, optimised operations in the modern workplace, this is less than ideal.

For employees operating under this set up, meeting outcomes can be quite confusing. With key pieces of information being missed due to audio or visual issues, key data or project information may be misinterpreted or missed altogether. 

For customers, a meeting characterised by audio, visual or connection issues can prove costly. This is because inconsistencies in communication makes it hard to garner the information necessary to secure a loan, apply for a credit card or set up a business account. 

What adopting an all-in-one solution can mean for your organisation

Replacing multiple, uncertified devices within a meeting room with an all-in-one solution comes with a myriad of internal and external organisational benefits. By elevating the meeting room experience, video conferencing solutions lay the platform for valuable meetings. 

Whether meeting internally with staff or externally with remote employees or clients, these video conferencing solutions add value. Take Logitech’s product suite of video conferencing solutions as an example.

Rally Bar is an all-in-one video bar for medium to large rooms, which eliminates the need for laptops or desktops. By ensuring that Rally Bar runs supported video conferencing applications such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, a level of consistency is brought to meeting rooms. For employees, it means that whatever meeting room they are operating in, they know how the devices work. 

This kind of consistency across meeting rooms breeds familiarity. In turn, familiarity reduces the occurrence of meetings running late or being conducted in a compromised fashion. With the ability to plug and play, employees know how to connect and share without issue. 

By reducing instances where meetings start late or where they must operate with audio only, productivity also increases. With every member of the meeting able to see and hear the same information, the whole finance and banking institution is on the same page.

While this consistency helps finance and banking customers receive the same messaging, no matter what employee they speak to, it also ensures that operations are seamless. In a world where instantaneous access to information is prioritised, this bodes well with customers. 

Another Logitech product, MeetUp, is an all-in-one conferencecam with an ultra-wide lens designed to service small rooms. MeetUp means that banking and finance institutions can use smaller meeting rooms and still meet easily. This, of course, helps the organisation optimise real estate and also ensures that there is always a meeting room available should last minute employee, client or stakeholder meetings arise. 

On the other hand, Logi Dock is an all-in-one docking station with meeting controls. Logi Dock helps to ensure that remote workers have access to the same professional tools as in-office workers. This consistency is greatly important as it offers customers consistency as well, no matter if they are attending virtual meetings with in-office or remote workers. This is key as consistency in business helps breed trust.

Video conferencing, all at once, all-in-one

In the modern day finance and banking institution, meetings are key. Without a meeting room, a great divide develops between remote workers and their in-office counterparts. Without tools for virtual communication, banking customers may look to take their business elsewhere. 

In an effort to counter these negatives, it can be easy to create meeting rooms where employees bring their own devices in order to connect and communicate. However, multi device meeting rooms are not the answer. 

Affecting everything from meeting room dynamics to overall meeting room experiences, multi device setups can hinder audio and visual quality and thus, the message being conveyed to meeting attendees. 

Video conferencing solutions provide a viable alternative. By replacing multiple devices with all-in-one products, there is value added, not value lost. Able to facilitate more efficient and effective meetings, video conferencing tools ensure there are no barriers to communication. 

By providing both synchronous and consistent communication channels, internal and external operations are optimised. For staff, these solutions ensure that each employee has access to the same information. For customers, it facilitates meaningful conversations with staff.

In an age where employees or customers can be requesting information or an opportunity to converse from virtually anywhere in the world, seamless communication is paramount. Otherwise, internal operations suffer and external perceptions surrounding efficacy plummet.