Meetings are organized and conducted in almost every corporate office and business establishment for specific purposes. This gathering of individuals in a meeting room is usually to deliver information and new knowledge, discuss crucial issues and team projects. Recent studies have shown that there is a 250 percent increase in the total meeting hours as compared to a 17 percent increase in the working-age population from 1999 to 2016 in the US alone.
Knowing that the business world is competitive in nature, businesspeople need regular personal interaction more than ever. It is through these business meetings a company can increase its network by creating new ones. With the changing IT landscape, advancement in internet speed and reliability, organizations prefer video conferencing and telepresence technologies over expensive and time-consuming travels.
To leverage the new technology in the collaboration industry, a smart computing device is a must-have in meeting rooms. The talk in technology circles is increasingly turning toward the “post-PC era” in which the trusted desktop PC or a mini-PC such as intel NUC box ceases to be the main portal through which people interact with the data environment. Here are a few drawbacks for using a desktop PC/Mini-PC or Intel NUC in meeting rooms:
Drawbacks for Using Mini-PC in meeting rooms
1. Security – Keeping an open PC in a common area has never been a good idea. There is absolutely no control over what the users might use the device for, and it is difficult to hold anyone accountable in case of an unforeseen circumstance.
2. User experience – Using a PC for video conferencing compromises the user experience. A new user is usually clueless on how to operate the system for video conferencing, logging in to the system or signing into a video-conferencing application. These situations often end by calling in the IT team for assistance. This not only is a waste of time but also severely affects the productivity of an organization.
3. Maintenance – A major challenge of using a PC in meeting room is maintaining the common PC. You will need a dedicated IT admin to make sure device is always up and restarted regularly to avoid performance issues. The admin also needs to make sure that all necessary applications are installed ahead of time and that the users do not change/corrupt the preferred settings.
4. Screen sharing – When you use a common PC for video conferencing in meeting rooms, sharing your laptop screens to the remote end becomes a challenge. Since your AV system is connected to a common PC and the content is present in the laptop, it is not possible to share the laptop screen to the remote parties without joining the video call from your laptop. This would lead to multiple users joining the video conferencing from the same room leading to lot of echo and audio issues defeating the overall purpose of having a common meeting room device.
5. Collaboration – A PC will provide only limited features that are offered by the applications you use. A video conferencing application may not provide unified collaboration features such as annotation, white-boarding, calendar integration, snapshot collection, etc. Also, many a time users receive a meeting invite link to join the video call and sending these meeting invite link to the common PC is another challenge.
For the enterprises, the task ahead is not just how to transition from a PC. Rather, the goal should be to integrate devices like Zoapi into existing infrastructure. Zoapi provides a unified solution for video conferencing and collaboration and is designed to overcome all the above-mentioned problems.
Advantages of Zoapi in meeting rooms
1. Wireless Presentation – Zoapi is a low latency, high performance wireless presentation device which will instantly make your meeting room ready for BYOD collaboration. Zoapi support all major platforms such as Windows, MAC, Linux, Android, IOS and Chrome OS. Zoapi allows multiple users to wirelessly present simultaneously and collaborate on the go.
2. Video Conference and Content sharing – Zoapi combines the advantages of both wireless presentation and video conferencing. When you join a video call using Zoapi, multiple users need not join the same video call from the room. You can share your meeting room display to the remote end. The local participant can wirelessly present to the Zoapi device. With Zoapi, remote users will be seeing your meeting room display instead of your laptop screen which is a major value add.
3. Security – Zoapi provides a single application interface for the user so that your meeting room device does not looks like an open PC. Users will not be able to perform any tasks apart from the provided services. IT admins need not worry about users installing/uninstalling application or changing the settings of meeting room device. Zoapi secures all the communication using advanced encryption technologies so that your data is always safe.
4. App store – Zoapi provides an app store where curated Video conferencing apps and productivity apps will be pushed to your Zoapi device from the cloud. It takes away the burden of IT team of maintaining and managing apps in the meeting room device.
5. Remote Management – Zoapi provides a cloud-based admin dashboard, where the IT admin can easily monitor and manage the Zoapi devices. The IT admins also receive emails on the device status and usage.
6. Stats and analytics – Zoapi collects useful stats on room utilization and user behavior. Admins can view and analyze this data on their dashboard to evaluate room usage efficiency and to understand user behavior.
7. Digital Signage – Zoapi allows the meeting room to be used as digital signage space. You can configure you meeting room display background from your online dashboard and can use it as a dynamic noticeboard to welcome your guest or advertise internal events.
8. Annotation and Whiteboarding – Zoapi provide many collaboration tools which can be help improve the meeting productivity.
9. Affordable – The Zoapi device comes at similar cost of the normal PC/mini-PC/Intel NUC with a lot more added value. And since there are no software downloads, or dial-in numbers, you are saving both time and money. Everyone can enjoy the benefits of unlimited meetings with no restrictions. This makes Zoapi a popular solution for enterprises.
10. Misc – Zoapi also has features like Wireless access point for guest users, Integration with room calendar, Cross launch feature to joining Video calls using invite links, meeting reminders;
To summarize, the idea of a post-PC world should not by any means suggest that we will someday be in a “non-PC world.” New developments like Zoapi actually enhance the old by extending comfortable and familiar capabilities into new paradigms. Organizations today are pushing for more productive, in-person and remote meetings to avoid expensive travels and wastage of time. Zoapi offers a great value of benefits as compared to using a native PC/mini-PC/Intel NUC, at similar cost.
With advanced collaboration technology and cloud services, you will offer lot more services to your users instead of using a vanilla desktop.
Try Zoapi Hub https://zoapi.com/zoapi-hub-hardware/
Know how Zoapi can help you upgrade your meeting rooms https://zoapi.com/zoapi-hub-features/
Watch Zoapi quick product intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndDGDioTXow
