Huddle Spaces…Perfect for This Moment in Time
"New technology is not about adding more; it's about needing less."
– Quote from Crestron Electronics
With everything that’s happening in these uncertain times, organizations & businesses alike are looking for the best solutions to keep their people healthy & safe. The term “social distancing” has come to the forefront, but it doesn’t just refer to "socializing" – it refers to the safe distances we need to keep between each other in general, during the newly categorized Coronavirus “Global Pandemic.” For the purpose of keeping their people as safe & healthy as possible, many companies are choosing to ask them to work remotely – hoping that the less staff members working together in the same space, the better it will be for everyone.
For this reason, large corporate meetings held within the same physical space – like boardrooms or expansive conference rooms – are being put on hold for now. With that said though, some collaboration does need to still need to happen in order for businesses to continue to do what they need, to disseminate information that’s vital to their missions. That begs the question – if folks are not able to currently meet in the usual ways, what alternatives exist to get presentations & important information out to the people who need to see & hear it? Two words – “Huddle Spaces.” Also known as Huddle Rooms – they are (as defined by Cisco) “Small, casual spaces equipped with collaboration technology, where a limited number of people can meet, (usually up to six), on a scheduled or ad-hoc basis.” These smaller, specialized spaces can fully accommodate the collaboration technology necessary to “meet” with employees working from home, so organizations can move forward with important presentations. If key personnel do still need to report to work at their brick-and-mortar offices, Huddle Spaces allow them to have much smaller gatherings when necessary, while providing them the opportunity to direct collaborations from headquarters to remote team members.
Additionally, Huddle Rooms have a number of other advantages – like lower facilities, electronics, & equipment costs – which combined, lead to an overall smaller carbon footprint for any organization. These economized meeting spaces are perfect for modern office floor plans, which are tending more & more towards flexible work areas that can be reconfigured instead of the traditional stationary office/cubicle models of the recent past. The use of Huddle Spaces optimizes real estate, making work-area flow much more functional.
As for the technology necessary to make for Huddle Spaces functional, there exist many AV Tech manufacturers who are able to accommodate the growing need for employees to work remotely. One of them is Logitech, whose AV Tools help to video-enable today’s changing work requirements by providing excellent collaboration & productivity solutions. Customers & employees alike are depending heavily on communication platforms in order to stay connected & keep business moving forward! Also important to the success of the current work environment are Cloud-platform applications. Zoom, StarLeaf, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, BlueJeans, & many others, are all fine solutions for getting-on with the business of business.
The current commercial Audio-Visual customer is specifically
looking for the following:
• The ability to Share Content Wirelessly
• Ease-of-use for making calls or joining meetings – without the hassle of having to schedule an organization’s large meeting space
• A solution that can be deployed at a smaller scale, which is easy to install & manage
• The ability to set-up meetings at a moment’s notice
• Lower collaboration costs
In general, the deployment of Huddle Spaces & associated collaboration technology is creating a whole new category of opportunities for organizations & AV integrators alike. According to a “State of Enterprise Meeting Rooms” report by Wainhouse Research, the desire for Huddle Rooms is opening-up the potential for the creation of 30 – 50M new Huddle Spaces over the next few years. The ratio of Huddle Room development is now 25:1 – as opposed to the need for larger “traditional” conference rooms, which is now 800:1. And that is quite a telling statistic!
If your organization is looking to create a collaboration space befitting today's specialized demands, CAPTUS SYSTEMS is the perfect fit for the task. We have the expertise to design, engineer, build, & install meeting spaces of any size.
Yeah. We’ve Got This!