Commercial Integrator April 2021 - 8

#TECHTRENDING THE BUZZ ON TECHNOLOGY AFFECTING INTEGRATORS
#DigitalSignage
Digital Signage
Has Evolved from
Interactive to
Gesture-Based. Where
Will It Go from Here?
A FEW YEARS AGO, just about
every InfoComm trade show
booth was proudly showing off
interactive displays and advocating for them as the future,
saying people had gotten so
used to texting and scrolling
on their mobile phones and
portable devices that of course
they'd want to do that with big
screens too.
Now, though, we're more
than a year into the coronavirus
pandemic and the idea of touching a device that anyone else
had touched without a thorough
cleaning brings with it a strong
level of cringe-worthiness.
Enter the era of gesture-based digital signage and
artificial intelligence to make
everyone feel better.
We've seen this concept
rolled out in big box retail
stores, where shoppers can
virtually try on clothes without
heading into a changing room
and decide essentially on the
spot if that new outfit is the
right fit for them, not just sizewise but stylistically too.
Advancements in augmented
reality and virtual reality have
been a godsend for the retail
market, allowing sellers to blast
sales and promotions to shoppers as they walk by and inviting
them to interact with products
in new and touch-free ways.
Jaime Bettencourt, senior VP
of the global account management team for Mood Media,
told me in an earlier interview
there are more " mission shoppers " and not as much " dwell
time " in stores these days,

but those quick trips in and
out don't mean safety is less
important, she says.
Retailers are generally quicker to embrace new technology
and new ways of thinking than
other vertical markets, so it'll
be fun to watch what comes
next in that space and see how
it translates into other spaces,
says Bettencourt.
›› #DigitalSignage, #Retail,
@MoodMedia

#Displays
Frost & Sullivan: 95
Percent of Meeting
Rooms Have 'Minimal
Technology'
AS IF THERE WEREN'T already
enough stress and frustration
these days among workers
from pandemic-driven upheaval of their routines, now we're
learning that most employees
are feeling even more worry
from the lack of modern or
even functional technology in
their office's meeting rooms.
From simple telephones to
flat panels, the equipment used
to support information sharing
in most meeting rooms today
is " quite basic, " said Marjorie
Daniel, director of systems
marketing at Shure.
Research also suggests that
what equipment there is in
most meeting rooms can be a

8  Commercial Integrator  APRIL 2021	

CM2104 pp08 Tech Trending.indd 8

challenge for meeting participants. According to one survey,
87 percent report frustration
and stress due to technology
failures in meeting rooms.
In 7 Steps to Improve Virtual
Meetings in the New Era of
Work, Frost & Sullivan (F&S)
assess the impact of new
workplace demands and cloud
adoption on audio equipment
and services.
They point out that a range
of events, from the COVID-19
pandemic and civil unrest, to
extreme weather conditions,
have created a huge demand for
virtual collaboration capabilities.
" The expected proliferation
of distributed work is among
the top factors causing organizations to re-think their meeting
rooms, " the report says.
" The objective of this rethink
will be to power 'anywhere connectivity and anytime collaboration that enables agile teams
and processes,' " said Daniel.
But where do you start if, as
research suggests, 95 percent
of meeting rooms are currently
ill-equipped for the anywhere
connectivity we all crave?
As if there weren't already
enough stress and frustration
these days among workers
from pandemic-driven upheaval of their routines, now we're
learning that most employees
are feeling even more worry
from the lack of modern or

even functional technology in
their office's meeting rooms.
From simple telephones to
flat panels, the equipment used
to support information sharing
in most meeting rooms today
is " quite basic, " said Marjorie
Daniel, director of systems
marketing at Shure.
Research also suggests that
what equipment there is in
most meeting rooms can be a
challenge for meeting participants. According to one survey,
87 percent report frustration
and stress due to technology
failures in meeting rooms.
In 7 Steps to Improve Virtual
Meetings in the New Era of
Work, Frost & Sullivan (F&S)
assess the impact of new
workplace demands and cloud
adoption on audio equipment
and services.
They point out that a range
of events, from the COVID-19
pandemic and civil unrest, to
extreme weather conditions,
have created a huge demand for
virtual collaboration capabilities.
" The expected proliferation
of distributed work is among
the top factors causing organizations to re-think their meeting
rooms, " the report says.
" The objective of this rethink
will be to power 'anywhere connectivity and anytime collaboration that enables agile teams
and processes,' " said Daniel.
›› #Displays, @Shure
commercialintegrator.com

3/15/21 2:42 PM
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator April 2021

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