Are You Hindering Business Communication by Using a Conference Phone?

How important do you think meetings are for your business efficiency? According to a study by Attentiv, American businesses conduct 11 million meetings a day with an average of nine participants each.

You’d think with so much of the labor force relying on meetings we’d have perfected them by now. You’d be wrong. Another statistic from a Verizon study showed an astounding 89 percent of participants thought they lacked the proper technology to conduct meetings.

That’s because many businesses are still relying on table-based conference phones. 

Instead, you can do a better job of engaging employees with a conference room system that offers better audiovisual quality, integration, and reliability. Here are some of our favorite products we recommend adding to your San Jose, CA business in 2018.

SEE MORE: 5 Reasons Your Office AV Needs a Much Needed Upgrade 

Digital Signal Processors 

For greater network and audio reliability, we recommend replacing those old-school phones with DSPs. Most major video conferencing companies like Crestron, Polycom, and ClearOne offer their versions of this technology. These DSPs can process various sound signals to create one digital output, meaning fewer echoes and interruptions.

You can also connect a variety of devices to the DSP according to your conference needs. Add as many USB microphones as needed for all participants then add source components like a laptop, desktop or Blu-ray player. Opt for DSPs with integrated SIP dialing so you can make calls through the processor. 

Collaborative Software 

When designing a video conferencing system, you can go with hardware-based (like DSPs) or software-based systems. The latter is commonly referred to as soft codec integrations. You've likely already used some of these in your office including Google Hangouts, Zoom Rooms, and Skype for Business. 

These are ideal when you have a lot of remote employees looking to join the meeting through their desktops or mobile devices. In smaller business or startups, they're also popular since they're a cheaper option than hardware-based solutions. 

The negative—as anyone that's been in one of these calls can attest—is they tend to be more unreliable. For this reason, we recommend going with a hybrid conference room solution that can incorporate the best of hardware-based and software-based solutions for the ideal balance for your business. 

A Full Tabletop Upgrade 

One excellent example of a hybrid system is the Crestron Mercury. It's an all-in-one tabletop solution that is compatible with the top software collaboration platforms out there.

This piece of hardware serves as a conference phone, but it adds a ton of cool features to the mix. You can schedule rooms using its touchscreen, connect mobile audio through Bluetooth, and use Air Media for wireless presentations and more.

It also offers much better audio quality than you would get by just putting a conference phone on speaker. You get the top-of-the-line microphone and speaker quality as well as built-in occupancy sensors, so the room prepares for participants as soon as they arrive.

Still wondering what the best approach is when upgrading your conference room phone? We’re here to help you find the ideal system for your business. Just click the “Let’s Talk” button at the bottom right of the page to reach out to our customer support.