Amber Hickman |
Flexibility plays a crucial role when businesses evaluate their real estate options for the hybrid working world. Frost & Sullivan’s The Transformative Effect of High-impact Spaces on Modern Workplaces report found that 46 per cent of organisations are modernising office spaces and adding more technology to improve the in-office employee experience.
“Businesses are recognising the importance of outfitting all office areas to increase flexibility, nurture their culture and maximise the value of their real estate holdings,” says Angela Comitini, director of alliances at Q-SYS. “As employee expectations continue to evolve, employers are recognising the value of transforming traditional meeting rooms into more sophisticated environments for hybrid collaboration. This is especially true in high-impact spaces.”
High-impact spaces are defined by analysts at Frost & Sullivan as dynamic, scalable and sophisticated meeting areas – such as divisible rooms, auditoriums, training rooms and lecture halls – that are equipped with professional-grade audiovisual and control platforms to enhance hybrid collaboration and productivity.
“Q-SYS enables these experiences in Teams Rooms by providing a broad portfolio of Microsoft Teams-certified devices, allowing organisations to select the appropriate audio and video peripherals to meet the specific needs of each space,” says Comitini.
For example, Q-SYS VisionSuite uses artificial intelligence to track presenters in a meeting room and integrates with the new Microsoft Multi-Stream capability within Teams Rooms. This feature enhances hybrid meetings by enabling up to four simultaneous camera streams from a single room, providing both in-office and remote participants with a comprehensive view of everyone in the space.
“Users can get a dynamic view of the room with features including presenter tracking and active talker switching,” says Comitini. “This experience is further enhanced by the user’s ability to choose what to focus on at any given moment, leading to greater engagement and hybrid collaboration.”
The number of deployed high-impact spaces will grow by an average of 15 per cent per year and reach 14.4 million by 2028, according to Frost & Sullivan’s report. Comitini attributes this to two key factors: the adoption of AI and changing employee expectations.
“AI is significantly transforming how people work and is becoming foundational to our collaboration methods,” she explains. “We are beginning to see more AI innovations and capabilities emerge across different workplaces, which is driving inclusivity, productivity and collaboration. Furthermore, recent years have taught employees to collaborate productively and more efficiently from home, and they no longer want to return to the office to sit in small meeting spaces with limited engagement.
“Businesses must repurpose their existing spaces to meet employee expectations and leverage new capabilities and collaboration tools to ensure an inclusive and collaborative environment that champions equity, boosts productivity, enhances workforce satisfaction and, most importantly, builds a culture where all employees can thrive.”
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