INTERVIEW Taking a modular approach As meeting spaces evolve, organisations must deploy technology that adapts to people wherever they work, says Huddly’s Knut Helge Teppan Hybrid work has become the new normal for organisations around the world, with many employees embracing the ability to work from home when needed to improve their work-life balance. According to a 2024 report from Cisco, 40 per cent of office interactions now involve remote participants. This flexibility means that an increasing number of virtual meetings are taking place daily, and delivering a positive user experience has become a key concern. “If you’re in a virtual meeting and you can’t fully follow the flow of conversation, see people’s reactions or understand who is speaking to who, you’re not really part of the meeting,” says Knut Helge Teppan, chief design officer at Huddly. “Misunderstandings will happen, engagement will drop and people will leave meetings more tired than they should.” According to Teppan, the key to building efficient spaces for virtual meetings lies in deploying modular audiovisual (AV) solutions with components and devices that can be added, removed and repositioned to cater for different rooms and scenarios. “Having just one vantage point isn’t enough anymore,” says Teppan. “Meetings are dynamic, and the technology should be too.” Huddly’s AI-driven multi-camera system, Huddly Crew, is designed to help organisations build a modular AV system. The kit comes with three cameras (with the option to add more if needed) that use AI to connect with each other and frame meeting participants from multiple angles. “The cameras collaborate,” explains Teppan. “They learn the room layout and participant positions dynamically. This is a foundational part of modularity; not just being able to plug and play but having the system understand what’s happening and adapting accordingly.” Audio also plays a significant part in the user experience. In fact, during Huddly’s testing processes, users indicated that the video experience felt worse if the audio quality was poor, compared to when AV was strong. This led to Huddly developing the Huddly C1, a video bar that includes AI-powered microphones and high-quality stereo speakers, all integrated into one device. “The Huddly C1 is designed to provide everything necessary for a small meeting space so users can set it up and use it efficiently,” says Teppan. “However, it's also able to connect with the Huddly Crew and scale up. It’s a complete BY AMBER HICKMAN Photo: Huddly “ Meetings are dynamic and the technology should be too” 90
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