84 INTERVIEW Beyond good enough audio Shure’s Josh Blalock explains how high-quality sound is transforming meetings in the age of AI Step into any modern workspace and you’ll see how AI-powered collaboration tools are changing the ways we work in meetings: conversations are flowing more naturally, fewer eyes are darting to keyboards and there is a growing expectation that the technology around us should fade into the background. However, all of this relies on participants being able to hear clearly. For Josh Blalock, director of collaboration ecosystem and engagement at Shure, AI can only amplify human connectivity when the foundational audio is clean, consistent and trustworthy. “Shure is enabling human-to-human collaboration that is more impactful, efficient and focused during meetings,” he says. “The distraction of technology – that’s where good audio and conferencing equipment comes into the mix by ensuring you’re not having to think about it.” It’s a reminder that “good enough” audio was made for the era of simple phone calls, not for intelligent systems that now capture, analyse, summarise and act on every spoken detail. “Audio that is good enough captures every sound – from air conditioners to typing on a keyboard – but the idea of good enough is no longer good enough,” explains Blalock. “We’re not just talking about speaking to each other, meetings are enabling further productivity with AI-powered tools that work behind the scenes for us. You can’t just turn over good enough data to these systems. Clear, consistent audio from a brand that you know is going to deliver the most seamless, cleaned up data is vital.” When asked what distinguishes genuinely effective collaboration experiences from setups that simply connect people, Blalock answers quickly. “The distinguishing mark is a solution that 100 per cent truly enables you to abandon the thinking of technology and just focus on collaborating together,” he says. Blalock believes technology will become increasingly invisible, yet continue to drive greater efficiencies, in the future He cites Facilitator, an AI-powered tool in Microsoft Teams as an example. “Facilitator mimics another colleague being present to do a bunch of tasks that we as humans don’t want to keep doing because they’re distracting,” he says. “It should be so easy you don’t have to think about what you’re having to do with the technology.” This frictionless ideal becomes especially relevant when resolving the problem of BY ALICE CHAMBERS
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