Hello Alexa, please start my meeting. The glow of the OLED turns into a warm picture, as we see the Teams meeting room technology app fire up and the participants start to trickle into the room.
The lighting scene changes and the dimming is set to perfectly match the new light that is being output by the display. The temperature also adjusts, hands-free. [related]
As the meeting room technology senses more people, it realizes it will require additional ventilation in order to keep the room at a comfortable temperature.
Finally, the white noise in the room is tuned in order to make everyone at the table audible, but to create certainty that no one outside the room or not on the call can hear any of the conversation.
On the other side of the world and across the United States, a team of sales, engineering and marketing professionals enter the meeting. They beam into the space on a set of holographic projectors and they appear to be sitting right across the table.
This isn’t your grandfather’s holograms, either; these people look so real you have to slap their image’s face just to make sure you haven’t entered the twilight zone. Everyone is here, and the meeting can begin.
Yes, This Image of Future Meeting Room Technology is Possible, If Not Likely!
Perhaps this story feels a bit unrealistic, but trust me, it is not.
What you just read represents the future of collaboration in a world where IoT, AI, VR and AR intersect perfectly to blend the real and the remote; a tiny bubble of collaboration, where, finally, after decades of firewall issues and painfully obtuse control systems, your presentation technology just works.
Nobody asks if you can hear them when they enter the room because they know you can. The audio is clear and the connection is perfect.
Perhaps most importantly (but most frequently ignored) is the fact that this is all done in a secure environment that is protected by facial recognition, biometrics, and local encryption that is tied to your physical identity.
Without incident, the meeting begins and the entire process is launched with nothing more than your voice. This apparent utopia is a mere few years away, as all of these technologies are rounding the corner from ‘disruptive’ to ‘mainstream.’
With Change Comes Great Responsibility
Future meeting room technology is exciting, but the business for integrators is certain to change.
These technologies driven by IoT, virtual and augmented reality and AI are the catalysts for an exciting, but vastly different future.
Preparation for this type of future will require a new mindset that embraces more services and new learning platforms that support these emerging technologies, but just like the industry has done for decades, its mere evolution and it can be done with a commitment and willingness to change.
Listen In: Does Artificial Intelligence Integration Belong in AV? The Great Debate on Episode 22 of AV+
In fact, I think this meeting room technology future will be so rich that the role of the integrator will continue to become more important, and almost unrecognizable due to the way collaboration, communication and connectivity are firmly at the center of our existence.