Clean Shoes?

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How do you prepare when meeting a client for the first time or delivering that crucial presentation?

If you’d have asked me a year ago I’d have said; clean shoes, iron shirt, for the gents amongst us we’ll choose an appropriate tie, and I even have a set of cufflinks which my wife gave me that always create conversation...

All of this has now changed, as the pandemic means that we now don our “Zoom Suits” and only dress in business attire from the waist up, presenting from home in our slippers...

But as we move forward, things are likely to evolve again. Companies will want to get their people back together in person as soon as it's safe to do so, and with the UK vaccine programme picking up pace, this may be closer than we think. Nothing works better for the charismatic sales executive than being in a room and bouncing ideas off colleagues, even if the client is remote.

Moving forward, it is my belief that there may always be someone outside the room, either because they are isolating, ill, or unable to travel due to company budgetary or environmental constraints. So the next generation meeting rooms need to be mindful of this and as such need to be a little different from the meeting rooms of old.

In the hospitality industry, we need to remember that we have so much more to offer than just the technology for meetings. However, to enable this new style of meetings to work effortlessly, getting the technology right will be vital.

Why bother to host meetings in Hospitality venues?

Hospitality venues offer so much more than being at home:

• People - welcoming, smiling, competent people who are there to help ensure your event runs smoothly and you have everything you need; no slamming doors or playing of loud music degrading your event!

• Space - where a team can meet either socially distanced, virtually or a mixture of both.

• Hospitality - food and drink on demand so that your time is spent with your team or customers doing business and networking with no trips to the kitchen required.

• A dedicated focused environment - with no doorbells ringing, homeschooling interruptions or pet distractions.

• Quality connectivity - generally hospitality has much better internet (bandwidth) than many of us have at home, ensuring the meeting or presentation goes without a glitch.

• Quality surrounding - rather than hanging a spare shower curtain behind you or worrying that the window cleaner will suddenly appear, Hospitality venues have well-appointed rooms with soft furnishings that give a much better sound & ambience to calls and discussions, whether they are on or offline.

So what tech can I add to enhance the meetings offered in my venue?

In order to offer the optimum environment for meetings at your venue, there are a few things you can ensure you have in your armoury:

• Well distributed sound - having a quality ceiling speaker system installed in your meeting rooms will ensure that the sound from a presenter or video call is heard by everyone in the room, without the need for a PA. Many sound systems hired by Events Companies are PA systems. PAs consist of a pile of speakers, they are normally in big black boxes and are either on stands, ground-stacked or hung and they blast out sound from where they are positioned, usually from the front of your room. The problem with this approach is that the first few rows of delegates can often become deafened, whereas those in the back of the room can struggle to be heard or hear. VR or vocal reinforcement does not use big black boxes, it is about lots of smaller speakers working gently across a room to evenly distribute the sound throughout the space. As the name suggests, VR reinforces the sound of the speaker’s voice via the multiple speakers positioned throughout a room. This in turn allows delegates to be spread out and still hear what is being said, without either being deafened or having to move forward and get closer to other delegates in order to hear. VR is a definite advantage in this time of social distancing.

• Large format projection and screens - making sure all of your delegates can clearly see what is being presented or discussed is important, especially with requirements for social distancing. This might mean looking at installing a ceiling-mounted or hung screen & projector to use the advantage of height available in your space. If you have limited ceiling height please see One to All & Webview below.

• BYOD - bring your own meeting is the evolution of BYOD. With everyone now capable of running video conferences and meetings via their own device at home, BYOM systems enable you to scale that meeting, with a few simple connections, to deliver the meeting on the room infrastructure: a large screen, sound system and microphone system. This enables those colleagues who are present in the room to join with remote colleagues dialing in, where everyone can see the same screen viewed in the room. The good BYOM systems have all the functionality of BYOD, but all delivered in the room as well as on the call or stream of remote colleagues.

• Whole room microphones - in order for effective BYOM and video conferencing to happen, coordination of devices is required through a centralised microphone system. If clients have an in-person meeting with remote colleagues at your venue and they want to present on one call using separate devices this will not work without coordination, as the individual devices will all interact and feedback, making it a worse experience than calling from individual kitchens or spare rooms! Discrete ceiling microphones can be installed to cover your whole meeting room and take the sound of the talking delegate onto your video call to ensure everyone is heard.

• One to All & Webview - many of the good BYOD & BYOM systems have the ability to share a presentation within a room enabling delegates to see slides on their own device and save them to their device. This is useful not only if you cannot get a big screen in place in your meeting room, but it also eliminates the need for delegates to keep disrupting the flow of the meeting by taking photographs of the projection screen.

What’s the future for larger-scale events and conferences?

How we address the need for larger-scale events and conferences in the short to medium term is a question that is topical for many businesses and one that may or may not be cost-effective to own, but it's something you may be asked to consider:

• Virtual events - these kinds of events do not need to be hosted by hospitality venues, they require a large dedicated space, a stage and a green screen background, which can enable you to present just about anything you want to a remote clientele. If this is something you want to explore you will need to talk to your Events Company. The equipment you will need may not be something you want to own, but instead hire in and then offer on to clients as another meeting option!

• Hybrid meetings - these are like large scale BYOMs for presentations and conferences for large numbers of delegates. You can now run meetings in your larger spaces with a video call or stream going out to remote delegates, routing presenters, radio microphones and on screen presentations to a stream or call as well as showing this on screen for the distanced delegates in the room. This type meeting is likely to be something you would want to get your events company involved with to ensure it runs smoothly for all delegates wherever they are and to make the event as dynamic as possible, but you need to get the in room AV infrastructure right to make it happen.

What can I do now?

Whatever type of meeting you are facilitating, and however technology evolves to meet the needs of our ever changing world, CGA are here to help you get the most from your meeting rooms.

CGA Integration … Making hospitality sound great!

Meeting Room & Events AV in restricted times

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This year the situation we find ourselves in is unprecedented.  We at CGA know that as a result, Hospitality venues have very little budget at present, so we thought that some ideas and tips on how to make the best of your current AV may be helpful. 

As the Covid situation changes, we all know that Government advice is constantly changing and varies throughout the UK.  Currently the general guidelines reflect the need for gatherings in small groups, (rule of six), no shouting or singing, and keeping your distance.  These rules pose challenges when it comes to delivering quality face to face meetings or important conference calls, but with carefully planned technology and AV, these difficulties are not insurmountable.

Facilitating better calls

Are your clients currently making business calls from their spare room, kitchen or lounge?  Do they feel their home is not delivering the correct ambience for meetings, or do they find themselves not in a ‘business state of mind,’ (as they still have their slippers on!)  Coming to your venue could help them to get into work mode, focus better and present the best version of themselves.  Wearing their business attire and presenting themselves in a meeting room that sounds great and has a better camera than their laptop, could increase their productivity.

All the design elements you have invested in; great decor, soft carpets, comfortable chairs and quality AV can come together to create an optimum environment for a video call.  The presence of soft furnishings helps to eliminate echo and reverberations, often too prevalent in kitchens and modern minimalist homes, which detract from the quality of sound in virtual meetings.

Ensuring delegates can be heard

To effectively get your message across in a room of socially distanced delegates, you need what is called a "Sound reinforcement system."  This is best done with multiple ceiling speakers spread through a room, as each speaker gently reinforces the sound of the delegate speaking and saves them from shouting, delivering even sound throughout a room without the aggression and front of room energy generated from a PA system. Many of your function rooms will already have ceiling speakers for background music, and with care, these can be retasked without decoration, to make a vocal reinforcement system to help your delegates deliver safe and effective presentations.

Delivering Hybrid meetings

Even if we are only allowed to have a small number of delegates in our rooms and they have to be socially distanced, it is still possible to enable them to successfully meet with distanced colleagues via a ‘call’ if you get the AV in the meeting room right.  Current AV allows your existing radio microphones to be linked to a call, or for a dedicated ceiling microphone to be deployed to cover a whole room to more effectively bring together delegates who are both at the meeting in person with those dialling in remotely.

Enabling large scale virtual events

Although it is no longer possible to gather everyone together into one room for key presentations in an old-style company conference, did you know that your lectern or radio mics can be linked to a ‘call’ with an HD camera to make a live stream to remote delegates, at the same time as presenting in your function room?  A small group of individuals can reveal the big-ticket items and key corporate messages to everyone in the company, without geographical bias, from your venue.

Whatever type of meeting you are facilitating, we are here to help.  If you would like to find out how your current AV system can be modified to address the issues we face in these current times, please give us a call, we’d be happy to help.

CGA Integration … Making hospitality sound great!

Size is not everything!

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“Wow look at that speaker! We’re not a nightclub!!!”

I have heard this and similar comments time and again when designing a sound

system for a client for the first time.  A regular misconception is that the physical

size of a speaker is directly proportional to the volume or loudness of the sound

system, but that is generally not the case.

It’s true that you will need larger speakers to produce sound for a live concert

than you would need to install in a restaurant, but as sound gets quieter, there

is a minimum speaker size that you will reach, after which you start

compromising on sound quality.

Sound reproduction is all about moving air particles or vibrations.  In a

loudspeaker an electromagnet is attached to a cone which amplifies these

vibrations as it moves forwards and backwards, making sound waves in the

surrounding air and pumping them towards your ears.

So how do we hear music which is made up of lots of different sounds? Without

going too deeply into the science behind this, the frequency of the vibrations

(the number of sound waves that go past a fixed point say every second)

governs the pitch of the sound produced.  To faithfully reproduce all the

different frequencies of sound in a piece of music, good quality speakers use

different sized cones dedicated to high, medium and low frequencies, hence

the need for a minimum sized speaker to accommodate these. Generally in

each speaker cabinet there will be a bass driver (for low frequency sound

waves) and tweeter (for high frequency sound waves) and these will ensure

that sound from all frequencies is covered.

High frequency sound waves generate small movements of a small loudspeaker

surface area (the smaller tweeter cone) and lower frequency sound generate

large movements of a large surface area (the larger bass driver cone).  Basically

the lower the pitch of the sounds you want to replicate, the larger the surface

area of the cone and the larger the cubic volume of the speaker box you will need.

Sound volume (measured in decibels) is actually down to the amplitude of the

sound waves.  The amplitude of a sound wave (or the maximum distance moved),

is a reflection of how much energy it carries, the more energy it has the more air

particles that are moved for longer and the greater the sound we hear.

So, if you want a warm and full sound system throughout all the areas of your

venue, then you will need to have enough surface area of loudspeakers to excite

the air in the space and enough cubic volume of speaker cabinets to enable a

warm and comfortable sound to be generated in all areas.  This will be delivered

through a combination of; the right number of speakers of the right size installed

in the right locations.

Here at CGA Integration we generally use the smallest speaker cabinet required

to deliver a good full range sound in the required space, often in many multiples

to ensure that the distance from the customer to the speakers remains as

constant as possible as they move around the space.  This is explained in

"why so many speakers?!" on the CGA Blog.

Here you will find lots of articles dealing with speaker solutions including

“design led sound solutions” where we explain how to minimise the visual impact

of speakers whilst still generating superior sound & “speaker location; a sound delivery”

which considers the different types of speakers available and where they can be

installed for maximum audio effect.

To sum everything up, if speakers are too small or too few are used, this can

lead to issues in sound reproduction and quality, which will affect the

ambience of your venue.  Just remember, your AV design is created that way

or a reason, as “you cannot change the laws of physics!”

Meeting Room Technology

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Technology is by its very nature a fast-moving industry.  As it constantly
evolves, so does how we interact with it, both at home and at work.  As
such the requirements for meeting rooms are changing quickly, with a
growing focus on much more visual and video content being demanded
across a wide spectrum of events & devices.

During meetings, delegates need to connect and collaborate on screen,
in real time and at the highest quality.  They need to be able to move
seamlessly across a range of AV and connectivity solutions, which in
turn need to be available in each, and sometimes multiple, meeting room
areas.

In addition to a main room, delegates need quality break out areas to
develop ideas from the main meeting.  These also need to be spaces
where they can relax and process new information or network and bond
with team members & their clients whilst still being supported by the AV
they need.

These meeting room requirements can be delivered by addressing six
main technological areas; HDMI, BYOD (bring your own device),
Connectivity, Video & Voice Conferencing, Speakers and Digital Control.

HDMI Connectivity

As we start seeing 4k TV’s at home, the minimum quality expected in
meeting rooms is now HD (1080p) resolution.  Most new laptops and
video devices are based on the HDMI connector that delivers digital
quality in high resolution.  Upgrading the connectivity in all meeting
rooms to HDMI is essential, although unfortunately VGA connectivity
is still required for legacy equipment.

BYOD

Delegates no longer just have a laptop which they wish to present from.
BYOD facilitates presentation on screen of content from iPads, iPhones,
Android devices, Chrome devices, Macbooks and laptops, all wirelessly,
from anywhere in the room.

With delegates regularly working in the Cloud and not actually having a
device that stores all their information, this does mean that the need for
a good or preferably impressive internet connection into meeting rooms
becomes essential.  

Delegates can then connect and present quickly and easily using
Chromecast and Airplay as they might at home, or through a useful app
quickly downloaded to their device.  BYOD also facilitates wirelessly
delivered screen sharing; enabling two or more users to present their
content on screen for comparison and review.

Connectivity; touch screens

We are all too familiar with the touch screen functionality of our portable
devices, phones and tablets.  Once delegates have their presentation or
image on screen in a meeting room, they want to be able to touch it and
move, explore, explode or manipulate what they are presenting.  All of
this is possible with a simple USB connection to the screen. Once this is
applied, suddenly the screen can be an extension of their Windows or
IOS operating experience, allowing full interaction on the screen.

Video & Voice Conferencing

Historically dedicated equipment was needed to launch a video
conference (VC) call, this needed to be used by all parties involved
and the telecoms provider needed to provide a solid connection or
bandwidth between all the locations.  But now VC has become ‘the
norm’, and Skype, webex and a range of other video and voice
conferencing facilities are now available in the Cloud.

This means that if a key delegate is unable to travel but wants to
attend a meeting and actively participate in discussions, it is possible
to use such services to bring remote delegates up onto the screen
and hear them clearly through speakers.  In addition, they can share
their desktop computer on the meeting room screen, as described in
BYOD above, enabling them to make a presentation and discuss this
with the other meeting delegates as if they were in the same room.
In a more advanced or larger conference suite it is also possible to
bring remote delegates up on a separate screen to the data, so that
you can see more of the individual, including their body language and
hand gestures.

The move to the Cloud makes it much easier for venues to offer VC
connectivity. A simple USB & video connection to the delegates
Windows laptop or Mac, connects the in-room speakers, microphone,
camera and screen to the delegates call on their VC software.  This
ensures that the delegates has the company IT security that they need,
with the ability to share the call with all in the meeting room. The same
can also be done with a voice call from a mobile phone and all delegates
can be heard, and hear, through the installed ceiling microphone and
speakers.

Installed Quality Speakers

With video content and conferencing, you need both the correct image,
and quality sound which can be heard throughout the room. Speakers
on a television or a sound bar underneath it, are often only enough for
a small room.  If content is to be heard throughout a room, there is a
requirement for quality ceiling mounted speakers throughout. If rooms
are also to be used as private dining spaces, quality speakers are
essential to deliver ambient sound at a quality that reflects the food &
service of the venue to all diners.

Digital Control

As mentioned above, we are all now familiar with touchscreen control.
Centralising the control of the meeting room functionality; screen,
source, lights, AC, VC, etc, can all be pulled back onto one control
platform.  This gives venues and their delegates a tailored, branded
controlled experience, which does not rely on ‘finding the remote
control’ or physically finding a button to press.

Most of the modern display technology and certainly the screen
sharing products all offer the ability to personalise the display of the
system.  This allows venues to add their own Branding and personalise
any login instructions for delegates, making their systems clear and
easy to use. When delegates enter a room the screen can show any
message, logo, room name and instructions on how the delegates
can connect their device to work in the space.

A digital control platform does require some IT backbone, but not
only does it offer the client a better experience, but enables the
venue’s AV integrator to connect and diagnose any problems in real
time and enables the system to proactively send out warnings and
alerts before any hardware fails.

Audio Myths and Legends... busted!

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Over the years that I’ve worked in the Hospitality sector there are some statements that I hear time and time again, ‘myths and legends’ of AV that are passed on and often never questioned.  So I’ve decided to address a few of them, the ones that I hear most often, and hope that after you’ve read this you might look at your AV in a whole new light!

More speakers just =  louder sound

In the hospitality sector, our aim is to deliver a consistent guest experience, one which reflects your Brand and encourages repeat visits to your venue, or other venues within your group.  All your diners receive the same quality food & service, so all guests should receive the same quality audio. However, this is so often not the case.

If only a few speakers are fitted, this will lead to audio ‘hot and cold’ spots within a venue.  Taking the dining analogy, proximity to speakers will either make your guests dining experiences ‘loud’, if seated near to a speaker, or quiet for those seated further away.  You wouldn’t have areas of your dining room lit and areas in darkness, so why should this be the case for sound?  

If you install numerous speakers running at a low level, this can create an even and all encompassing sound.  It’s not that more speakers just mean a louder sound, it means that they can create a more consistent sound.  By installing a sound system in this way it will surround your guests, acting as an extension to your lighting and decor, to complement the food and service you offer.

Speakers are black and ugly

Speakers now come in a variety of sizes, colours and finishes.  Some speakers are even invisible and for those that are not, they can be sprayed in any RAL colour to exactly match your decor.  CGA like to get involved as early as possible in the design process to ensure that, where possible, speakers are integrated and hidden.  We can offer plaster in “invisible speakers” and have even installed these behind a gold leaf to deliver both a five star sound and aesthetic!

If the sound system requires visible speakers, these can be colour coordinated with your design scheme.  CGA can finish most speakers to any RAL colour.  If the grill or even the speaker cabinet is visible, this can be the same colour as your ceiling or wall, or if desired they can be finished in a coordinated colour to match other design elements, to give a fully coordinated appearance.  So although speakers are also available in black, if this isn’t the colour of choice it’s really not an issue!

But the speakers in the restaurant next door are tiny!

The tiny domestic ‘design led’ speakers that you see dotted around in certain bars and restaurants are often favoured by designers, as they have minimum impact aesthetically, but these are actually only the visible part of a much bigger system. Their size might be attractive if you are trying to minimise any visual impact, but when you install small speakers such as these, they only reproduce mid and high-frequency sound.  To get a full range sound you will always need to add a complimentary larger cabinet, (or bass bin), to fill in the warm full bass and lower sound frequencies which these tiny speakers cannot reproduce.

These ‘bass bins’ as they are referred to are much harder to place in your venue, as they invariably create a bass ‘hot spot’. A salesman might state that “bass is Omni directional, you can put a bass bin anywhere.”  This is an accurate statement, bass sound does spread in all directions, but it spreads from the bass bin and similar to the example given above when we looked at speaker numbers, if you have a table next to the bass bin guests there will hear the bass much more than those at a table placed further away, resulting in each guest having a very different audio experience. There are ways to work with bass bins to try to mitigate this effect, but if you fitted slightly larger full range speakers instead, this will ensure that all of your guests receive the same audio experience and consistency of sound as they move through your venue.  As we have mentioned above, speakers now come in many different colours and finishes so their size really shouldn’t affect the aesthetics of your interior design!

Why have a music player, I can use my iPod or Spotify in the Bar

Whilst there are many legal pitfalls in this statement, even if you can address these, a portable music player or streamed music source will just offer inferior quality sound.

Many digital sound formats are very heavily compressed to allow sound files to be sent over the internet as fast and as easily as possible. Unfortunately, once compressed, much of the ‘dynamics’ and ‘excitement’ is lost from the music for ever, so even if you have the greatest sound system in the world, it will still sound flat and lifeless due to the poor quality of the source material.  Amplifiers do what their name suggests, they just amplify sound, what you put in is exactly what you get out, only louder! So if you use a poor quality music source, you just get loud, poor quality music.

In addition to this, if you do have a sound system which uses an iPod as a music source, there is always the concern over control.  You run the risk of staff using their iPods and playing music that they like to listen to, as opposed to playing the carefully selected music playlist that is right for your customers in your venue.

When choosing a music content provider, always talk to them about the file size and compression rates they use.  Ask them to explain and demonstrate the difference between the same track on a CD and on their music player to ensure that the music quality is right for you and your venue.  

There are some exciting new technologies now available such as the revolutionary new British technology MQA.  It is still a compressed music format, but MQA offers better time alignment which considerably improves the quality of the music output from compressed files.  Once it has passed through the MQA decoder in the sound system, the track is reproduced in the same quality as the sound recorded by the artist in the recording studio!  In a quality hospitality venue why would you settle for anything less?

I hope that I have succeeded in breaking down some long standing AV ‘myths and legends’.  Obviously, each venue and every room is different and each desires to create a unique experience for their clients. Here at CGA Integration we pride ourselves on understanding customer needs and striving to apply the best AV solution every time. Why not contact us to see how we can make your AV work better for you in your venue?

Making Sound Improvements; Reviewing your AV for maximum impact

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When was the last time you reviewed your AV?  Does it always creep down the agenda as budget gets allocated to other projects?  

Making sure you are getting the most from your AV doesn’t have to mean a full scale refurbishment project.  By appointing a specialist AV consultant to carry out a review, quick fixes can be identified to help you to get the most from the AV you currently have, both for your clients and staff alike.  An AV review will also identify how things can be improved further with more investment over the longer term, to really make a difference to your venue and the customer experience that you offer.

Do I really need to review my AV?

Ask yourself a few simple questions;

• Is your current AV problem free?  
• Do you know what AV systems you currently have?  
• Do you still talk with the contractor who installed your AV system?
• Do your staff have the correct training to get the best from your current AV system?  
• Are you fully embracing new technology in your conference and meeting rooms?  
• Is your AV giving you the edge on your local competition?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No’, then you could definitely benefit from an AV review.

For example, if you offer meeting and conference facilities you will realise that modern delegates are very technologically savvy and have a lot of AV requirements.  Are your conference and meeting rooms offering the facilities to enable;

• BYOD capability
• HDMI connectivity
• HD resolution projection
• Interactive presentation facilities
• Collaborative meeting spaces
• Audio for conferencing from both phones and mobile devices
• Projection bright enough to view without dimming the lights, enabling delegates to still view their note pad
• Loud, even and clear sound and vocal reinforcement throughout a room to hide external sound sources and create the emotional impact required by the speaker or presenter?

An AV review can help you to determine how to offer all of these facilities effectively to business guests, helping to ensure that they continue to choose your hospitality venue.

What can I expect from an AV Review?

CGA Integration are specialists in sound.  We can attend your venue, survey, test and quantify the AV systems and review the hardware you currently have. We specialise in AV for restaurants, bars, spas and hotels, where we design, install and maintain AV systems across all hospitality areas from conference and meeting rooms through to lobbies and ballrooms.

As experienced installation and service engineers, CGA Integration will look holistically at your AV systems and review them, not just as a stand alone systems, but also as part of your overall trading system and how it currently sits with market requirements.  We will consider all aspects of AV requirements including those that affect both your staff and your customers relaxation and business needs.

An AV review by CGA Integration will ensure that;

1. Your AV systems are working as you expect
2. You are offered best options and paths for upgrades to maximise your AV effectiveness
3. You are offered the best and increased levels of support

Here at CGA Integration, we have often found that all some AV systems need is a little TLC.  With a few minor changes to facilitate new and additional functionality, existing AV systems can often offer our customers key differentiators to really help them to sell and upsell their hospitality venues.

So why wait?  Please get in touch to release the full potential of your AV systems and make a sound investment for your hospitality venue.
Info@cga-integration.co.uk