Smart conference rooms will change the entire user experience, it will continue to bridge the gap between booking, technology, reporting, operations, and facilities. Gathering the details of the reports and allowing self-bookable rooms in non-client-facing rooms can elevate the experience while providing a productive facility.
AR/VR for law – Recruiting, Conferencing & Training
While still emerging, AR/VR is opening new doors for the legal industry, allowing a new platform to communicate, immerse and collaborate.
• Soft skill training and simulations are part of the scenarios for improving communication, conflict resolution and assisting with developmental soft skills that can improve client interaction.
• Virtual tours and onboarding can be a specific part of an onboarding process, technology continues to provide new alternatives to the traditional onboarding process by offering new employees training videos of the legal footprint or bring in potential joiners to an innovative approach of the offices and surrounding areas.
• Virtual events and meetings can now be coordinated virtually to enhance and orchestrate an event to be hosted virtually. This means recreating venues, offices or a new location where every participant can now join this virtual conference, plenary, and breakout sessions as you would in person.
It’s early days for legal, but there is an appetite for its adoption of this tool within the legal industry, specifically as the possibilities continue to expand based on the needs of the market.
Hybrid Meetings – New and Improved
Hybrid isn’t going away — and law firms need tools that make remote participants feel equally engaged with attendees in person or those joining remotely.
• The right collaboration tool makes a big difference, many firms have made decisions on a primary tool, however, let’s not forget, to be agnostic and allow for all hybrid platforms to work seamlessly across all conference rooms and with all collaboration tools.
• The remote experience is key, focusing on large event spaces and its venue is equally important for the hybrid audience; Video and audio framing enhances the meeting and ensures good video coverage as well clear audio which is always a challenge. Everything is dependent on the configuration and how the microphones are installed, for instance, regardless of microphones, ensure you have the capacity to mute the other mics and reduce background noise
• Audience participation can be difficult at times, however ensuring the meeting runs as a produced event, can help elevate the experience, this means spotlighting various participants, creating presets ahead of time, validating the speakers and introducing layouts as well as good content which can enhance engagement.
• Remote participants and hardware are as important to the meeting as any conference room or divisible space. The goal for the entire meeting should be to get the same level of experience regardless of location. Ensure all your speakers in conference rooms are shown in similar view on camera and that your remote speakers have similar hardware, focused angles on camera and the sound is clear and consistent when they present. Providing guidelines within your organization for large events can be extremely helpful for those who are new to events.
The result, remote attendees have the same experience as those in conference rooms, most importantly, it provides a similar encounter through the meeting, reducing the focus on technology and increasing the participation in the content of the meeting.
Technologies for Large Event Spaces
Divisible rooms, large multipurpose rooms and conferencing spaces are now getting fit out with the latest technology which is available in the industry, providing a positive balance between technology, focusing on the most utilized events and specific needs of those will allow you to design a great event space without over-engineering or investing a hefty amount of capital without or little benefit.
• The architectural design of the space is one of the most important things to consider prior to identifying what technology will need to go in the room, both go hand in hand, identifying materials, acoustic treatment, stage lighting and environmental will have a tremendous impact on the functionality of the technology. All the above must be considered and discussed prior to any technology design put forward.
• Room Configuration and audience orientation is important as well, keep in mind we are building integrated systems that will be permanent and most likely will not move, therefore having a good set of potential events that occur frequently, should be considered and analyzed as your benchmark for good viewing distance, viewpoints, sounds distribution and of course camera placement for your hybrid events.
• Audio is one of the most difficult areas to cover, especially in busy locations such as metro NY, London, Paris where most of the legal market will always have presence. Being surrounded by other companies, which create a mix of frequencies can cause significant issues. Ensure you perform acoustic and radio readings of the space to identify potential issues with interference and overlapping channels. As part of the audio distribution, there are options to be able to deploy a good surround audio system that is interchangeable with stereo, which can be selected based on your event as well.
• Video distribution and coverage can sometimes have a negative impact on what you are trying to accomplish, adding displays or LEDs everywhere is not always the best approach. A suggested solution is to identify the focal points of the room, setup and meetings; once this has been identified, the video should follow in a way that draws the audience to the presenters, provide support to the content and not overpower the presenters. Similarly, the displays should also be able to provide support to the presenters, many times we forget about our panelists and ignore reinforcement locations which can decrease the experience and provide interruptions.
• Hybrid integration is usually a challenge in large locations as we are focusing on integrated design spaces. In this case, it is important to consider the room setup, camera angles and let us not forget about the audience participation. The flow of the event should happen with ease throughout the room and including the virtual participants. There are various tools in the market now that allow the remote audience to feel like they are part of the actual space; as a presenter, this gives you the opportunity to genuinely react to your in-house and remote audience altogether.
• The Support team will run the event; as part of a fixed installation, the technology team does not have the capacity to continue and change for every setup, therefore, a heavy consideration should go into the control area where the teams will reside. Having proper technology in the backend is just as important as what is visible to the clients, being able to easily switch between setups, microphones, content, videos and to create a full show from the control room can only happen with the right audio, video, lighting, control and simple to use routing interfaces.
Event spaces are unique to you and your firm, this location will be the main focal point to any part of the suites, therefore the user journey with technology should start at reception, booking, digital signage, wayfinding, informative displays and a well-supported event with the right tools can provide a very positive experience for your audience. Regardless of the layout, participation or collaboration platform, the encounter should always be engaging to the guests who join and present from the space.
Better Tech for improved Collaboration
For legal professionals, AV technology isn’t about convenience — it’s about credibility, confidentiality, and clarity. The right tools will improve client experience, support better hybrid understanding, and keep your firm prepared for the ever-changing and demanding technology industry.
If your current setup still feels outdated and complicated, now is the time to modernize and introduce a new set of tools that can simplify the process, generate a global standard of conference rooms, hardware, and a digital footprint within your organization. The goal of any deployment should be to provide a consistent approach to all your end users and the firm’s clients regardless of their location. Same look, feel and of course experience to ensure virtual communication should be as close to as in-person as possible.
The Future of AV is here, countless tools are available to help you inspire, innovate and elevate your experience.