Creating a conducive and productive work environment for many businesses is priceless for their employees. Boosting team member productivity is step one in the rulebook for creating a globally competitive organization. However, how do we maximize productivity without risking employee burnout? Simply put, many employees waste considerable time troubleshooting, developing band-aid solutions, and implementing sub-optimal protocols due to the need for proper IT and AV solutions. In this article, we will talk about the best AV solutions a business can have:
Audio-Visual Solutions For Businesses
- Video conferencing tools
- Digital whiteboards and collaboration
- Video walls
- Audio systems
Video Conferencing Tools
Before we proceed with the consumer end of audio-visual solutions for businesses, let’s talk about the hurdles of employee management and how AV can help remedy these issues. Many companies post-pandemic implement work-from-home policies, especially with non-essential workers (employees not needed during an emergency) having remote positions.
When a business does not have a concrete system that streamlines its employees’ communication channels, what happens is that deadlines get missed, attendees forget meetings, and everybody goes to work confused, annoyed, or anxious. Moreover, because communication channels could be more streamlined, technologically challenged staff members need help cooperating with the rest of the team.
Proper audio-visual rooms inside your offices, including cameras, microphones, and projectors, can help connect on-site teams with remote workers. Moreover, it ensures that team members entertain each other’s ideas.
Because we have articles covering the must-haves for an audio-visual room already, we will go through the basics only in this article. To have an excellent AV room, consider the following equipment:
- Visual equipment can be televisions and video walls, but many businesses utilize projectors for flexibility. Ensure these displays are visible in the daylight and project crisp and vibrant colors.
- Sound equipment in a set (tweeters, woofers, subwoofers) is crucial not only for online meetings but for the AV room also to serve other relevant purposes, such as presentations.
- High-fidelity microphone equipment is crucial, especially since an AV room can be relatively big, and a subpar microphone might not create a crisp and audible sound profile. Ensure that you place microphones appropriately and have the appropriate types installed.
- Appropriate networking ensures that your meetings run seamlessly without connectivity issues. Use fiber wirings (or at least DSL cables with symmetrical upload and download speeds) as much as possible. (1)
- Of course, for video conferencing solutions, cameras are one of the most essential to have. Ensure that you utilize video cameras made for video conferencing. Ensure the cameras are easy to integrate with your current business technologies.
Digital Whiteboards And Collaboration
As we expand the depths of hybrid work, it is also vital that we keep face-to-face meetings in check. Businesses must provide appropriate mediums for their employees to cooperate and create insightful opinions about the company’s performance and the points for improvement both in management and retail.
In staff meetings, collaborative boards allow stakeholders and employees alike to visualize their ideas and let them take into a form that’s both visually appealing and easy to understand. Moreover, due to the collaborative nature of digital whiteboards, the staff can leverage technology and facilitate virtual collaboration, increase efficiency, provide elegant and streamlined solutions, and enhance creativity.
Moreover, allowing the staff to collaborate and chip in ensures that the business is entertaining solutions from the front end and that the team feels heard with their opinions. This approach, in turn, can reduce team member churn rate. In summary, digital whiteboard solutions introduce the following benefits:
- Increase creativity
- Create streamlined solutions
- Decrease team member churn
- Allow for a more open form of communication
- Enhance collaborative opportunities
Video Walls
Now that we have tackled the business’s management side, let’s handle audio-visual installations with consumers. Due to the numerous companies available at the status quo, with various startups, strip malls, pop-up shops, and online shops opening up by the minute, it may take much work to stand out. Developing a fantastic product or service is essential, but that’s only a little essential if consumers will put a single foot forward in the first place.
By definition, video walls are an excellent solution for capturing that millisecond window of attention. Video walls are a system of displays that consist of several separate screens or panels set up in a grid-like configuration to produce a single, nonstop visual or video performance. (2)
Regarding business enhancement, video walls allow stores to create fast, dynamic, and adaptive images that ensure their brand name and image are plastered around a business. Retail companies utilize video walls to assert a particular image or brand presence within their store.
It also will enable businesses to showcase promos, sales, and offers around the store. Placing large video walls in-store corners or by the window can ensure that a store gives off a particular atmosphere.
Regarding aesthetics, some video walls have strategic installations that effectively make them dynamic decor. For example, during holidays like Christmas, they can blend in and produce dynamic red-and-green displays that ensure the set remains relevant and engaging.
These video walls can also operate as feature walls and tell your customers where a specific sale might happen within the store. Moreover, they can be “aids” as well. For example, large retail stores can serve as a high-tech mirror allowing consumers to test a particular dress or shirt to determine whether the product looks good.
Audio Systems
Can you imagine the elevator without the iconic elevator music, your favorite store without the subtle tunes by the PA system, or the mall without the constant “requesting customer ABC to head to aisle 321?” Despite being overlooked within stores, audio systems serve a fundamental purpose that no other technology can. As for your business, an integrated audio installation might be a perfect choice. Let’s look at the following advantages of audio installations for businesses.
- Enhance customer shopping or purchasing experience.
- Improve team member productivity
- Security and alarms
- Increased sales
- Boost brand presence
Let’s look at each bullet point, shall we?
Enhance Customer Shopping Or Purchasing Experience And Increase Sales
Audio installations inside a business establishment enhance customer reception towards your store’s atmosphere– mainly through the impact of music. In a study conducted to assess the effects of in-store music on customer behavior, there is a considerable amount of evidence suggesting that in-store music correlates directly with increased customer pleasure which drives spending habits that positively affect sales numbers. (3)
Improve Employee Productivity
While it may seem subtle and non-affecting, music helps improve work productivity and induces a serotonin-like effect for shoppers and employees. In an article by Harvard Business Review, the author iterated that music enhances workers’ moods and gets less distracted, especially with instrumental music. Having sound systems that exploit this human feature makes your employees feel elated and easier to approach while allowing them to be more productive and engaged with their tasks. (4)
Security And Alarms
The effects of having sound systems are not limited to the psychological sphere but also extend to practical uses. For many stores, having anti-theft hardware is imperative, increasing security and preventing lost sales. While there are dedicated installations for anti-theft purposes, sound systems also work as a secondary layer that can help aid said systems.
Another purpose of said software is to allow for better store privacy. For example, background music can help mask the voices when engaging in sensitive conversations with customers.
Boost Brand Presence
Businesses aiming to enhance their brand image and provide a more engaging client experience may find audio installations potent. By choosing music or a message consistent with their brand’s principles, they help develop a distinctive and memorable identity that differentiates them from their rivals.
This emphasis on brand identification may assist companies in developing a base of devoted clients who identify with their brand and core principles. For instance, a company that cares about social concerns may utilize audio installations to express its dedication to environmental preservation or social justice issues.
Another benefit of audio installations is that businesses may improve consumer engagement and loyalty with audio installations. By creating a more engaging and immersive customer experience, companies can foster stronger customer relationships and encourage them to return. For example, a restaurant might use audio installations to create a lively festive atmosphere that enables customers to stay longer and order more food and drinks.
Another way for audio installations to increase brand loyalty is that audio installations can also communicate special promotions, events, or other vital information to customers. By providing customers with relevant and timely information, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers and increase their engagement with the brand.
Conclusion
Audio-visual installations play an essential part in businesses, whether it may be on the consumer end or the management end. Not only can it improve team member creativity and productivity, but it can also help consumers develop brand loyalty and awareness. Ensuring that audio-visual installations are properly utilized within an establishment is critical to a globally competitive business.
Sources
- “What Does Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line Mean?”, https://www.techopedia.com/definition/5390/symmetric-digital-subscriber-line-sdsl
- “What is a video wall” Wallboard US, https://www.wallboard.us/blog/what-is-a-video-wall
- V., Gopal. (2010). Impact of In-store Music on Shopper Behavior. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research. 5.
- “Can Music Make You More Productive?” Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2022/09/can-music-make-you-more-productive
