Inavate + Sennheiser: Audio fit for purpose

• Features

• 18/04/2023

Meeting and collaboration spaces have evolved. These spaces now come in a diverse range of sizes and shapes from phone booths, huddle rooms to more conventional meeting rooms and boardrooms. In parallel we are seeing user behaviour evolve as digital communication and flexible routines become the norm. And at the centre of all this evolution is technology which is playing the role of enabler and accelerant.

Tan Weixiang, Technical Application Engineer for business communication at Sennheiser Electronics Asia, starts the conversation: “There are many reasons for the increasing diversity of meeting and collaboration spaces that we are seeing today. One of the major contributors was the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which brought everything to a virtual standstill. Businesses were forced to evolve and adapt to survive, and people realised that communication was crucial. This led to the evolution of spaces that we are seeing to meet the modern demands of users.”

According to Tan, the diversity of meeting and collaboration spaces is accompanied with a related evolution in consumer behaviour. This is essential for manufacturers to take note of. He details: “When you look at the modern users of meeting and collaboration spaces, they are using VC at a much higher rate than before. And with this, their expectations of the user experience have evolved. They want to be able to communicate as naturally and organically as possible. They want the audio to be pristine, to be heard clearly and also good quality sound from the remote end. Meeting these expectations is easier said than done and this is the reason why Sennheiser is taking its expertise and making new products that can deliver the user experience that is being demanded.”

The twin trends of increasingly diverse spaces and evolving user needs presents a unique challenge and opportunity for manufacturers. Sennheiser believes that a new generation of upgraded and fit for purpose solutions are required. Tan says: “We need a range of different products that is scalable and accounts for the unique characteristics of the spaces and the function that they perform, and not forgetting the UX that is needed for today’s flexible routines. At Sennheiser we believe that our solutions need to be fit for purpose from the smallest to the larger spaces and our product portfolio reflects this. For smaller spaces we have the TeamConnect Intelligent Speaker for Microsoft Teams Rooms which can work as well for a single user in a phone booth as it does for huddle rooms which can accommodate larger parties for up to 10 people. Our flagship TCC 2 microphone is good for spaces up to 80 sq m in size and you can deploy multiple units of the TCC 2 for even larger multipurpose rooms or combinable spaces. And finally, with the introduction of the TCC M we have a solution that brings Sennheiser’s quality audio for medium-sized spaces of up to 40 sq m and this completes our offering for the market.”

In the quest for meeting modern user demands and delivering fit for purpose solutions, Sennheiser has a key ally in the shape of the technology departments and teams that are responsible for the operation of tech systems on site and in spaces. Unsurprisingly, these teams have had to adapt as well and Tan details: “There has been an evolution in how AV is being managed once it has been deployed. AV technology has traditionally been the responsibility of the facilities management team who had to ensure that the technology is operational and address any of the troubleshooting requirements from end users. But with the convergence of AV and IT, and as AV technology becomes integrated with the network, IT has now become a player in this equation. This is a steep learning curve for the different teams and many organisations have to navigate this convergence. At Sennheiser, we have been upgrading our management and monitoring platform to help both facilities management teams and IT deal with the modern challenges of operating and maintaining our AV technology systems in collaboration.”

Tan details how Sennheiser is doing this: “The Sennheiser Control Cockpit is a perfect example. It has a web-browser interface for managing, configuring, and operating all the Sennheiser products deployed at a facility. And this ranges from SpeechLine wireless microphones to the TCC 2 and TCC M as well as our other product ranges. Sennheiser Control Cockpit has been specifically designed for IT personnel to manage AV products on their network. We’ve reduced the emphasis on technical terminologies that AV professionals might be proficient with, such as decibel metering for example, and we have focused on simplifying the data presented to the user so that even IT teams can analyse the information and act on it accordingly.”

When it comes to the network, security becomes a core part of the conversation. Tan says: “As more and more AV endpoints come onto the network, we have to start considering security as this increases the vulnerability of the networks. No one wants their data to be exposed and depending on the enterprise entity you are dealing with, the requirements for security can be very strict. With this in mind, Sennheiser is taking the security of its products very seriously and we are looking to put measures and safeguards in place for every component of every product. Sennheiser’s solutions come with industry standard network security certifications such as IEEE 802.1x and TLS 1.2 to name a few. Even the control interface for the Sennheiser Control Cockpit has secure encryption and authentication for communicating with Sennheiser devices and products. We want to give IT departments the peace of mind to be able to integrate Sennheiser products onto the network without worrying about security.”

Looking ahead, Tan believes that more change is inevitable. He concludes: “Looking at the trends in the market today, it is clear that users are demanding flexibility. They want to find their own balance between work and non-work commitments and technology is playing a key role in this. And if you look further down the line, exciting new developments are on the horizon, such as more advanced AI, and these will once again push the market forward. At Sennheiser we believe that you must design and deliver products that consider how the market is evolving. We have done this with the TCC M which is a product that is built on the worldwide success of our TCC 2 and based on customer feedback. With our range of product offerings together with the Sennheiser Control Cockpit, we are empowering facilities and IT departments to create the hybrid environments that users want. And I believe that Sennheiser will continue to listen to our customers and be at the cutting-edge as the market evolves.”