NEC Says Collaboration is More Than Screens, Sheets, and Systems

The AV industry tends to view collaboration technology tools in a singular way: boardrooms, boardrooms, boardrooms. But NEC VP of strategy Rich Ventura says the future (and much of the ‘now’) of video collaboration is in multi-platform solutions.

“We have to start seeing it as a tiered environment,” he said during NEC’s annual NYC Showcase. “Many manufacturers look at it as a one-space category, and it isn’t. Different environments have different needs.”

Collaboration through technology has to be streamlined across screens, sheets, and systems. Skype for Business, Webex and other platforms need to be included in successful board rooms, huddle rooms and other meeting spaces.

Avoiding ‘Chaos’ in Collaboration Technology Trends

“I use the term ‘chaos’ a lot when I talk to tech partners,” Ventura says. Of course, he’s using the term pretty broadly: this type of chaos happens when video collaboration technology fails and meetings devolve into a manic clicking spree.

But there’s certainly chaos in attempting to simplify a corporate meeting solution that really warrants a heftier system.

“It’s not acceptable just to collaborate on one screen: we need to integrate for the way people collaborate today, which is across multiple screens and multiple sheets. multiple locations, and multiple languages.”

Making complex systems feel intuitive is what AV integration is all about, anyway.

Take NEC + ThinkHub as an Example

NEC’s collaboration with ThinkHub focuses on merging multiple BYOD platforms and devices (Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, Linux) and the ability to pass content, files, documents and presentations of any format as one would hand a colleague a piece of paper.

Read more about NEC Collaboration powered by ThinkHub here.

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