Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to AV in the Wild, the podcast that dives deep into the heart of the pro AV industry. Out in the field, on the move and in the moment.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Hey, everybody, we're here at UC Expo 2025. Now I've grabbed Erica Whittle from Sennheiser. Erica, for the one person who doesn't know Sennheiser out there, talk us through what Sennheiser do.
[00:00:19] Speaker C: So, as you know, we're an audio manufacturer out of Germany and we are an organization that is of people who are passionate about audio and sound.
Yeah.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: So 80 years, no less. Again, not you, but 80 years. Is it birthday this year or last year, wasn't it?
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So 80th anniversary this year. So, you know, we're continuing to put great microphones into the hands of performers. We're continuing to bring audio into the meeting and learning space environment and all that great stuff, which is all about really improving communication.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Now we just got off stage from a panel on AI and acoustics. And again, you've just touched there on the different environments, you know, so on stage, meeting rooms. One of the things that was interesting in the conversation that we just had was around AI and getting it to do things like the room checks and do that kind of room best practices, I guess, for setting up. But then you picked up on the fact that you really need to kind of check its answers and check it back and humanize it. Again, talk about that.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, and I think that human element is a really key thing. I think AI is great and I think we absolutely should embrace it. I think we're going to see some really nice developments which are going to simplify the whole process for, for setting up and calibrating audio and audio visual in room spaces. So, you know, let's lean into that. Let's let AI do some of the hard work, some of the processing. But you know, we have to remember at the end of the day, the audio is very much an experiential thing.
So we need to then take all of the advantages AI gives us in accelerating and simplifying process. But then, you know, as the integrator, as the consultant, this is where we add our value. We're like, what does that feel like? You know, an audio signal that stripped too bare doesn't feel good, does it?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: So fatiguing.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: Exactly. So, you know, let's lean into all the really good stuff. But remember, you know, I can't feel, AI can't experience. That's our job.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: It's the classic 8020 rule.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Isn't it?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Again, if it does that 80% of friction and the donkey work and the legwork for us and then we can come in and do that 20%. I guess that's the real thing around that.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Now, as the conversation goes on, I know you're really passionate about the Avixa Women's Council.
Again, there are lots of councils out there and this. Communities are kind of springing up to continue this conversation. Just talk everyone through there again because I really want to pull out the women in av. Talk us through and again, what organizations are doing and what they can do to help women in the tech world.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a big topic, isn't it? But it's something where we have started to see some progress over. I mean, I've been in the industry for 25 years and, you know, and it's good to see, you know, I'm not the only. I did my first panel today, but I'm not the only woman who's doing it. There's many more women out there sharing their views, sharing their expertise and I think organizations need to encourage and embrace that. The Avixa Women's Council, I'm a member of the UK council, is a really great organization and we're trying to educate, we're trying to help people build networks. Rise AV is another organization, Sennheiser is a sponsor of that. And again, you know, we've got a couple of challenges, so we've got to bring people in, but also when we bring them in, we've got to help them to stay and not just stay, really fulfil their potential, you know, and that means opportunities for development, it means opportunities to build those networks. And both of those organisations, the Evixa Women's Council and Rise AV are working really hard to do exactly that.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: And women out there, can they go? And would your advice be to go and reach out to Arise and Avixa? That would be a good start for them to go to.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Absolutely, yeah, yeah, definitely. There's LinkedIn pages now for the Affixit Women's Council, so check us out on there. Reach out to me or find any of the. Any of the council. We'll happily connect you into our organisation and the different activities that we've got in place.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Where can people find out about these Amazing Sennheiser microphones?
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Sennheiser.com yeah, you'll be able to find everything about our latest products and all of the new developments.
[00:04:07] Speaker D: So I'm here today, UCX in London Talking with Chris Netto from Midwich. It'll be really great to get your thoughts on what's happening in the workplace and how people are adopting AI to increase productivity and make their AV work better.
[00:04:25] Speaker E: Well, one of the things that we can go into with AI is that it is going to be a productivity enhancer. I think the fear is that it's a job stealer. I think people are looking at it wrong. It's an enhancement. It's a tool like everything else, like the microphone you have in my face. It's just a tool. And AI. What AI can really do for folks is, yes, it's going to cut back on a lot of repetitive, meaningless fillers. And right now that's time suck, right? Filling in Excel spreadsheets is something we do because we have to, because somebody wants one.
But if AI can help make that happen, I think that's what people are looking for. AI.
Let's get down to the very simple brass tacks of it.
They want AI to help them to do their job. Not everybody can have an assistant, right? I wish I had one. But having a digital AI assistant can make life easy.
From a day to day task in the world of work, from, you know, scheduling meetings to unscheduling meetings, because you are technically not able to be in two places at once, you don't have to think anymore. I can think for you. It interacting with your schedule is one thing. I travel a lot. I can't wait for AI to take over my travel schedule and understand that I need, you know, an hour to get from one place to the next because that's the distance without me having to think, well, if I need to be at the airport tomorrow, how long do I have to leave? And can IT calculate traffic? AI can do that for me. It can say, you better leave for Heathrow two hours before, just because traffic appears to be this. So in the workforce conversation, many people start going down the lines of like, can AI help with my CRM? Yes, your customer data would be great because one of the things that we don't do very well and as an AV industry, we, we have the ability to capture data. We can tell you that a room was used, room usage, how many times it was used, how many button presses it took to get to the page, all this cool stuff. But we never employed data scientists to kind of break that stuff down. So we had mountains of data and nobody knew what to do with it, but we knew how to capture it. Now with AI, we can basically take all that data, spin it into the processing and come out and say, you know what, you do need more video conference rooms, because days of old was checking out what your MCU did, like how many calls were placed on our bridge.
Those things now can be handled by Zoom and by Microsoft. But where are those numbers? Some people don't know where to go look for those things. And now AI can kind of put that together and then cross correlate that against the room's, you know, lights being turned on in a room, being turned off, buttons being pressed on a touch panel or on a wall panel. You know, how many times is that room schedule actually touched used as a check in?
Maybe that's going to be the deciding factor if you need room scheduling outside the room going forward. Maybe AI is that thing. You never know.
[00:07:27] Speaker D: Yeah, that's really insightful. I mean, in your panel discussion just now, we were talking about how AV professionals really need to be working with facilities professionals, especially when it comes to, to setting up meeting rooms and making sure that the meeting spaces work really, really well for the end users and the people that are working in that space.
When it comes to AI, in the conversation we've just been having, it feels like there's definitely a conversation that also needs to be had in terms of not just the acoustics of the room and what AV is going in, but what AI tools you're going to be using in that room as well, and how that all builds into the ecosystem of that meeting room.
[00:08:10] Speaker E: Yeah, what we can look forward to in a very simple. Simple or simplified way is one of the things that we can't deliver in a commercial environment is a personalized experience.
AI, the Alexas of the world, things that you have at home that make it very nice. You can walk in, it's your house, you know, Samantha settings. And it could be bright lights and the curtains go up because you want natural light.
And maybe it knows that you like to start turning things down at five o'.
[00:08:42] Speaker F: Clock.
[00:08:43] Speaker G: Right.
[00:08:43] Speaker E: And it knows that it's December, so it's going to be, you know, darker sooner. Those kind of learning patterns are not something we get into the commercial space. But AI, now that it knows it's. You can now bring a personalized experience into a space. And as AV technologists, it would be more of a general term. We want to be able to have a more personalized experience. The CEO wants a personalized experience in the boardroom. But why can't you, as a project manager, for example, at a large, you know, financial institute, walk into a space and it knows that it's always you and one other person. So only needs two of those microphones turned on. You don't need a very bright light because it gives you headaches and you want it more dim so it remembers your settings.
And it's not that it's necessarily AI, but AI can cross check and make sure that it is you, that it is the right date, the right time. Oh, this is your Tuesday meeting. Do you want me to take notes automatically? Because you do that in the past and now it learned that it needs to transcribe. Oh, and by the way, one of your teammates is not here. So we're going to transcribe it and then we're going to translate into Italian because that person is not here and they work out of the Rome office. So that is where I think pie in the sky AI would would be for a lot of people. And on the AV side, it finally allows our technology to be part of the conversation of the space of the it's technically, you don't own it, but you feel like it's your room. And I think that's what everybody's trying to get. Not just in the days of past where it was a one button press. We can now simplify it because it's not a daunting touch panel that's in front of you anymore, scaring you with 1500 buttons.
It knows it's you because you checked in.
[00:10:39] Speaker D: Final thoughts. What do you think the future holds?
[00:10:44] Speaker E: Quite simply, we're talking about tools.
These are tools, these are hammers.
You are important in the conversation.
You are the person who has to use it.
There is a big thing, and that is you.
You is a letter missing from AI and without you, AI can't happen.
So in your thoughts about what AI can do, you have to remember that you have a role to play in it. And AI is only as good as the way you train it. And I keep repeating it with you and you and you, because AI is supposed to be that. It's supposed to be a companion tool to help your day.
It is not going to take over and do your job.
And if you let it, then you can be scared or should be scared. But for the most part, use AI as you would any other tool. It's a car to get you from A to B, right? And it's up to you how fancy a car you want to drive and how fast you want to drive.
So understand that you're stepping into a technology that is very much part of you.
Almost like a cell phone, right? How many People cannot be without a phone, so it's going to become part of your everyday life, but you control it and you manage it and as long as you hold it, then you don't have to worry about none of the Skynet Termina Terminator type stuff. Just keep hold and do the right thing and you'll be fine.
[00:12:26] Speaker D: So make sure that we're embracing AI, but also saying thank you to protect ourselves for the future. Thank you very much, Chris. It was a pleasure, everybody.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: I'm here with the Queen royalty, the queen of collaboration, Jane Hammersley from Blue Touch Paper here at UC Expo. How's the show been for you?
[00:12:43] Speaker F: It's some good stands. Everybody's talking about their technology, their specs and fees and speeds.
It's surprisingly quiet actually, but upbeat, which is good. And everybody's looking forward to the next wave of technology of AI.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Well, it wouldn't be any kind of show these days if those two letter acronyms weren't in the conversation. You just got off from the Avixa panel discussion with Ben and Gary talking about AI and the future meetings. What can. Let's start off with me as a manufacturer, what can we learn from the world of AI and what are customers demanding that we should provide from AI?
[00:13:20] Speaker F: Customers aren't actually demanding anything yet. I think they're asking the question, what can the technology do for them?
With the advent of AI and agentic AI, how is the technology going to impact?
Is it going to change?
Have I got to think about the technology that I buy now for a year's time, two years time, because the capacity that's needed within compute technology, it's going to be changed a lot. What does that look like? Do manufacturers know?
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's interesting because there's always that thing of like, oh, wait for the next generation or wait for this. When do you pull the trigger? When do you kind of go, right, we have to do something? Is there again, how can help customers making those decisions, you know, make smart decisions as to what they're doing?
[00:14:04] Speaker F: In our latest research from our Channel Advisory Board, the impact of AI is actually being felt quite significantly. Delayed decision making is happening and is rife, but total cost of ownership is the number one decision making criteria that customers are demanding. So I think as a manufacturer, I would say help our industry to deliver a TCO evaluation calculation, help our integrators to really enable the customer to see where they're going to make efficiency gains, productivity gains, understand the data, maybe that the technology we put into meeting spaces throws out. So I think there are so many ways that AI is going to impact, but I would ask you as a manufacturer to help us develop, deliver that to the customer.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Now, it's such a broad topic. Those two letters bring up so many different conversations. You were talking about agentic AI. And again, just taking that earlier question, what do customers need to know again, where can they go and what questions should they be asking and querying their businesses?
[00:15:10] Speaker F: Take agentic AI out for a second. But for a customer to start deploying multiple meeting spaces, event spaces, we're actually seeing customers needing much more than just an AV conversation. It's an it, it's an fm, it's a chro, it's well being, it's culture.
But it even may start in the telephony area. So if your customers, customers are contacting you via WhatsApp or via telephone or via email, how do we aggregate all of those pieces of information that are coming in? So in a contact center environment and then what is the red thread to actually push that through the business and actually ensure that the whole business is engaged with that platform? So AI is a part of it, it is a red thread. And as an avuc it, we need to know all of it. And I think we've identified eight areas of workflow that an AV integrator will probably get involved in.
With AI running all the way through that.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: What are the kind of top three tips you can give people? Because again, it is such a broad topic. There is this fear and again, people are kind of paralyzed to start and to get into this, either from fear of security issues or taking over the job, there's all these weird and wonderful kind of reasons why not to do it. What are three things that you can give to, again, the viewers of this to say, just start. Where can they start and how do they start?
[00:16:38] Speaker F: Great, just start.
Done. Yeah, done. Just start. Just jump in. Find out what your business needs to get better productivity efficiencies, understand those gains and then deliver that back into your customer. Hey, this is what we did. This is where we found it to be more productive. Whether it's a help in marketing, helping sales, a help in customer engagement, and then help their customers to understand where their efficiencies can be gained. Also start to understand how the technology that we deliver is going to impact in the medium and long term because we don't know what we don't know right now. So actually helping the customer, unknown unknowns, asking the customer what is it they want to achieve and then going, you know, what let's work this out together.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: What does good look like?
[00:17:24] Speaker F: Nobody's really got the answers right now, but if you're actually there asking the customers the questions and helping the customer create the solution, then you'll probably have a customer for life.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Now, where can people find out more about blue touch paper?
[00:17:38] Speaker F: Www.bluetouchpaper.tech? that's the website or I'm on LinkedIn. Jane Hammersley and I'd love to talk to anybody that's interested.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: You're doing an amazing job to educate the market. Again, it's great session. I just sat through with you and Gary and again there's some real interesting talking points around. Again, just as you said, just start, have the conversation, be brave and then go and look at how this can embrace your workflows. I think the other interesting thing is around again being more competitive because if you're not doing this, your competitors will be no matter whatever industry you're in. And you need to actually look at it and take the jump.
[00:18:09] Speaker F: I would say it's probably not the competitors you think you've got today as well. They're competitors from other markets.
And we certainly know that things like corporate broadcast is actually an area that wants to get more involved in standard av, traditional av, because it's an adjacent industry and it. You see these are all industries that are all merging and yeah, we want to be leading that charge and not falling behind.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: So definitely jump in everybody here at UC Expo. I've got Ed from QSC to talk about the show and all the great updates from qsc. Ed, how is the show for you?
[00:18:44] Speaker G: Yeah, it's been really good this year. It's busy. I've been actually wandering around doing a lot of the tech talks which have been fantastic to listen to kind of what's going on and having a good one around the booths to see some of our ex colleagues, friends in the industry. But yeah, it's a good show.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: It is a great networking event, isn't it? And I think one of the things is, yes, it is a trade show. Yes there are boosts but the talking, we're in one of the breakout areas here. There's a lot of great talks going on. Ilya's here from Microsoft doing loads of stuff around copilot and teams. But the networking and again, meeting up with people is one of the real big strengths I think for UCX and dtx.
[00:19:17] Speaker G: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's the most important thing. It's quite easy as a manufacturer just to get lost in your own world.
So actually just to raise your head above that and go and see what else everybody else is talking about is really, really important to how we kind of maneuver ourselves in this industry now.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Talking about, talking about. You guys have got another Activate. We talked to one at Peerless at Lords last time, but you got another one. Got my invite. Thanks very much. Talk about acctivate and talk about what Q sys is doing out there in the markets. It's getting constantly updating and constantly pushing the bar.
[00:19:45] Speaker G: Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe it was only just. It was back in May, wasn't it, at the Peerless event. But that was our biggest product launch and we've got another one. So we have a pretty extensive roadmap journey ahead of us. It's a really exciting time pushing the boundaries of those larger spaces with Vision Suite.
This is more about sort of data. So introducing more analytics from meeting spaces using our Reflect platform as well as some additional cameras that we're going to bring out to market. This has been a response to customer surveys around pushing the spaces into larger territory. So auditorium type spaces and having a better quality camera in those sorts of scenarios.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: So yeah, I'm excited obviously joining Logitech and when I went through the alliance partner list, seeing Q sys there, you guys dominate and do an amazing job in the larger spaces. But what is the relationship with Logi, you know, for people tuning into this, why Logitech in Q Sys? What is the story? And again, how can they engage with both companies?
[00:20:44] Speaker G: Yeah, fair question.
It's a really interesting one for us because I think we've come from very similar backgrounds supporting Microsoft Teams and their journey and being that kind of peripheral around the collaboration video platforms. So we both have kind of relationships with Zoom and Google and Microsoft Teams and that PC Compute that sits in the middle really enables us to focus on the bit that we do really well, which is the high impact spaces. So boardrooms, training facilities, those more complex environments where typically Lodi has kind of focused on the smaller end of the scale. So we do complement each other really well.
So we work with similar partners, similar customers.
So yeah, I think it's a really good relationship that we have between us.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: I really appreciate the partnership and I'm really looking forward to doing more stuff with you and again growing that alliance. So thank you for that. Where can people find about activating all the great QSC updates?
[00:21:36] Speaker G: Yeah, absolutely. So on our website it's three hours time the activate. There's a couple of depending on when.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: You'Re watching this when it's going out.
[00:21:44] Speaker G: Fair comment. We will post activate. We will have some videos snippets on demand. Absolutely. But yeah, do get a chance if you get a chance later today, log in and watch it. It's an hour long. It'll be a great update.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in. Loads of updates from us here at UC Expo and we'll catch you on the next one.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: That's a wrap on this episode of AV in the Wild. Big thanks to our guests and to you, our listeners for joining us on this journey through the AV landscape. If you liked what you heard, don't forget to subscribe. Share Leave a Review it helps us keep the conversation going. Catch us next time as we hit the road again with more voices, more stories and more of what makes AV wild.
Until then, stay curious, stay connected and stay wild.
