Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1414667
October/November/December 2021 I 15 Room Control—Audiovisual system manufacturers have entered into strategic partnerships with UC providers to give users integrated control. The familiar UC graphical interface is augmented to include centralized control. With one touch, the UC session is initiated, audio and video are routed from the right sources to the right destinations, sound volume is set to a comfortable level, displays are turned on, projector screens are lowered, room lighting is set, and window shades are drawn. Furthermore, HVAC is adjusted to a desired temperature. When the meeting is over, everything returns to a vacant room condition. This control can be performed from a tabletop touch panel or—to make operation truly touchless—from a smartphone or other personal device. To automate the process even further, a room occupancy sensor can initiate chosen pre-programmed room control functions with arrival of the first meeting attendee and command the room to vacant condition when the last attendee exits. Support for Multiple Presentation Sources and Devices— Presentation program sources for UC platforms must be compatible with the UC provider's software coder-decoder (codec) running on a host computer. Also, presentation AV Enhancements to UC Professional Audio Cable Management Supporting different laptops and mobile devices Room Control Room Scheduling Ceiling Speaker AV Switcher under the table Occupancy sensor HDMI USB-C FIGURE 11: AV technologies that enhance the UC experience. Room Scheduling—As discussed, AV systems can include room scheduling apps that integrate with room sched- uling panels at entrances. The AV system scheduling app can bring all room scheduling under one umbrella by monitoring the UC room resource account and merging bookings from there into the enterprise calendaring system for display on everyone's calendars and on the panels at meeting room entrances. The AV technologies used to enhance UC are shown in Figure 11. material, mic feeds, and webcam feeds are all routed through the limited number of input ports on the host computer. This places limits on the number and types of presentation sources, as well as the number and types of mics and cameras. Integrating the UC system with a pro- fessional AV system eliminates those hurdles. The AV system performs switching, video scaling, and video signal format conversion. Feeds from any device are presented to the UC codec input in a compatible format, regardless of the format coming from the source. The ability to switch between multiple input sources opens up the meeting for real-time content sharing. Spontaneous ideas can be displayed immediately, rather than having to load new presentation content onto the UC host computer.