• Andy Taylor

Ben Burris

Daniel Kizzee

Jason Wright

Sean Carmack

Congratulations to Andy, Ben, Daniel, Jason and Sean!

Conferencing Etiquette

Meeting etiquette is very important in the business world but audio and video conferencing etiquette is crucial to making a distant meeting successful. Some of the more important etiquette rules are mostly common sense things that we forget when the meeting is in person.  Before we go over some of the basics rules, let’s review some differences in systems that you may interact with.

A conference is defined as two or more people talking; if multiple people are conversing using a telephone then it is typically considered audio or tele-conferencing.  When those talking at a distance can see each other it’s called video conference.  No surprises so far.  Video conference systems can be room installed hardware based codec’s, software based on a computer, or mobile device.  The cost and quality will also vary greatly from solutions like Skype, to Polycom Telepresence.

Room design should be considered before doing video conference no matter if it’s a permanent or temporary use.  The first thing to look at is the lighting and surroundings.  Make sure to have lighting that does not give a shadow silhouette or washed out face of the presenter.  Light colored, desks will help reflect lighting under attendees’ chins and eyes to help give a natural look.  The walls and your clothing should avoid reflective surfaces like mirrors, bold patterns and narrow stripes; they should be of a neutral tone.  The wrong surroundings may give the wrong impression of the attendees and give the wrong message for your meeting such as, having a beer poster hanging on the back wall even if it is a limited edition poster from a big event that has a famous signature on it.  Examine your camera view from the viewpoint of a stranger that is meeting you for the first time in person.  What is the first impression that you are being perceived as? Room distractions will take away from your message.

The second thing to consider is microphone placement. There are two rules of thought, ceiling microphones or large number of desk microphones vs. individual limited number of microphones.  Each has advantages and disadvantages.  Ceiling mics can make the room easier to set up, and everyone can interact with each other.  However, if configured incorrectly the far side only hears the air handler or projector noise.  Also because the entire room is “live” those in the back of the room having a side conversation can be heard just as loud as the presenter.  In those situations individual microphones can help, as long as the participant uses the microphone correctly.  If it is a desk mic, the users must limit the rustling of papers and be cautious of laptop fan noise.  If it is a wireless worn style they must verify the placement on their clothing and monitor battery life.  Also presenters with microphones should repeat anything that is said by those that do not have a microphone.  In either method the mute button must be easy to access so that distractions to the far side can be limited.

Now let’s examine some etiquette rules to follow for a more effective meeting:

• Prepare; have an agenda and a timeline for your meeting and keep others on task.
• Test; practice using the equipment, verify lighting, audio levels, computers, and presentation prior to having your meeting.  Don’t expect help, or make your attendees wait for you when the meeting is supposed to start.
• Have a contingency plan; what will you do if someone cannot connect, or cannot hear.  What if the equipment is not available?
• Start and finish on time; Your attendees have other things to do, don’t keep them waiting.  If you are an attendee then show up on time.  If a meeting is scheduled for 9:00 then everyone should be in their seats and ready to start at 9:00 not 9:05.  Presenter should arrive 5-10 minutes before the attendees. 
• Schedule the proper room at the appropriate time; Choose a small room for small meetings and larger room for larger number of participants.  Choose a room based on the technology that you need.  Be conscientious of others work schedule or time zone.  Do not schedule a meeting early in the morning or late in the afternoon so that attendees have to work outside of their normal work day. Unless you are providing food to all participants local and remotely avoid the lunch period. 
• Food and drinks; do not have food and drinks in the meeting unless everyone has something.  It can be distracting to the far side to watch you eat. 
• Sound check; Check the volume of everyone’s microphone.  People tend to talk at different volumes, so it is hard to dial it in prior to the meeting.  The system should be set so attendees can talk in a normal volume; however, you will get the mumbler and the screamer, so be prepared to handle it.   As a courtesy to those that may not know everyone, ask everyone to introduce themselves. This not only gives the interdictions but it allows you to find out who is the mumbler and who is the screamer so that you can adjust the volume levels without taking time to ask, “Can you hear me, how about now, how’s that”?
• Make minimal adjustments; You should have already had the lighting, sound and cameras set before everyone arrived, however there is times that lighting and camera need some adjustment.  The camera presets should be used to move the camera quickly to the preplanned action.  The camera may then need to be adjusted to follow the presenter that has drifted off of his mark.  If you have a presenter that like to walk around the room and talk then set the camera to a wide shot of the room, or ask the presenter to stand in one place.
• Limit side conversations; background noise can be distracting to the far side.  If you are in a room with ceiling microphones keep in mind that the far end can hear you as loud as they can hear the presenter.  If you need to talk you should mute your side.  Keep in mind that the other end can see you talking, which is rude to talk while a presenter is talking, you would not do it if they were in person so do not do it in a muted video call.
• Limit unnecessary noises; Do not allow devices that beep or chirp in the room. Avoid being the “pen clicker”.  Keep in mind that in your room you can localize and ignore some noises but in a conference all sounds are picked up mixed together and played on the far sides speakers.  So little noises become large distracting ones.
• Attendees should focus on the meeting; If you are in attendance of a meeting than either you or the meeting organizer felt that the content was relevant and valued your input.  It is rude and distracting to the presenter and to far side to see attendees answering e-mails or messing with their phone. Phones should be on vibrate or off.  If you bring a laptop in the room the screen should be closed unless you need it for the meeting.  
• Clean up the room; When you are done with the meeting, you should turn off equipment, and clean up any messes that were made.  Tables and chairs should be placed back to the room default location and make the room ready for the next meeting.  

ESCO is committed to providing our customers access to technicians and engineers that have the most current education and certifications that enable them to design, implement and service  our customers needs better than any one else in the industry.   Recently we had several members of the ESCO family successfully complete certifications.

Sean Carmack – A+ Exam
Dave Knox – Autocad Certified Associate & Professional
Patrick Gorman – Autocad Certified Associate & Professional
Mark Bowen  -NICET Level 1 Video Security Systems 

Congratulations to Sean, Dave, Patrick and Mark! 

Recently we have been having a lot of discussions in our company about the future of video connection standards and preparing for the digital changes that are coming. Designing the best solution to allow customers to get through it with a flexible system is our goal. The transition to digital video is here. Unfortunately I did say “transition” meaning we all have to plan for the past and the future to work together. It would be nice to say that all we are going to install now are HDMI and DisplayPort digital connections and cables, but that is not going to happen. A prime example of this is the fact that the VCR is still around with the dreaded yellow RCA video connector on it. As one of our Kramer Electronics instructors said, “After a nuclear war the only thing that will be left are cockroaches, Twinkies and yellow composite RCA video.Click here to read more…

Interactive Webinar

May 4^th – 9-10am or 1-2pm

Discover how to use

one-to-one devices & your existing lessons/materials

in your response strategy.  

Click To View Details of Event

The need to manage how this information is disseminated across a healthcare facility, or in some case of merged healthcare enterprises, has led to the emerging role of Nursing Informatics management. Because of the pending financial impacts of HITECH healthcare organizations are becoming more driven to get meaningful patient data into the hands of their caregivers. Organizations are now seeing the need to have someone(s) focused on navigating thorough and formatting methodologies to delivery and use the data to improve patient care. I personally know several nurses who have recently moved into this role and it is exciting to see them using their medical and caregiving knowledge and apply it into the IT based world of EHR and communications. I think it is always good when professionals in a true application role start directing the development and implantation of technology. So often a technology’s first introduction into a marketplace, regardless of how effective it can be to the profession, is misdirected and misses the useful target.

It is rewarding to be a provider of communication and information technologies in the healthcare industry at this time. Knowing that we have tools that help caregivers access, interpret and then communicate and share valuable data is a very satisfying experience.  What is even more exciting is partnering with these professionals to see applications created and technology applied in very meaningful and productive ways that are changing the way healthcare is being delivered. While challenging, it is fulfilling to be part of an industry that changes almost daily. EHR is changing the whole healthcare field and quickly departing are the days of proprietary technologies that only communicate or share data on a single device or concentric system. Tighten your seatbelt this is going to be quite a ride.

By Gary Dunn

Executive Vice President, Strategic Accounts/Business Development 

Example 1:

6:30AM, one cold morning I stopped at my regular coffee joint. I walked in the door, got about halfway in and was stopped by a green aproned employee and told “I’m sorry, we can’t make any coffee, and our computers are down”. My immediate response was to ask if the coffee machines were still working, I was told they were. I starred politely at the befuddled employee for a moment, waiting for the light bulb to come on …but nothing happened. I sheepishly suggested that perhaps I could have my coffee and they could ring it up after the computers came back. The response was “no, I can’t do that!” and if I were to read the body language and general tone correctly; I would not be having any coffee today. But being a type of guy that never wants to leave an opportunity squandered, I tilted my head a little to the left and said “really, ya can’t just make me a tall, two pump, sugar free, vanilla latte with 2% milk …I have cash”. As you might guess, I did not get a coffee. I left disappointed.

Example 2:

A sunny afternoon, I stopped at a local bank branch. I walked up to the teller, was greeted and asked what I would like to do today; I stated that I have to deposit some checks but did not have the account number handy. Their response was “no problem, but we apologize that it might take a few minutes to find the account number as our computers are down right now”. The teller went on to say that if I had a few minutes to spare, he was sure he could get the deposit done quickly or if I didn’t have time to wait, he could immediately write a deposit receipt by hand and would happily mail the official deposit receipt to me. Another teller chimed in saying “I just confirmed that the branch located in the grocery store, just up the street has functional computers, if you would be happier doing your deposit that way”. I stayed and my deposit was done in about four to five minutes.

I decided to use the extra, waiting time to ask some questions. One of the questions I asked was; in this day and age, how do you do anything without a computer? The response was quite overwhelming, all three tellers talked about the training they had received. All noted that the “customer experience” had to be positive no matter what the circumstances were. They also claimed that they were well trained at dealing with infrastructure failures of all types. While pondering the “Types” of infrastructure failures that could happen, I left, a little happier about leaving my money in that bank … Anywhere there is a technical system operating, there is a chance for a failure to occur. How we deal with that failure, affects the end user and the difference between a good experience and a bad one for that end user, i.e. your audience, comes down to training.

Training is the key to operating and running any system to its optimum performance potential …and not just telling a person to “sit here and don’t touch that”! Real training is required. Too many times I have seen “DO NOT MOVE” or “NEVER TOUCH” scrawled in sharpie on a piece of masking tape attached to a rack or some gear. This is an indication of poor leadership and expresses fear of “loss of control” and fear of the unknown. The technical staff should not need to have those types of signs because they should have been trained, and they all should know what those knobs do and are aware of the optimal settings required to complete the task at hand.

System techs have a vital need for understanding the fundamentals of the system, they must understanding signal flow, and with that understanding, comes the ability to troubleshoot problems prevent mistakes.

Whether there are volunteers at a church running the A/V system, a technician operating a high school theatrical lighting console or an IT tech operating a simple masking/paging system, training on the system is vitally important to keep the inevitable gremlin from ruining the experience for the end user …your audience.

In the 39 years I have been in control of performances and shows, only once did an equipment failure keep me from getting a show up and running on time. An audio consoles power supply went up in a spectacular display of sparks, smoke and flames, just seconds before curtains, keeping me from the task at hand …even then, I got the show up and running in under 20 minutes, with some creative use of a very old and noisy mixer found in a closet.

Training and proper education on your equipment is key to successful deployments & performances!  Contact ESCO info@escocommunications.com to learn more about educational opportunities.

Michael Petrucci

Solutions Engineer

ESCO Communications, Inc.