Welcome to Our Smart Home Technology Blog

Almost everyone we know is grumbling about Daylight Savings Time and for good reason. It seems that the brief time period in which we enjoy sunlight has dwindled into a few hours, and many of us are feeling more sluggish as a result. Now that Texas has finally started showing signs of winter, your employees might feel a little cabin fever within your office walls, which interferes with brainstorming and creativity.

You can enjoy more of the illumination you and your employees need just by adding motorized shades to your Irving, TX, space, and you can even save money in the process. Keep reading to see how one solution can do both.

SEE MORE: How Lighting Control Makes Your Conference Room Smarter

Harvest Sunlight

We’ve all experienced the dreaded 3 p.m. lag, which often coincides with the time that we need to be the most productive. Liven up the post-lunch conference room meeting by brightening your surroundings! Human rhythms depend on bright daylight illumination to power us through the morning and afternoon. Motorized shades with photo sensors “read” the amount of daylight outside and automatically raise the blinds to optimize light intake. We can program your shades to rise and fall at preset times, based on circadian rhythm patterns.

...And Heat

Did you know that some of  that light coming through your office’s windows converts to energy? According to an Energy.gov study, up to 40% of a building's heating energy is lost through windows during heating seasons. Motorized shades effectively decrease your heating bills in two ways - by allowing more of the sunlight to come in and heat the house and by trapping cold air outside. Let’s look closer.

We’ve all been into that Dallas conference room that was less than impressive. Most of them shared some standard features: you could walk in and instantly notice the fluorescent light and antiquated furniture that heralded a bygone era of corporate life.

AV enthusiasts would notice deeper conference room design issues as soon as someone started using the room. We’ll reveal some pain points that signal an office that you can leave in the 2010s and some quick fixes that will make your Texas office future-ready. Keep reading!

SEE ALSO: Conference Room AV Upgrades You Will Want for Your Business

Clunky Speakers

Minimalism might not be everyone’s style, but if you see floor speakers everywhere, with no audio gear in the speakers or walls, we usually take it as a sign that your office is outdated. Speakers littering the floor indicate that you might not be achieving the surround-sound quality necessary to fully participate in video conference calls, for one thing. Also, audio clutter doesn’t look as attractive or professional and takes up too much real estate in smaller rooms.

Wires Galore

Similar to our gripe with multiple floor speakers, visible wiring everywhere diminishes an otherwise sophisticated, modern office aesthetic. We can streamline all your A/V components into a rack that we conceal somewhere like a closet. No more tripping over cables on your way to the screen or trying to figure where to plug in a cable to start using audio or video.

In today’s offices, you see a complete transformation from the business scene of just ten years ago. Alongside less fluorescent lighting and fewer cubicles, another lasting trend we’ve noticed is the huddle room: According to recent market trends identified by Frost & Sullivan, huddle rooms are projected to replace almost 70% of all meeting rooms by 2022.

What is a huddle room, though? It’s too small to be called a conference room and too business-oriented to be a break room, so imagine, if you will, something in between. Maybe two or three employees want to spend half an hour rehearsing a presentation but don’t want to book a conference room. Or a peer leader wants to instruct an employee on a topic that needs a visual aid. In these instances and several others,  a huddle room proves a handy tool in your overall commercial audio video and automation setup. Why would your Dallas, TX, office need one, especially when you already have a few conference rooms? We’ll explain below.

SEE ALSO: 3 Commercial Audio Video Trends You Need to Know

A Welcome Break From an Open Office

The open office concept seemed to crop up in nearly every business last decade. According to a 2010 study by the International Facility Management Association, 68% of people worked in an office with either no walls or low walls–and the number has undoubtedly grown.

Regardless of the cons of the layout, which we’ll discuss below, owners continued to build them for their cost-efficiency and collaboration benefits. Some studies have noted that banishing the closed-door office has leveled the manager-employee playing field and made executives seem more approachable.

We’re pretty sure you can recall some conference room blunders that you’ve witnessed, or maybe even something that happened to you. Maybe you fumbled with the AV controls well into your presentation time or asked your client to repeat the words you missed during a particularly high-stakes meeting. Of course, the common scenarios we talk about in this blog are uncomfortable, providing adequate reasons to fix the culprit. We only wished that the problem ended there.

In a business setting, too many communication breakdowns, AV issues or scheduling problems don’t just mar your reputation: They could also cause you to lose out on valuable business partnerships. We’ll talk today about how thorough conference room design mitigates a host of mishaps, so keep reading!

SEE ALSO: 3 Ways Interactive Whiteboards Boost Employee Engagement

You Feel Extra Pre-Presentation Frustration

Many of us have endured an anxious moment right before a presentation. Coupled with the expected nerves, perhaps you didn’t get enough time to prepare, which compounds your stress.

The pressure increases if you don’t know your way around the AV equipment. Imagine you’re already late and fumbling with switches just to turn your screen on and finally start speaking. Instead, you could press one button from your Crestron control pad and let automation organize your meeting for you. We can’t arrange a perfect PowerPoint, but we can set the scene for your presentation success.