audio-video solutions for education Archives

Five Reasons to Consider Zoom Conference Solutions

Feb 20, 2019

When it comes to video conferencing software, Zoom is the new(er) kid on the block. It was founded in 2011 by the original creator of WebEx, who decided to leave WebEx after it was acquired by Cisco 2007.

Since then, Zoom has been growing by almost 20% per year. Cisco still holds a large portion of the market, but Zoom is gaining on them, and fast.

While there are still a few features that only WebEx offers, users have increasingly flocked to Zoom.

Why? Here are a few reasons why we think Zoom conference solution is the best choice for many businesses:

Simplicity & User-Friendliness

To set up WebEx, you will need multiple downloads and logins (client, extension, VCS control, TMS, Smartnet, and a paid account). Starting a new meeting takes over a minute.

This may not be a big deal if the same people will be using the software every day, but if you have non-tech-savvy employees, or most of your staff will only use the conferencing tool occasionally, Zoom is a much better bet.

Zoom was built around the idea that people are increasingly joining conferences remotely and bringing their own devices to work. Most devices will support Zoom, and once the cloud connector account and codec are set up, you can join a meeting in one click.

In general, Zoom is also easier to integrate with third-party apps like Skype for Business. It’s technically also possible to use WebEx with Skype, but the process to set this up is complex and time consuming.

Total Capacity

Zoom supports up to 100 video participants in a single call, and up to 500 feeds. WebEx can only support 8 participants.

If your organization is big enough to require collaboration among or between large teams of people, having this limit on how many people you can include in a call can quickly become a deal breaker.

Ease of Collaboration

Zoom rooms let you keep track of who’s present in an online meeting and look back on meeting recordings after the fact.

Zoom conference solution also embeds a number of other helpful collaboration technologies to support remote meetings.

For example, users can choose custom virtual backgrounds to present themselves more professionally in online meetings. Zoom rooms also offer built-in IM capabilities in the same interface for text communication as well as audio and video.

WebEx offers some of these features as separate add-ons, but they are sold as separate products for an additional fee.

Zoom Rooms

“Zoom Rooms” are another compelling reason to choose Zoom, as they can offer broad collaboration opportunities without the significant price hike and hassle of setting up a fully custom Cisco WebEx configuration.

Zoom is built to run from a single click on an iPad – and these rooms are multi-functional right out of the box. It’s possible to sync calendars, share your screen, call another room, conduct remote presentations using either your iPhone or a laptop, and more.

Price

If the above reasons weren’t enough, Zoom solutions also tend to be more affordable than WebEx solutions. Though pricing is liable to change over time, WebEx solutions can run up to twice as expensive.

Zoom vs. WebEx: Bottom Line

Both of these tools will get the job done, but considering the overall user-friendliness, features, customizability, and value delivered by Zoom, we recommend it over WebEx for most businesses.

Interested in learning more, or getting your questions about video conferencing answered? Contact us here.

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4 Benefits of Interactive Touch Screens

Jan 25, 2019

From the smartphones in our pockets to the self-checkout machines in the grocery store, interactive touch panels are everywhere, and for good reason:

In corporate, education, customer service, and retail environments, touch-sensitive audio visual tech – which ranges from small portable touch tablets through massive kiosks and video panels – offers a number of impressive benefits.

Here are just a few of the ways touch panels maximize the value of your technology:

User-friendliness and accessibility

Touch screen panels enable a direct interaction with technology that’s hard to match.

There’s something inherently more natural about pointing and manipulating objects on a screen with our hands the same way we could touch physical objects.

Pointing and pushing with our hands is a natural, instinctive gesture that almost everyone does intuitively. In a technological environment, that familiarity translates into instant expertise without the need for advanced training.

Reduced training time on tech, and reduced errors from technological mistakes mean more time to spend on your business or organization’s priorities.

Interactive touch screens also tend to be much more accessible for those with physical disabilities who may find other interfaces – such as a mouse and keyboard – difficult to use.
When they are well-designed, touchscreens offer all the simplicity of a whiteboard or blackboard and chalk, but with the power and functionality of a computer.

Enhanced customer experiences and faster business processes

As an automated customer service technology, touch screen panels offer 24/7 interactive customer support that never goes on break or calls out sick. They offer information, directions, and assistance to customers on-demand.

The immediate interface of a touch screen also makes inputting commands measurably faster.
Faster input translates into more effective and efficient decisions, which has a direct impact on your organization’s outcomes and bottom line.

Versatile, widely compatible, and durable digital technology

Interactive touch panels are among the most versatile methods of sharing information.

Integrators such as VSSI can work with you to configure information in a way that suits your needs and fits in seamlessly with the hardware and digital platforms you already have in place.

From small mobile tablets through massive video walls, touch screens are compatible with a wide range of technology types, platforms, varied hardware.

They are also all-in-one solutions which save space by eliminating non-touch components, limiting cords and wires. Eliminating the extra parts also means that many interactive touch panels are less likely to break, simply because there are fewer hardware components to contend with. Many are portable, offering mobile communications technology.

Touch screens are adaptable for both sensitive tasks requiring fine-toothed control, and for outdoor and other heavy-duty public use.

In fact, with modern technology, touch screens actually last longer than many projectors, offering extended durability to grow with you.

Engaging and Interactive Technology

Flat touch screen panels are visually appealing and attention-grabbing high-tech elements.

Crystal-clear images and graphics are fun to look at and arresting.

In educational settings, touch screens tap into a medium already familiar to most young people. Instead of passively listening to a presentation, viewers can actively participate in the educational experience using a touchscreen.

In business settings, touch screens enable active annotation, review, collaboration, and project management in an engaging, tactile format. Instead of trying to stay awake during a 1-way presentation, touch panels make all participants into active members of the conversation.

Regardless of the information you need to communicate, touch screens make the experience more interactive, dynamic, and powerful.

Get in touch with us to learn more about how a touch panel solution could contribute to your organization’s goals.

As a full-service audio-visual integration (AV) company, VSSI provides high-end, individually-tailored solutions.
After an in-depth consultation with you, our professionally trained and certified staff will work to design the best solution for your needs, vision, and budget. After we build it, we’ll keep working for you, providing 24/7 support to make sure you keep getting the most out of your custom AV solution.

Enhancing Collaboration and Innovations among Schools, Colleges, and Universities with VSSi

Jun 6, 2018

VSSi is a company which delivers an integrated Unified Communication strategy and architecture, enabling secure voice, video, and data connectivity within a unified and intelligent network. VSSi reduces communication complexity by combining all of your business communication methods into an easy-to-manage, security-enhanced environment using a single identity and presence that spans phones, computers, video, and the internet. VSSi provides unique solutions to work for you in connecting with people, information, and teams to enable comprehensive and effective collaboration.

Flexible Results for Modern Preschools

VSSI is known for delivering high-quality, cost-effective, and innovative solutions for the educational sector. In the particular case of preschools, innovative thinking and qualitative education teaching can be fostered through the use of VSSi’s Video Annotation and Interactive-Display Technology to deliver flexible teaching and training solutions.

Video annotation is used widely in preschools to offer additional creative and interactive niche to the presentation of educational content. It should be noted that Video annotation relies heavily on of the most acclaimed new technologies to produce media content that is bright and realistic. It also makes it possible for preschool teachers to easily draw the attention of children to a screen or a whiteboard. Interactive Display Technology makes it possible for schools to capture and stream crisp images and audio that can capture the entire attention of preschool children.

Changing Primary Education with Unprecedented AV Technology

Modern-day classrooms are established under interactive environments where productive and engaging content is produced every day. The wide usage of educational technology translates to the fact that nowadays, being able to use new technologies effectively is rapidly becoming a viable part of the skills required by teaching staff. Notwithstanding, primary schools encounter challenges that are complex such as the production of tangible results without surpassing their allocated budget. To ensure that is achieved while improving education teaching quality, Audio-Video Solutions of VSSi can be greatly used.

Audio-Video solutions allow lessons to be captured and safely stored so that graphics and audio content can be delivered when needed. This makes it possible to cut down on lesson preparation time and giving teachers more time to concentrate on their students.

Audio-Video solutions can be of great benefit during in-house training periods and when professional development events are organized for primary school teachers.

VSSi offers primary schools an integrated solution for the production of analog and digital content, provision of remote management and the potential to stream content at once to multiple devices. We must also highlight the benefits of Video Annotation, an innovative multimedia device that has replaced traditional blackboards and whiteboards as a way of content presentation. This equipment is specifically suitable for the delivery of important national curriculum content.

Furthermore, VSSi technology solutions also boost primary school’s security thanks to their range of Intelligent Equipment Control and Monitoring Devices.

Integrating Technology with Secondary Education Services

VSSi technology is highly experienced in providing state-of-the-art solutions to secondary schools in the United States. VSSi works with a lot of well-established partners and producers of the most sophisticated equipment and is able to perform installations of different sizes and levels of complication.

VSSi can provide classrooms and laboratories with Audio-Video Solutions, Video Annotation, SMART Solutions, Digital Signage Solutions, Interactive-Display Technology, Intelligent Equipment Control, & Monitoring, Interactive Touchscreens & Smart Boards, Learning-Studio Group, Communication and Presentation Tools, Tablet-Based BYOD, Projection Systems and Furnishing to deliver flexible teaching and training solutions.

This equipment is particularly useful while delivering educational content in GCSE subjects such as design and technology, science, foreign languages and media arts in that they provide a fully buoyant environment that promotes learning.

To learn more about VSSi’s audio-video solutions, click here.

Advancing Innovative Thinking and Quality Higher Education Teaching with VSSi Technology Solutions

As the total population of students who possess access to higher education grows, colleges and universities encounter new challenges as they are now required to provide for a wide range of learning systems and educational requirements, while producing high-quality content that is important when it comes to training of future professionals. AV Technology is currently the new model that can be explored inefficient delivery of content in higher education scope. As a result of this, VSSi offers a wide-ranging selection of equipment that can help endow educators while acting as a potent motivator for higher education students.

Audio-Video Solutions are an established hi-tech system that has various applications in higher education parlance. With this savvy device, lecturers can record and save educational content that can be used later in lecture theatres, laboratories, or seminar rooms. Also, this device possesses live streaming capabilities and content can be seen at the same time on many devices anywhere and anytime.

Interactive Touchscreens and Smart Boards are other highly important equipment that can help to teach staff to choose relevant content and present it in an interactive manner that generates interest among college and university students. What is more, acquiring equipment such as these can be viewed as a profitable investment that provides benefits beyond the lecture rooms. For instance, Projection Systems and Furnishing have been used to deliver flexible teaching and training solutions during board meetings in many universities in the United States.

Enhancing Cooperation and Innovations among Colleges and Universities

VSSi technology solutions partner with universities to create solutions that are tailored towards improving students’ experience. More colleges now use e-learning platforms. Also, distance education allows colleges to provide flexible learning medium for students who cannot travel back and forth and possess other commitments like work and family commitment. Developments in audio visual technology offer colleges the privilege of teaching remotely and expanding their reach.

VSSi offers an array of high-level technologies that offer hands-on and interactive teaching practices and alternatives for remote educators and distance education. From classrooms that are video-supported to the current presentation equipment, VSSi possesses options that will meet colleges and university’s needs. VSSi’s experts design and install solutions with SMART Solutions, Digital Signage Solutions, Interactive-Display Technology, Intelligent Equipment Control, & Monitoring, Interactive Touchscreens & Smart Boards, Learning-Studio Group, Communication and Presentation Tools, Tablet-Based BYOD, Projection Systems and Furnishing to foster innovative thinking and quality education teaching which will enhance cooperation and innovations among colleges and universities.

Learn about how technology will affect education in the future.

To download VSSi’s brochures, click here.

Education in Action: Collaborative Classrooms

Jun 5, 2018

We are passing those days when we were sitting in classroom rows with a teacher sitting behind a desk glued to a laptop screen. What does the future classroom look like? – Movable furniture, document cameras, multiple monitors, and interactive projectors. All these new innovations belong to “active learning” introduced as a collaborative learning space promoting both creativity and critical thinking, with an aim to provide equal visual and auditory accessibility for students, regardless of where they are sitting in the classroom. As the need for collaboration continues to flourish and expand in capabilities, technology becomes more crucial. Nowadays thanks to wireless device connectivity, students and teacher are able to use tablet devices in the classroom. For instance, with Epson education presentation displays, students can project content from their devices onto entire walls and surfaces and annotate on the wall in real time using their fingers with BrightLink devices. Also, it enables teachers to see and display up to four devices simultaneously from a maximum of fifty connected student devices, or easily compare students’ work side-by-side for an engaging, collaborative learning experience. Primitive digital whiteboards, which were used primarily to display the content from the web, were replaced by capacitive touchscreens. Instead of offering little opportunity for interaction with students, with new touchscreens teachers are capable of having students collaborate on their work, create diagrams, and perform other work on a touchscreen and interact with rich content such as videos and games.

As AV technology growth continues, teachers will be able to incorporate more interactive elements into their lessons. In addition to touchscreens, video conferencing technologies play a significant role in today’s education as well. Distance learning continues to grow; hence, educational facilities adopt video conferencing as an important tool for their programs. This innovation allows teacher and students to interact the way they would in a true classroom. It is not a standard for distance learning at this moment, but this face-to-face learning environment will be enhanced pretty soon…

Great Lecture Capture Products for Classrooms: Vaddio AV Bridge MATRIX PRO ( *This AV Bridge makes it simple to encode, capture, and stream AV content through a variety of PC apps or directly to the network.) Panasonic AW-UE70 4K Pan/Tilt/ Zoom Camera Marshall Electronics CV612HT-4K Pan-Tilt-Zoom Camera Revolabs Executive Elite 2-Channel Wireless Microphone System (*Great solution for auditoriums and lecture halls where the voice of a presenter has to be easily heard and understood by students from small to large.) 1 Beyond Collaborate AVS (*Great conferencing solution for large and small rooms with various layouts. System detects speaker and switches camera slots.)