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By Stijn Ooms
 
In a time when adoption rates of new technology are skyrocketing and physical distancing is essential, it’s important to think about the best way to manage all these newly installed devices, and the old ones. And I don’t just mean having the resources to install, set up and update your technology (more about this later), but also to resolve any possible issues.
 
These past months have created a unique situation for AV, UC, and IT managers. The rate at which companies introduced new technology to their workforce, and the rate at which new and existing technology was adopted by the workforce for professional and private use, is unprecedented. But when you introduce more and new technology in the workspace, you are bound to see more issues. Just think of the extra potential failure points, but also of the extra questions inexperienced people will have and the extra training they will need.
 
In the old days, sending someone over in-person to resolve the issue or explain how technology is used, was an option. Not the most efficient one, but an option, nonetheless. Today, it’s not. You can’t risk the health of your IT manager by asking him to walk into occupied meeting rooms over and over again, where he has to handle touch screens and keyboards that might have just been touched by someone else.
 
Luckily, at Crestron we have extensive experience with remote control and management through XiO Cloud, an Internet of Things based platform that enables you to remotely provision, monitor, and manage devices across an enterprise or an entire client base.
 
Crestron XiO Cloud enables IT to remotely access room systems from anywhere in the world. That means they can not only configure complete systems without the need to go onsite, but also resolve issues. For example, in a classroom, a university deploys a new piece of technology for Zoom™ meetings. If a professor has an issue joining a Zoom meeting to start a class, IT can remotely access and control the system and simply hit ‘join meeting’ to resolve the issue and not break social distancing rules.
 
XiO Cloud has additional features that are especially relevant today. Does company policy restrict the number of participants in a 10-person meeting room to not more than 5 people? Coupled with a camera with built-in people counting technology, such as the Huddly IQ™ camera, which is part of the Crestron Flex UC system, XiO Cloud can be set to automatically send an alert when the meeting room occupancy exceeds the set limit. It’s yet another example of why using an intelligent management platform is the intelligent choice.
 
Learn more about Crestron XiO Cloud.