It’s a good time to be a huddle room. They make conferencing intimate and on track for small meetings and work groups. Using huddle rooms for conferencing makes a great secure environment to always have a space that is quiet with minimal distractions. 

Digital signage is a highly effective communication tool that can help you tell your company’s story in dynamic and engaging ways. But it can easily backfire if you aren’t on the lookout for pitfalls. So let’s take a quick gander at a few of the most common digital signage mistakes and how you can avoid them.

It used to be that remote workers and distributed teams did not have access to compact and manageable collaboration solutions that matched the quality of on-site infrastructure. This is no longer the case. Remote employees now have access to a host of solutions that liberate business-grade technology from the confines of the office. Among the pioneers of such accessible and mobile solutions were Polycom and Plantronics, who merged last year and rebranded as Poly.

Mobile conferencing solutions like Prime Call Cloud UC and Cisco Spark make it easier than ever to join meetings from tablets and smartphones. Such convenience is great to all employees, whether they’re on the move or in the office. The former contingent, most often seen hustling to catch a flight, can quickly sign in to a video conference from whatever lobby or waiting area they happen to be working from, while the latter group can take advantage of BYOD flexibility and share content with a mere touch of their screen.

Video conferencing might make it easier for people to come together, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the small hassles and minor faux pas that can make meetings exceedingly difficult. With that in mind, here are four common meeting mistakes that you would do well to avoid, whether you are on a video conference call or leading an in-person meeting.

G Suite, Google’s cloud-based collaboration solution, added Google Voice to its array of features last year, and it didn’t take long for Poly (formerly known as Plantronics) to make sure its new VVX x50 series of desk phones were fully integrated with Google’s communication platform.

Remote workers tend to be self-starters who cherish independence, but that doesn’t mean they should be left entirely to their own devices. They need support. They need guidance. They need understanding. Here is how you can start giving your remote teams those things.

An open office is supposed to bring your employees together to form a buzzing little hive of activity and innovation. Tear down those walls! Let the ideas flow! It’s time for interdepartmental collaboration! Right? Sure. But it turns out that busy buzzing might be backfiring for some organizations.

The conference phone is the gold standard for communication technology. As unified communication solutions have advanced with video technology so have audio innovations that allow each conference phone to intelligently adapt to different room environments. This eliminates confusion and enhances productivity. Video conferencing is the future -- especially paired with the right audio solution.

As of 2019, the cloud computing market neared the $200 billion mark, jumping 21% from just a year before. The cloud is claiming more and more information technology services, and for good reason. With cloud-based services, companies big and small can forget storage, maintenance and IT support worries. And with various subscription options available from most cloud computing services, companies don’t have to fret about the future--with everything in the cloud, capacity can shrink and grow along with business. 

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your conferencing and collaboration solution is--if you haven’t figured out how to light your room for video, you will defeat the purpose of video conferencing all together. What good is a face-to-face video chat if your colleagues are getting a distorted version of you that distracts from the matter at hand? You don’t have to have a brilliant cinematographic eye to get your lights right. Just follow these rules and you’ll be fine.

Late last year, Lifesize became the first manufacturer to offer a true 4K video and content sharing video conferencing solution. With 20x zoom, dual display support, ultra-wideband Opus audio and rich camera optics, the Icon 700 leapt to the front of the video conferencing pack.

Mobile conferencing and collaboration solutions are essential tools for employees on the move, and companies intent on implementing a robust and flexible unified communication solution should make mobility a high priority. But even though smart phones and tablets give people the freedom to take their work anywhere they want, most employees will be spending most of their time working on laptops and PCs. And so regardless of where they are--at the office, at home, in a hotel room, plugged into coffee shop wi-fi, on an airplane--the odds are good they’ll need access to a reliable and feature-rich desktop solution.

When Plantronics announced it would be relaunching as Poly last month, the communications giant renewed its commitment to making today’s variegated collaboration methods mesh as seamlessly as possible.

StarLeaf, which powers Prime Call Cloud UC and provides meeting room solutions to organizations around the world, has announced the opening of new offices in Chicago and New York City. With the addition of these two U.S. locations, StarLeaf now has fifteen Points of Presence around the world. These localized data centers offer StarLeaf customers an unparalleled level of security and reliability.