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Sennheiser’s Team Connect Wireless Helps S&ME Consulting Achieve Meeting Success

USA – For S&ME, a consulting firm specialising in engineering, design, planning, environmental, and construction services for the built environment, strong communication with both clients and colleagues has long been a key to success. But with 36 offices across the United States and projects throughout the country including everything from hospitals to industrial plants to reservoir dams, many times staying in close contact means keeping in touch remotely.

S&ME uses Skype for Business to facilitate its online meetings, which have increased in number by 80% in recent years, but poor audio quality was a nagging issue for the company. To resolve it, technology director Chris Headley turned to Sennheiser’s Team Connect Wireless to raise the bar for inter-office conferencing.

With S&ME’s old conferencing system, any meeting participants not in close physical proximity to a microphone were unlikely to be heard. Headley also noted that in meetings of six or more participants, incoming audio was often unintelligible. These problems came to a head when S&ME CEO Randy Neuhaus delivered a clear marching order to Headley: “We have to solve the audio issue.”

Headley needed a solution for the company’s mid-sized conference rooms that could handle up to 24 participants with far better sound pickup and distribution. At first it seemed like there was nothing suitable in the market, which was overrun with expensive hard-wired systems that were complicated to use and inflexible. Fortunately, at an AV conference organized by S&ME’s AV service provider, Whitlock, Headley was introduced to Sennheiser’s TeamConnect Wireless mobile conference solution.

TeamConnect Wireless is the first portable wireless conference system for online meetings. Designed as a turnkey audio solution, it is exceptionally easy to set up and use and is both compact and flexible. It also delivers crisp speech and high-grade audio that helps make online meetings more natural and productive. An attractive modern aesthetic ties the whole package together, including a touch sensitive glass control panel that lets you connect and control online meetings with ease and style.

After witnessing a demonstration by a Sennheiser representative, Headley was impressed with the features, sound quality, and ease of use of the system. “It was exactly what I was looking for, “ he says. He gleaned additional confidence from his existing familiarity with the Sennheiser from first-hand experience with other Sennheiser products, including microphones.

Sennheiser provided Headley with an opportunity to test the TeamConnect Wireless system on-site at S&ME without obligation. He seized the opportunity, and it quickly led to a decision to purchase a TeamConnect Wireless Case Set featuring four satellites units and facilitating up to 24 participant conferences.

The results have been convincing. With TeamConnect Wireless, now S&ME employees are ready to conference anywhere at any time. A member of S&ME’s IT department simply brings the set in its convenient carry case to the relevant meeting room, then effortlessly connects it to the PC, notebook, tablet, or smartphone located therein. With NFC enabled Bluetooth Wireless as well as USB/3.5 mm jack, TeamConnect Wireless can interfaces effectively with a wide range of host systems.

“It takes between 30 and 60 seconds to set up,” Headley says. “It’s really very easy. Anyone can do it,” and though his department administers each setup for the time being, he foresees a day where users will be able to set up and connect the set themselves.

Most importantly for Headley, any audio quality issues with their previous system have been completely resolved by TeamConnect Wireless. Both incoming and outgoing audio is crystal clear. That means meeting participants are now able to hear and be heard better than ever, and with TeamConnect Wireless’s six person per satellite capacity, large meetings are easily accommodated with a minimal footprint.

The build quality also gives Headley confidence that his TeamConnect Wireless Case Set will be helping conduct successful meetings for years to come. “The good design and nice finish both leave a strong impression,” he says. “It feels solid and full of quality.” He also appreciates the highly functional case design, which both automatically powers down the satellites when they are stored within it and displays battery charge level at all times, in addition to making them easy to transport.

Neuhas has added his voice to those championing TeamConnect Wireless, grateful that his erstwhile audio concerns have been alleviated. "The ease of use and true portability of the TeamConnect Wireless will yield a lot of value for us,” he says. “We had struggled to get good audio with our larger rooms in the past, but this system should make me a rock star with management.”

Though TeamConnect Wireless has only been deployed at the company’s main headquarters in Raleigh, Headley says plans are already underway to acquire more sets for Raleigh and elsewhere, including some of the new two-satellite Tray-M sets for smaller meeting rooms. Headley is also still discovering new useful implementations of the versatile system all the time, including using it to stream Christmas music to multiple rooms at this year’s Christmas party. “I suspect the Sennheiser developers did not anticipate this particular application scenario,” he jokes.

21st June 2017

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