Conference Room Audio Should Be Managed Like Enterprise IT

There was a time when video-conferencing was almost in the realm of science fiction. But the rapid shift to remote work and improvements in connectivity and other technology have moved things from fiction to everyday tools. Over the last few years, camera, microphone and speaker technologies have shifted from analogue to digital and become an extension of the network.

"Devices that were once peripherals are now endpoints on the corporate LAN. New protocols, such as Dante, are a major part of that transition. Carla Thornton, the Strategic Market Development Manager, who spent 24 years in IT before moving into AV nearly four years ago with NSL Group Ltd, explained.

"We've leveraged Dante to treat every microphone and DSP as a network endpoint, which aligns AV with IT standards. The biggest benefit has been scalability. Adding rooms becomes a matter of extending the network, not redesigning systems. It also gives IT full visibility using familiar tools and improves troubleshooting and reduces reliance on specialised AV support."

With audio and video devices now becoming part of the network, it's important to manage these devices with the same rigour as any other endpoint device. That means having access to management tools that enable easy firmware updates, diagnostics, and configuration across dozens or hundreds of rooms.

"Cloud platforms like ShureCloud and Designer centralise control across dozens or hundreds of rooms. The real value is consistency and uptime - problems are detected proactively and resolved faster, which is critical in distributed NZ environments."

As well offering enhanced conferencing facilities in meeting rooms of all sizes, advances in how these devices are deployed and managed enables facilities managers to gain greater insights into how rooms and equipment are used.

Microphone arrays capture sound and generate metadata such as speech activity and location. That data is processed by Digital Signal Processing that is turned into network traffic via Dante. It is then exposed to cloud platforms and APIs that enable analytics tools to aggregate the data over time to produce insights like room utilisation and occupancy patterns.

"APIs enable integration between AV, control systems, and UC platforms," Thornton explained. "Platforms like Q-SYS allow us to automate workflows. For example, one-touch meeting start can power up the room, connect audio, and launch the call. This reduces user friction and increases adoption."

AV management and security

Anyone who has worked in an office environment with multiple conference rooms understands the pain that comes from each room having different audio quality requiring manual adjustment. Thornton said this problem can be resolved by using modern platforms.

"We standardise room templates using tools like Shure Designer, combined with consistent hardware platforms. Once a design is validated, it can be replicated across floors or buildings with minimal adjustment. This ensures every room delivers the same audio experience without manual tuning."

With all the audio data digitised, it's easier to add services such as AI transcription, language translation, or real‑time captioning into the existing audio‑as‑data framework. Once audio is on the network, it can be securely routed to cloud services for transcription or translation. Architecturally, this requires low-latency networks, secure APIs, and integration with Unified Communications platforms like Teams. The key is ensuring audio quality and consistency so AI outputs are accurate.

With sensitive data often shared as audio, it's important that appropriate security controls are put in place. Thornton said AV data must be treated with the same vigilance as any other corporate data. Thornton said strategies such as network segmentation, encryption where available, and alignment with IT security policies are critical.

"Devices are authenticated, access is controlled, and cloud platforms are managed under enterprise security frameworks. Treating AV like any other IT workload is critical."

 Integrating AV data into the corporate network can be challenging. While there are many platforms and tools that can simplify the task there are risks that need to be mitigated.

Multicast configuration, Quality of Service, and device discovery must be considered. Thornton said many corporate networks aren't initially set up for real-time media. But this can be mitigated through network design best practices, close collaboration with IT teams, and pre-deployment validation.

"Across all of this, the shift is treating AV as part of the IT ecosystem. Once audio becomes data, it unlocks scalability, insight, and new capabilities like AI, but only if it's designed with the network, user experience, and lifecycle management in mind."