As we approach the third anniversary of lockdowns in the UK, many of us will reflect on the things we’ve retained as part of a ‘new normal.’ Changes to our jobs and lives that once felt seismic are now established as part of everyday routines.
One of the most ubiquitous was the normalisation of flexible working. With employees unable to share a workspace, we took our jobs home with us.
Businesses underwent rapid digital transformations, turning to audiovisual (AV) technologies to ensure that they could continue operating – and collaborating. Conference calls once confined to the boardroom were suddenly being conducted across international borders.
Against all odds, the revolution worked. A 2021 study from global non-profit Catalyst reported that home workers were significantly more likely to be innovative and engaged, and 30% less likely to look for employment elsewhere. The National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States similarly suggested that when required to work from home during lockdowns, 40% of workers found themselves more productive than in the office.
Further studies show that this state of play isn’t going anywhere. The European Central Bank has found that 40% of people now want to work from home for at least two days a week; 27% expect their employer to offer them this structure.
But this newfound flexibility relies upon technology. As hybrid working continues to establish itself as the norm for so many, the tools that employees depend upon need to evolve, too.
Overheard
At the outset of the pandemic, many technologies were a patchwork solution based upon what was available at the time – which, amid a sudden chip shortage, was limited.
For many, old laptops with a basic integrated microphone and webcam were suddenly the focal point of the workplace. Given the importance of communication in a hybrid environment, growing pains were inevitable.
Oversensitive microphones, and an inability to differentiate between primary speakers and background noise, were common problems. And as small groups began to collaborate in person with long-distance colleagues online, it became clear that technologies designed for one user could struggle to accommodate multiple.
The technologies that are now emerging are intended to usurp these older solutions by tackling their limitations directly.
Devices entering the market require the intelligence and processing power to respond to audio input dynamically, delivering an enterprise-grade experience to both speaker and listener. Ideally, they’ll do so with official certifications from industry-standard software such as Zoom, or Microsoft Teams.
The ultimate solution
Our answer to these challenges is the XVF3800: a high-performance processor for enterprise audio, designed to deliver rapid time-to-market, cost-effective capabilities for video bars, portable speakers, and collaborative display solutions.
Given the need for high-quality components and intelligence within the device, let’s take a more granular look at the key features of the XVF3800:
- Acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) – removes far-end echoes picked up by the microphones, which enables the XVF3800 to extract clear voice signals even with high-volume speaker output
- Adaptive multiple beamformers – tracks both stationary and non-stationary voice sources, identifying the direction of arrival, and isolating the voice of interest, improving double talk and dereverberation performance
- Noise suppression – nulls diffuse noise sources (air conditioning, road noise etc.) to enable accurate, consistent voice capture
- Automatic gain control (AGC) – ensures a consistent far-end volume for speakers at different distances from the device.
This impressive combination of features will be supported by a dedicated development kit, the XK-VOICE-SQ66. Earlier this year, we demonstrated a sneak preview of the XVF3800 at CES – just one of the incredible new technologies on show at the annual event.
The demand for the best quality audio possible in conferencing and collaboration is not going away – and that requires a processor that delivers suitably high performance to do the heavy lifting.
We believe that the XVF3800 is the answer to that challenge, and we’d like to show you why. We will be showcasing the XVF3800 during the Embedded World event next week. If you would like to meet us and see the demo live, visit us in Hall 2, stand 2-630, or click here to secure your meeting.
