Cyviz sets a standard for MTR Front Row in large rooms

Those of us who went to ISE 2022 looking for Microsoft Teams Rooms Front Row in action, could not fail to be struck by a large curved LED video wall at the show.

The video wall showed what was by far the biggest and most eye-catching MTR Front Row demo at the event.

But the in-person demonstration of what was possible with Front Row in a large space wasn’t given to us by Leyard, the manufacturer behind the ultra-wide screen. It was actually given by one of its partners.

It was Jan Petter Lie, European president at Cyviz, who talked us through a distinctive approach to MTRs that is particularly well suited to bigger spaces that would benefit from the Front Row layout and philosophy. These could be executive briefing centres, experience centres or operations centres.

And this distinctive approach to MTRs could also be seen at Cyviz’s own exhibition space at InfoComm just a few weeks later (see below).

Cyviz is a company that perhaps doesn’t quite fit into the mould of typical AV or IT, hardware or software categories. It is a provider of a standardised turnkey platform for room control and management which enables MTRs to be deployed within the platform via an easy-to-use touch controller.

Its platform has some very notable clients too. Among them is Microsoft itself, which is deploying the Cyviz platform at its own technology centres among other spaces – which is quite an endorsement.

Another big client is IT services and consulting giant Accenture. Most recently, Accenture turned to Cyviz for the visualisation technology that would support its presence as headline sponsor and official Digital Services Partner at Expo 2020 in Dubai.

To find out more about the company’s approach to Teams Rooms and Front Row, AV Magazine posed some questions to Jan Petter Lie after these industry shows.

AV Magazine: How did Cyviz, as a company initially known for its work with the oil and gas industry, come to be a provider of Microsoft Teams Rooms in high-end spaces?

Jan Petter Lie: Our relationship with the oil and gas industry has been long serving, as they were early adopters of technology and new ways of working. Their requirement for operational excellence and business-critical environments remains at the core of our delivery. Over the last 15 years our business model has diversified, now with customers ranging from SMBs to larger corporates, including many Fortune 500 companies.

Spanning multiple industries that require control rooms, collaboration spaces and meeting rooms, our proposition resonates across an unending number of verticals including energy, government and defence and of course corporate. Our relationship with Microsoft and successes with the delivery of Executive Briefing Centres, Innovation Spaces, and large feature-rich Meeting Rooms, all with a native Teams experience, is testament to our IT-driven approach and continued quality of delivery.

AV Magazine: What is distinctive about the Cyviz approach to Microsoft Teams Rooms and the Front Row layout?

Jan Petter Lie: We believe that true meeting excellence takes place when using our solutions, for both Teams meetings and in-room sharing with tools to deliver next-level collaboration. We bring the Cyviz in-room experience to life, supporting multiple input sources to inspire information sharing, discussion and in-room decision making.

Furthermore, with the addition of new features such as Front Row, the in-room Teams experience is further enhanced via ultra-wide video walls which are synonymous with Cyviz solutions.

User participation continues to benefit from the Cyviz Platform with our centralised approach to operation and the ability to deliver rooms with a native Teams experience, supporting more complex audio and video equipment throughout the room due to our unique integration with Teams and MTRs.

This IT-centric approach means that Cyviz is fast becoming the preferred solution to support MTRs in large and more complex rooms which require more than is available “out of the box”.

AV Magazine: What is the relationship between Microsoft software and the Cyviz platform?

Jan Petter Lie: We believe that there is no better illustration of the strength of the partnership between Cyviz and Microsoft than the fact that Microsoft Technology Centers (MTCs) across the globe are being standardised on the Cyviz platform.

Building its Envisioning Theatres around the Cyviz platform allows Microsoft to manage each of these vital assets centrally, as all the rooms and hardware in each can be accessed, monitored, and supported remotely from one place. This ensures maximum uptime for the centres and delivers an engaging, collaborative, and consistent user experience across all rooms.

This unique partnership between Cyviz and Microsoft also gives users the best of both worlds by enhancing storytelling capabilities and expanding possibilities and delivering the Teams user experience into the room. Our customers also realise the benefits of the partnership due to the way that we integrate with Microsoft software and the R&D and innovation in both Microsoft software and the Cyviz platform.

Meeting hosts can manage their entire meeting from the intuitive touch panel of the Cyviz Easy Controller. Content can be easily shared with in-room as well as virtual participants, making the experience more collaborative, inclusive, and engaging.

AV Magazine: What kind of spaces, use cases and verticals is the Cyviz approach best suited to?

Jan Petter Lie: To be honest, Cyviz solutions are applicable to any situation or organisation that has a requirement for next-level collaboration. We are seeing that businesses want to evolve their technological infrastructure to suit how employees are now working. This post-Covid working revolution is looking at both hybrid activity and the need for multipurpose, digital production rooms for face-to-face problem solving with decisions being made when people are in the room working together.

This new way of thinking is not just about the technology but also the design and layout of rooms. When we saw the development direction of Teams and the early concepts of Front Row, we were really excited as this is how we have been designing rooms for many years.

A further discussion point is the future-proofing of rooms and whilst we know how they need to work today, we don’t know about the future. The ability to upgrade rooms as technology and requirements evolve is a key consideration and is a key deliverable of the Cyviz platform.

An additional thread to the new working world is also to reduce the environmental impact of business with sustainability best practices and a desire to reduce the burden of “meeting miles”.  Our delivery of feature-rich meeting rooms, innovation centres, command and control rooms and operation centres shares the common need for operational excellence and the ability to provide spaces that are business critical with an equitable meeting experience for all, whether they be in the room or a remote attendee.

AV Magazine: Are there any organisations we might know of who have chosen to use Microsoft Teams Rooms with the Cyviz platform?

Jan Petter Lie: As mentioned, Microsoft has standardised on the Cyviz Platform in its Technology Centres and the dedicated Envisioning Theatres that they host. These are used to deliver immersive experiences that help guide businesses along their digital transformation journey. Currently Microsoft has 19 MTCs in the Americas; 17 sited around Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and 9 MTCs covering Asia.

Additionally, clients such as KPMG, which recently installed a fantastic new Innovation Centre built with a native Teams integration at the Capital One Arena in Washington, have benefited from the Teams user interface from the MTR in their Cyviz delivery.

Our observation is that there is a trend for businesses moving their entire meeting room portfolio to MTRs and that is where Cyviz can deliver the generic Teams experience to the employees across all meeting rooms – both small and large, ensuring a consistent user experience.

AV Magazine: Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you would like to share with us?

Jan Petter Lie: It is worth mentioning that we are working side by side with the Microsoft teams in the European region where they see the value of introducing Cyviz as a window of what is possible.

We also see that organisations are now building spaces that are “attractive” to users and designed as multi-purpose digital collaboration environments, not just meeting rooms, but covering Corporate Communication Centres, Investment Presentation Spaces, Crisis Management Suites etc.

We expect that the development of collaboration tools such as Front Row will continue, and our platform fully supports the upgradeability and development of  (non-traditional AV) solutions. Our ethos is one of standardisation over customisation, providing an open and agile platform for maximum flexibility and growth and this is conjoint with the standardisation of Microsoft Teams Room systems.

Organisations are changing the way they procure and invest in standard meeting room technology with organisation-wide roll outs of MTRs. The MTRs are providing a standardised user experience the industry has been requiring for a long time.

This complements the Cyviz approach as a standardised user experience is the cornerstone of our platform. We can build rooms with different complexities but with a consistent user experience. Being able to bring the native Teams experience into more feature-rich rooms allows organisations to deliver user continuity and equitable collaboration experiences across their estate.

A final note… we believe that building next-level collaboration spaces with developments such as Front Row is not just about screen size and technology. It is about working with businesses to help them understand how these new tools can be relevant for them, and how we can help them change the way they work for the better, while at the same time be ready for the future.

Jan Petter Lie is President, Europe, at Cyviz.