Why You Should Select an Experienced Zoom AV Integrator

Zoom became a household name last year as COVID-19 forced hundreds of thousands of people to work from home. In some parts of the world, 42 percent of the labor force worked remotely full time during the pandemic and relied on video collaboration tools like Zoom to connect with co-workers.

“Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight – far surpassing what we expected when we first announced our desire to help in late February,” wrote Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, in this post.

Check out our Zoom Room info sheet here.

Along with individual licenses, organizations of all kinds turned to Zoom for its ease of deployment, user-friendly interface, and reliable audio and video conferencing. At the beginning of the pandemic, Zoom reached an overwhelming 300 million daily users — up from 10 million in December 2019. And the company doesn’t expect things to cool down.

Because of the demand and benefits of video conferencing, Zoom rolled out a series of additional product offerings to enable better communication using its platform, including its Hardware as a Service feature that helps ease the upfront financial cost of securing phone and meeting room technology.

Zoom Rooms are another key offering. With a network of certified product manufacturers, Zoom created a scalable solution to deploy meeting rooms for businesses and organizations. These rooms come fully equipped with everything meeting participants need:

• Displays
• Soundbars and audio equipment
• Web cameras
• Control panels, and…
• Zoom

For smaller companies or individuals looking for a DIY solution, Zoom offers packages to meet those needs with instructions to follow.

However, for larger scale projects, Zoom offers two options for deployment of its Zoom Rooms and other solutions:

• Enlist Zoom’s Professional Services (PSO), or…
• Work with a professional AV integrator.

In this post, we’ll go through how integrators can help and why it’s important to choose an integrator that’s certified for deploying Zoom Rooms and other solutions.

Experienced Zoom Integrators Follow Best Practices for Deployment

In the last few years, Zoom launched and updated a partner program for hardware manufacturers — think of Logitech or Poly — and audiovisual systems (AV) integrators. The purpose of the program was to set standards and best practices for Zoom technology and deployments to ensure customers would have the best possible experience when it came time to hop on a Zoom call.

The company wrote on its website:

“By providing value-added services such as design, deployment, and management for Zoom Rooms, our certified integrator partners ensure Zoom customers get up and running faster with top-tier video communications experience.”

AV Integrators Offer End-to-End Services for Zoom Solutions

For businesses and organizations that need to deploy Zoom Rooms across the enterprise, it’s important to consider how a certified AV integrator can help.

The key benefits of working with a certified integrator include:

Design and Development

A certified AV integrator knows the ins and outs of Zoom Rooms and Zoom’s other solutions, like Phone. With that said, an integrator can match an organization’s specific needs with a professionally designed Zoom solution.

Production Procurement and Installation

A certified AV integrator handles the procurement of all equipment and installs it on site, offering organizations’ IT teams the ability to continue with their day-to-day work, rather than dedicating time and resources to setting up new rooms.

Custom Integration and Interoperability

A core specialty of AV integrators has to do with its custom solutions, so if an organization has more specific needs than an out-of-the-box solution or simple room deployment, an integrator works with IT, project management and architects to ensure the technology meets end-users’ expectations.

Ongoing Support Post Install

After the initial project wraps up, an AV integrator can also act as an organization’s go-to provider for managed services, which could include training, remote and on-site support, and active monitoring of the systems to encourage adoption and keep usage rates high.

Zoom Trusts Experienced Integrators to Uphold Its High Standards

When it comes time to select a vendor to work with when deploying Zoom solutions, an organization must consider if it has the time, resources and expertise to implement the solutions itself — or, if it needs to look to outside help.

For systems that feature professional AV equipment — and some Zoom Rooms do — a certified technician should be responsible for the install because he or she has the expertise needed to safely and correctly complete the job. Special consideration should be taken when choosing an integrator for Zoom-specific projects, because if an integrator doesn’t follow best practices during the project, the consequences could cause more harm than good, resulting in a poor end-user experience that doesn’t meet Zoom’s 99.99 percent uptime standard.

Hillman AV is a Zoom Solutions Provider. If your organization is interested in implementing Zoom Rooms or other services, please find a time that works for you to connect with our team of experts and learn more about the benefits of Zoom Rooms.