Business challenges / Reducing manual controls
Fewer steps.
Less to remember.
Turn on the screen. Choose an input. Adjust the sound. Find the right remote. When using a room depends on remembering the sequence, the technology becomes another job for the people in it.
The problem
A simple task.
Too many steps.
The system may do everything you need. The difficulty is getting it into the right state, especially when people share the space and use it differently.
Someone has to know the sequence
One person knows which buttons to press and in what order. When they are away, a routine presentation turns into a call for help.
The last user leaves a puzzle
A different input is selected, the sound is muted, or part of the system is still running. The next person has to work out what changed before they can start.
Small tasks keep coming back
Switching equipment on, adjusting settings, and shutting everything down falls to whoever notices. Across several rooms, those little jobs become a regular interruption.
The solution
Make the task clear.
Coordinate the rest.
Start with the activities people recognise: present, join a call, use the whole room, or finish for the day. Bring the equipment behind each activity together through clear controls, with feedback that shows what the system is doing.
Decide what should happen automatically and what should stay in the user’s hands. Where the equipment and room setup allow, a booking, occupancy signal, or schedule can trigger agreed actions. People still need a clear way to take control when plans change.
Define how the room starts and how it is left for the next person. Test ordinary use, changed plans, and recovery after a restart, so the controls reflect how the space actually operates.
Why AV Projects
Useful automation.
Worked through in detail.
In practice: Canaccord Genuity
101 Collins, Melbourne
We design the control interface alongside the equipment and room layout. The aim is to make everyday tasks straightforward, with the switching, sequencing, and system settings worked through behind them.
At Canaccord Genuity, that coordination included motorised table displays, retractable microphones, and speech-driven camera switching in a room supporting both Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The control behaviour had to fit the room’s operation as well as its architectural finish.
What you need may be as simple as starting a presentation and leaving the room ready for the next booking. We work through those tasks, commission the connected system, and show the people using it how it behaves.
Map the routine
Show us the steps people take now, including the workarounds and the settings that cause confusion.
Simplify the controls
Bring routine actions together, with clear labels, useful feedback, and automation where it helps.
Keep it practical
Document how the system behaves and review it as the room, equipment, or way of working changes.
Which task takes
too many steps?
Tell us what people are trying to do and where the process gets fiddly. We can work through a simpler way to operate the space.
