Company Update

Bringing Everyone Together

Editorial in 'South East Business' June 2011 edition


Anyone who has tried to bring even a handful of staff together for an office meeting will know how tricky it is to find a time and a day when all their diaries are clear.

Imagine how much more difficult it gets when a multi-national wants the top people from Hong Kong, Paris and New York to address a 500-strong workforce at a London venue and it’s clear that companies sometimes need a different approach to the problem.

Epsom-based audio-visual experts Convergence AV are increasingly solving the problem by providing state-of-the-art video conferencing support – although it’s not called that any more.

“The new term is ‘telepresence’ because it more accurately reflects the fact that the technology is so good that the remote speaker might as well be in the same room as the people he or she is addressing,” explained Convergence AV technical director Pete Metcalf.

Convergence AV, which has many years of experience in the technical side of events such as sound, lighting, staging, video production, signage and special effects, has noticed a big increase in demand for telepresence support over the past year.

The company can use high definition cameras that allow large screens to bring together hundreds of people at a number of different venues. “The quality is so good that showing a big screen image of someone in Hong Kong is no different to filming them in the same room and projecting the image on a screen so that those at the back can see,” Pete explained.

“It saves huge amounts of money and time in flying executives in from foreign parts and it’s better for the environment because it reduces air travel significantly.”


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