For industry associations, conducting meetings in a large room with many participants can prove to be a challenge; resulting in poor or no audio and endless echoes that can slow a meeting to a crawl. The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) found a way to address these issues. WPC is an open, standards development group of more than 220 company members based in approximately 23 countries who collaborate for a single purpose: to design and evolve the world’s most useful, safe and efficient standard for wireless power—Qi. In order to advance this technology, WPC members meet several times a year in hotels and across the globe. Having grown tired of expensive rental fees and unreliable teleconferencing, the WPC leadership invested in equipment that offers its membership a portable, flexible solution to communicate and collaborate with the members on-site, and those dialing in remotely.
The equipment, which can fit in a suitcase, is a sophisticated hands-free speaker for a PC or phone. With this hands-free speaker, a room with up to 30 people can participate in a teleconference with excellent audio quality. With larger groups, it is possible to connect the equipment to audio amplification in the room, and to wireless and wired microphones allowing for a more collaborative meeting. The equipment also takes care of echo cancellation and removes background noise.
“WPC is able to have much better audio at meetings,” said Menno Treffers, chair, The Wireless Power Consortium. “This allows our members to conduct business more smoothly as there are fewer issues with teleconference equipment. I would definitely recommend other groups use this equipment.”
The equipment WPC purchased cost little more than a few thousand U.S. Dollars. Investing in this equipment has also allowed WPC to divert resources to other, more strategic needs, rather than continuing to spend funds on pricey, one-time-use rental fees.