Within the commercial space, initiatives around “Green Buildings” have become the primary catalyst for green initiatives. The framework under which green building initiatives are measured is called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). To achieve LEED certification, a company must earn LEED points for satisfying specific building criteria in various categories related to energy efficiency, water efficiency and indoor environmental quality. AV systems can play a major role in achieving LEED certification in various categories, including the regulation of lighting, the overall reduction of energy use and the “Innovation in Design” category, which addresses sustainable building expertise. An intelligent company-wide or building-wide AV strategy can provide enormous benefits that support LEED initiatives, or that can simply lead to reduced energy expenditures for companies seeking to improve their bottom line.
Opportunities include:
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing provides a major cost-saving opportunity and is a significant contributor to improved energy efficiency. When travel is factored in, it’s estimated that a company can save on average $3,300 per meeting. In addition, video conferencing provides opportunities for employees to work remotely.
Energy Savings in AV Equipment
Conference room automation technology controls all the presentation equipment in the room – including displays, projectors, audio and video players, audio/video conferencing systems and more – from a single user interface. When properly implemented, this technology saves energy in three ways:
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Controlling the lighting: Most room automation solutions include occupancy sensors that turn the lights and on and off based on whether the room is occupied.
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Providing an easy means to shut down the room: Most room automation solutions also include one-button shutdown capability, which turns off displays, room PCs and other devices with a single push of a button when attendees vacate the room.
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Enabling timed shutdown: Some solutions include the capability to completely shut down a room based on the amount of time the equipment has remained idle, or based on a specific time of day.
Smart System Design and Energy Savings
One of the more significant trends in AV over the past few years is the advent of All-in-One Presentation
Switchers that consolidate up to 10 separate components into a single chassis. Instead of a large rack of boxes and cables in an AV room, these products consolidate the same functionality into a single chassis that saves space, eliminates points of failure and provides significant energy savings – all in a unit that’s about the size of a desktop computer.
Remote Monitoring and Maintenance
Companies and educational institutions frequently leave AV equipment running for long periods of time since they lack a centralized method for powering down or switching the equipment to standby mode. This is a major concern now that Green initiatives have become so universally important journey toward greener AV:
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Deploy an AV solution based on all-in-one presentation switchers to reduce energy expenditures
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Automate your conference spaces and deploy occupancy sensors wherever practical
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Develop a strong company-wide video conferencing initiative. For small companies that cannot afford enterprise-grade video conferencing systems, use web conferencing tools like Skype and Go-to-Meeting that don’t require installation of expensive cameras and other equipment.
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Use a remote monitoring software system like AMX’s Resource Management Suite to proactively manage all your AV assets from a central hub, allowing you to execute remote or scheduled power shut-downs and other energy saving tasks.