It goes without saying that the pandemic has profoundly altered how we behave as a society. In the workplace, this has seen challenges arise in how we initiate collaboration and knowledge-sharing whilst balancing personal safety and social distancing.
In this premier online event hosted in Vega Japan's newly built virtual production studio, we discuss with industry leaders of IoT and collaboration tools how recent paradigm shifts have affected the workplace and the trends that will continue to evolve.
With remarks from members of the US Commercial Service in Japan and the Digital Transformation Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the session was an open discussion on what we’ve experienced, how technology is helping us adapt, and what’s to come.
For inquiries regarding any of the subject matter in this video or to plan your next virtual event, please reach out to us at sales.jp[@]vega-global.com or call us (Overseas) +81-3-4578-3400 / (Japan 03-4578-3400)
Q1) Do you think most companies will eventually adopt sensor technology to measure how the workplace is being used?
Brian Haines, VP of Strategy – FM Systems: "That's a really good question, we think that most organizations will eventually adopt sensor technology to help them measure workplace performance but we think it's only going to be part of the mix. There's going to be a lot of different input devices. Some of those inputs will come directly from employees interacting with digital devices such as digital signage outside of conference rooms, by elevators, etc. As well as interacting with mobile devices for checking in as a visitor at the front desk or walking into or booking a reservable space. Maybe automatically when you come into the office for the day. Those combined with getting data from room booking systems from even Wi-Fi and badging information we think all of this information is going to be synthesized alongside sensor data to give facility and real estate operators a very clear and crisp view of how their space is being utilized and therefore real insight into the performance of their facilities."
Q2) You mentioned asynchronous video. Why is it better than standard video communication?
Robert Bolen, CEO - Bunch Enterprise: "The term asynchronous video refers to video that's pre-recorded but you get on a subscription basis and that you check in frequently with. Asynchronous video is better because it transcends time zones. It also relieves the pressure of having to do things in a live format. Things like Webex, Zoom meetings or live broadcasts tend to make your entire organization stop at the same time to watch that live broadcast and then it puts a lot of pressure on your IT network as well as on your production team because they have to set everything up and everything has to be perfect. People also have to be available when you want to live broadcast. So if you pull out your computer and you start a live broadcast but your audience isn't available at that time, it's a problem. Asynchronous means that you can publish that video and then everyone gets it either on a subscription basis, meaning they get notified when a new video gets posted, and they can quickly reply so it allows us to communicate across time zones across geographic locations and then also to an audience that may be in a hybrid work environment that's not all in the same place. You may be getting in the back of a taxicab or getting on a train or something, you can wait till you're available and check the video so it's just much more flexible and works within our daily lives."
Q3) How are smart tools changing communication such as AI or machine learning?
Robert Bolen, CEO - Bunch Enterprise: "I think that you hear things like artificial intelligence or smart technology and Smart Tools. There's a significant amount of video being created every day at work whether it be asynchronous video, Zoom meetings, Webex meetings, instructional videos, etc. There's just so much content out there that you ultimately have to get through it all and it's almost impossible to watch all of it to find what you're looking for. So the use of artificial intelligence or machine learning to automatically summarize and sift through all of that information and then provide you with highlights and the key video points that you need to watch is going to be most important of all moving forward in the next year or two. You're already starting to see a lot of companies putting in smart note taking tools into their applications. I believe that tools like Bonfire that we've created at Bunch which is built on such AI technology will help you consume video more efficiently and get back more time in your work day."
Q4) With Covid-19, are you seeing a reduction in the number of meeting rooms as more people work from home?
Geoff Abbott, President - Crestron Japan: "No, we’re not seeing a reduction in the number of meeting rooms. What we’re seeing is a change in the environment and the technology within the rooms. For instance, in the past, you might have had these large executive boardrooms and you’d have multiples of those around the building. But now because of Covid, you have a reduction in the amount of people that can be in a space and you’ve got to keep social distancing. So, a lot of the smaller, individual rooms or huddle spaces are becoming very popular. And because of Crestron’s technology, you are able to put in professional devices that give you the best video conferencing or audio conferencing quality that you can get in these small environments. So for instance, Crestron would have the meeting phones, which you are very used to, like the Cisco phones used to be. We have the desktop conferencing devices, and then you have the desktop devices that will integrate video and audio that you can put into the display that’s within those rooms.
I actually had a meeting with Microsoft a couple of weeks ago, and they were saying they did a survey where there was an estimation of about a million new rooms, with the potential of advanced technology such as their Teams devices. Potential over the next 4 years with a 35% increase year on year. So the assumption is that the spaces are growing exponentially, but they are changing quite a bit. So for instance, your training rooms and executive rooms will have gone down by probably that amount, 35-40%, but your smaller conference rooms have increased by that amount."
Q5) With the move to smaller huddle spaces, what sort of technology are you seeing being adopted?
Geoff Abbott, President - Crestron Japan: "From a Crestron point of view, our whole philosophy for the last 10 years, since we started developing these lines, has been unified communications; that everything should talk with each-other over the network. Crestron has been going video over IP since then, and now with the explosion in rooms using software like Teams and Zoom, this has brought our platform to another level. So, not only can our stuff be seen and managed on the network, you already had video over IP, now we have devices that are directly integrated with Teams and Zoom and other platforms that you might be using. So for instance, we have our desktop phones that can do video and audio, and is actually using Teams Microsoft software – it is actually a Microsoft device, just using our hardware. So it’s totally managed and deployed basically by Microsoft.
Now with that, I mentioned you also have the desktop conferencing box, which everyone is very familiar with, the standard audio conferencing boxes that sit in the middle of the table, and now we integrate both audio and video into those boxes. As mentioned, they are also on the network, they are managed by the network and all video over IP. So the bandwidth that you already have and the cabling that you already have, these boxes can be deployed almost instantly. And once you have someone go out and plug it in, your IT department can go ahead and configure them based on your security measures and your needs. So what we’ve got is, for all these small rooms, you used to not be able to have technology, and then if you did have technology there was no way to manage it. Now all of these devices you just sit on the table, plug them in and deploy them all along the network. The cost of these devices could be maybe $300 for a phone, or maybe $1500 for a desktop box, so it’s affordable for everybody. Not even in the office, but we’re finding a lot of people are having these in the house. For example, I have one of these devices in my house and use it all the time for meetings."
Q6: What are the hybrid working trends you’re seeing in the region?
Heather Li, Director of Digital Workplace Solutions - Vega Global: "Companies in the APAC region, particularly banking and insurance industries which are heavily regulated have expedited hybrid and flexible working policies since COVID, they have roster schedules, where team A and B alternates working from home. Corporate real estate teams are working with workplace strategists to look at how to fine tune these work schedules, by looking at the job functions of each individual, on how they can be effective and productive.
We are seeing more industries moving to Virtual Desktop Interface, cloud computing, as part of their Business Continuity Plan. CIO and CTOs are planning to increase their infrastructure and storage capacity, as well as protecting themselves from cyber security threats to support further growth of flexible and hybrid working to continue."
Q7) What is the difference in workspace demand in APAC and EU/US after COVID, given the different stages of economic development?
Heather Li, Director of Digital Workplace Solutions - Vega Global: "According to these real estate agencies in their recent market reports, recovery began to emerge across Asia Pacific in the second half of the year in 2020. Mainland China, Taiwan and Vietnam avoided falling into recession in 2020, while Australia, Japan, Hong Kong AR and Singapore saw GDP growth resume in the July-September quarter. Asia Pacific is outperforming other regions, with full-year 2020 GDP expected to contract by 1.2% y-o-y, compared to a decline of 3.9% globally, according to CBRE’s January 2021 forecast. The outlook for 2021 is positive, with CBRE projecting Asia Pacific full-year GDP growth of 6.6% year over year. However, much depends upon a potential resurgence in COVID-19 infections and the speed at which vaccination programs are conducted around the region. CBRE, JLL and Cushman all expect to see Asia Pacific register a rebound featuring a gradual but steady return to pre-pandemic levels of economic activity in the Q2, 2021.
Occupiers are expected to retain a cautious attitude towards CapEx in Q1 2021, with leasing activity likely to pick up in the second half of the year as companies gain confidence in the recovery. Expansionary demand is likely to be dominated by domestic and regionally-based companies due to their quicker approval processes and relatively lower adoption of remote working. Having been among the first countries in Asia Pacific to see office demand recover to pre-pandemic levels, leasing activity in Mainland China is set to gain further momentum in 2021. Limited new supply will inhibit net take-up in Tokyo and Seoul. Leasing momentum in Australia, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore will remain dominated by smaller requirements but net absorption is expected to return to positive territory.
As for the US: The U.S. Federal Reserve intends to maintain the federal funds rate at near zero until inflation has reached 2% and full employment is achieved: both of which are unlikely to occur in 2021. With the economic recovery only just underway, Asia Pacific’s central banks will keep interest rates low and maintain quantitative easing. So the implications for real estate is the prolonged low interest rate era will enhance the appeal of commercial real estate investment compared to other interest-sensitive asset classes. Cap rates will remain low, with the logistics sector across most markets set to experience further yield compression."
Q8) Any thoughts on the state of real-time translation technology?
Jimmy Heil, Project Manager – Vega Japan: "Improvements in Artificial Intelligence technology to detect and transcribe near perfect captioning in English is already widely available. In parallel, there are efforts to enable automatic translation to different languages.
Generally speaking, these systems can operate on premises via a hardware solution or communicate with a higher processing capable cloud service. For example, Cisco Webex has very recently begun to roll out its Webex Assistant feature which allows for real-time translation of auto generated captions natively in its platform. Google Meet also has a good auto captioning feature, which, when used in conjunction with Google Chrome’s auto translate feature can provide an inexpensive solution. Other video conferencing software is likely to follow suit soon as the underlying algorithms and cloud based technology to operate these features becomes increasingly accessible.
There are also a growing number of smart wearable devices like the Google Pixel Buds that operate with Google Translate technology to listen to a speaker of one language from one end and play the translated audio out of the other end into your ear. It is likely that similar technology will become more available in other hardware solutions for use in enterprise integration projects"