Poly and Microsoft help the Plenary Council of Australia

The Plenary Council of Australia has turned to Microsoft and Poly to help organisers pivot to hosting the First Assembly in a hybrid and distributed format.

Poly headsets with noiseblock and acoustic fence technologies, in conjunction with Microsoft teams, will allow Australia's catholic church to communicate clearly in critical hybrid meetings.

To host its annual gathering, the Council needed to navigate the logistics of virtually bringing together nearly 300 delegates over a variety of locations but also have an appropriate technology solution able to support the scale of this gathering.

The committee turned to the joint efforts of Microsoft and Poly to help. Surface laptops and Blackwire 5220 USB headsets were distributed so that the nearly 300 delegates could participate in the First Assembly proceedings via video conferencing on Microsoft Teams.

This technology gives members the opportunity to hear and be heard with clarity from wherever they are joining.

Maggie Tiongson – Head of Digital Engagement for Catholic Education Western Australia, says that even with the varying ages and confidence levels of members, the solution allowed an easy and manageable experience for all involved.

"Given the age factor of the delegates taking part in the Plenary proceedings, as well as expected challenges in technology literacy, it was a heartening and positive experience for many of them in the uptake and familiarisation with video conferencing," she says.

"The exceptional experience we had with the Poly Blackwire headsets certainly helped to increase our confidence that the overall quality of the Plenary Council dialogue would not be impacted by the challenges of being remote."

Pandemic restrictions have changed the way organisations have worked, and Unified Communications is a key method that has been used to be able to create better outcomes.

Poly says in the case of the Council, it delivered superb quality of sound so that delegates could both hear and be heard with remarkable clarity while also enabling offsite delegates to tune out the distractions while participating virtually in the ongoing dialogue.

Other recent announcements from Poly include the development of Poly Studio Systems for Zoom Rooms, powered by HP. 

This technology means that each Poly Studio System features a range of solutions, certified for Zoom Rooms, powered by the HP Mini Conferencing PC, plus a Poly TC10 controller and scheduler.

The company also announced this year that its award-winning line of Studio X family of video bars would be the first Android-based, single codec video appliances for Google Meet.