The keys to CERN conference rooms - Managing local collaboration facilities in large organisations

For a long time HEP has been ahead of the curve in its usage of remote collaboration tools, like videoconference and webcast, while the local CERN collaboration facilities were somewhat behind the expected quality standards for various reasons. This time is now over with the creation by the CERN IT department in 2012 of an integrated conference room service which provides guidance and installation services for new rooms (either equipped for video-conference or not), as well as maintenance and local support. Managing now nearly half of the 250 meeting rooms available on the CERN sites, this service has been built to cope with the management of all CERN rooms with limited human resources. This has been made possible by the intensive use of professional software to manage and monitor all the room equipment, maintenance and activity. This paper will focus on presenting these packages, either off-the-shelf commercial products (asset and maintenance management tool, remote audiovisual equipment monitoring systems, local automation devices, new generation touch screen interfaces for interacting with the room) when available or locally developed integration and operational layers (generic audiovisual control and monitoring framework) and how they help overcoming the challenges presented by such a service. The aim is to minimise local human interventions while preserving the highest service quality and placing the end user back to the center of this collaboration platform.