Home Instead Franchise Selects Yamaha UC

To prevent ongoing disruption to client services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Home Instead franchise owner Michelle Rogers entrusted Yamaha Unified Communications conferencing solutions for the home care agency’s rigorous online training. After experiencing the audio of Yamaha’s YVC-200 personal speakerphone for its intake process, the home health agency selected the YVC-1000 USB speakerphone and Bluetooth conference phone to provide crystal-clear audio over Microsoft Teams in its 40-person training room.

“It’s important our caregivers receive the best, most comprehensive training to meet the state of California’s requirements so they can perform their jobs to Home Instead’s high standards,” Rogers said. “It was crucial to have a quality audio solution available in order to prevent additional delays. Yamaha not only eased the burden of online training but made it a platform I can utilize for new opportunities.”

The agency’s training space includes a studio apartment with a hospital bed with a 150-pound dummy, a corner shower unit, and a wheelchair. Home Instead trainers demonstrate how to properly lift, transfer, and assist clients. With face-to-face group training sessions no longer feasible, the YVC-1000 provide an easy-to-use and flexible audio-conferencing solution. From hands-on training rooms and classrooms to large meeting rooms, the system scales to fit the wide range of environments where video conferences are conducted. It uniquely features a separate intelligent microphone and full-range speaker unit that can be placed close to a display for naturally blended audio and video to enable full participant comprehension. Up to five distinct microphone pods (three microphones per pod) can be daisy-chained together, depending on the size and audio demands of the room.

App-free and USB or Bluetooth-enabled, the speakerphone is compatible with leading UC platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, BlueJeans, Skype, and more, making it a universal solution even as security and IT demands evolve. The YVC-1000’s auto-tuning features guarantee a great far-end experience. It automatically measures and analyses the room environment, adjusting acoustic settings to the optimal level without any additional input or programming necessary. Yamaha’s adaptive echo cancellation (AEC) and human voice activity detection (HVAD) minimise background noise.

The virtual platform has worked so well, Rogers is pursuing ongoing opportunities where it can be used. She has already partnered with another Home Instead office to lead joint virtual trainings, supported by the YVC-1000.

“Superior audio quality over a UC platform is a necessity — no matter the room acoustics, what’s happening during the call, or where it’s taking place,” said Michael Fitch, vice president of sales and marketing at Yamaha Unified Communications. “The installation at Michelle’s agency is a great illustration of what can be achieved with the YVC-1000. It’s powerful enough to produce clear, natural-sounding audio even in less-than-perfect environments but so simple that anyone can feel comfortable using it with their chosen UC application every day.”