How many meetings have you been to where there was a scrabbling for the lights at the beginning and end of a slideshow? One new addition to the meeting room technology industry is interactive room-control systems. A room control system will let you control most of the Video Conferencing in the conference room from a single centralized place.
A room control system ends all that scrabbling to switch on the lights, complaints that the thermostat should be turned down, and questions about who is closest to the projector (and who knows where the button is to turn it on).
Another more elemental addition to Video Conferencingtechnology in meeting rooms is a devoted computer. This is especially necessary for those that tend to spend a lot of time hosting meetings. Instead of needing to unplug and haul a laptop computer into the conference room (or, worse, calling the tech people to set one up in there for you), all you have to do is bring a CD of your presentation, or access the presentation via the web. This makes setting up for meetings fast and effortless, and also helps with Video Conferencing, as everything is already in its place.
With the bills of travel ever-increasing, video conferencing is becoming more and more significant, especially in larger companies with nationwide (or world-wide) branches. While the traditional teleconference still has its place in a meeting, and probably always will, the opportunity to see and speak easily to your coworkers or clients can be priceless.
After a digital projector, the next step in meeting room technology is the electronic whiteboard. The customary dry erase board has been a meeting room standard for years. But it has limitations which really are seen when compared to some of the Video Conferencingtechnology accessible today. For one, everything written on a marker board is temporary, and must be erased in order to leave room to write more. This means that, if the discussion notes will have to be referred to later, somebody will have to be assigned to take notes off the board. But this old-fashioned custom is a thing of the past. Electronic whiteboards eradicate the need to take notes by hand, as all that is put on their surface can be printed (as with Copyboards), saved as digital information (as with Peripheral boards), or even be arranged, grouped, and interacted with (Interactive Whiteboards).
A new edition of the electronic white board is the PDP, or Plasma Display Panel. A plasma display panel is in essence a huge, but much slimmer, flat-screen IP TV or computer monitor. PDPs are in general 42″ to 50″, and have a very clear, vivid screen, making them great for video conferencing. Because PDPs are a comparatively new addition to the Video Conferencing market, they’re also very expensive, ranging from about $8,000 to $20,000. For around $4,000 extra, companies can invest in an interactive overlay for the PDP. This is a somewhat small investment when compared to the price of the PDP and when allowing for the many practical uses of a PDP with an interactive overlay. An interactive overlay will include touch sensibility and annotation abilities, letting you to use your PDP just like an interactive whiteboard.
www.edgevision.co.uk
Filed under: Computers, Software, Security, Laptops