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 market is interactive room-control systems. A room control system will allow you to control most of the Audio Visual Systems in the conference room from a single centralized area.
A room control system ends all that scrabbling to switch on the lights, complaints that the thermostat has to be turned down, and questions about who is next to the projector (and who knows where the button is to turn it on).
Another more essential addition to Audio Visual Systemstechnology in meeting rooms is a dedicated computer. This is especially helpful for those that tend to spend a lot of time leading meetings. Instead of having to unplug and haul a computer into the conference room (or, worse, calling the tech people to set one up in there for you), all you must do is bring a CD of your presentation, or access the presentation via the web. This makes setting up for meetings quick and unproblematic, and also helps with Audio Visual Systems, as everything is already in its place.
After a digital projector, the next step in meeting room technology is the electronic whiteboard. The standard dry erase board has been a meeting room standard for years. But it has limitations which really show when compared to some of the Audio Visual Systemstechnology available today. For one, everything written on a white board is temporary, and must be erased in order to leave room to write more. This means that, if the lecture notes will have to be referred to later, one person will have to be assigned to take notes from 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), stored as digital information (as with Peripheral boards), or even be classified, 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 basically a huge, but much slimmer, flat-screen T.V. or computer monitor. PDPs are usually 42″ to 50″, and have a very clear, dazzling screen, making them great for video conferencing. Because PDPs are a comparatively new addition to the Audio Visual Systems market, they’re also very pricey, ranging from about $8,000 to $20,000. For around $4,000 more, companies can invest in an interactive overlay for the PDP. This is a comparatively small investment when compared to the price of the PDP and when considering the many practical uses of a PDP with an interactive overlay. An interactive overlay will add touch sensibility and annotation abilities, permitting you to use your PDP just like an interactive whiteboard.
