Products for Your Conference Room Systems
You should never judge a book by its cover, but you
should always judge a company by its conference room. If the first thing
you see when you arrive at a business meeting is a standard definition TV
that’s been strapped to a wobbly cart with velcro, you’ve learned something
very valuable about the company’s approach to innovation. Likewise, if you walk
into a meeting room and see a 4K TV that’s been mounted perfectly flush with the
wall, your reaction will be, “If this company knows how to do that, they
can do anything.”
For conferenceroom systems, following products you need to buy in order to create that
sort of impression.
1. 4K
Television
There are a lot of things you can justify not
buying—paintings, bookshelves, certain pieces of furniture—on the grounds that
you are “going for a minimalist aesthetic.” Unfortunately, a good TV is not one
of them. In order for video conferencing and business presentations to work, a large
shared screen is absolutely essential. And although they’re expensive and still
have some issues that haven’t been adequately addressed yet (good luck finding
media that you can play at full resolution), 4K TVs are noticeably better than their 1K counterparts. Even if
you don’t actually use the TV to play full 4K video, it’s always better to have
4K resolution and not need it than to need 4K resolution and not have it.
If you have the money to buy a 4K TV, you probably also have the money to hire a carpenter to
mount the TV to the inside of the wall. By doing so, you’ll restrict easy
access to the HDMI ports at the back, but if you use a wireless presentation solution (like, say, Ubiq) having easy access
to the HDMI ports will not be necessary.
2. Telephone
For decades, experts have been predicting that video conferencing would render
Alexander Graham Bell’s 1876 invention obsolete. And yet for some reason, the
telephone refuses to go away. Perhaps it’s because people are too
self-conscious about their appearance, perhaps it’s because no one likes the
idea of sending large amounts of data through their 4G network. Whatever the
reason, the telephone is here to stay, and you’ll definitely be needing one for
your conference room. More
specifically, you’ll need one that can provide clear audio, connect multiple
lines at once, and hands-free capabilities (speakerphone and microphone
included).
3. Projector
If your meetings are usually attended by more than
20 people, a 4K TV—as glorious as it
is—might not be enough. You may want to consider buying a projector and
converting an entire wall into a movie screen. In addition to offering a bigger
image, today’s conference room
projectors provide greater
brightness (lumens), operate clearly in both dark and lit rooms, and are small
enough to be portable. High-end 4K projectors can cost as much as $10,000 or
even $20,000, so unless your name is Tim Cook, be sure to seriously weigh the
pros and cons before buying.
4. Sound
Investing in a 4K
TV or projector can be counterproductive if you don’t also invest in a
decent sound system. That stunning 4K resolution will be a lot less impressive
if all you can hear coming out of people’s mouths is a muffled garble.
It’s also important to make sure that the people your
video conferencing with are able to
hear you, so in addition to buying speakers, you may want to buy a few
microphones and install them at various points along the conference room tables.
5. Wireless
Presentation Solution
In today’s BYOD environment, a conference room that
relies on cables and wires to connect laptops to the TV or projector is simply
not feasible. In order to accommodate every laptop that enters the room, you
would need to have an expensive and elaborate collection of cables and
converters with various outputs on standby (HDMI, VGA, HDMI to
VGA, Thunderbolt, Lightning, etc). If you were to attempt to use all of these
wires and converters simultaneously, your conference room would resemble a mad
scientist’s lair. Better to go wireless.
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