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AV Systems
If you require audio-visual equipment then you have come to the right place. Rapid Technologies supply and install a wide range of AV equipment such as, Video Conferencing Equipment, Interactive Whiteboards, Plasma Screens and much more.
Meeting Room Technology
Used well, technology can energise a meeting with the flip of a switch.
- How many times have you attended a meeting where the necessary information has been somewhere else?
- How many hours have you or one of your co-workers wasted on writing down, keying in or disseminating information generated in a meeting?
- How many meetings do you attend where the travelling takes longer and costs more money than the actual meeting itself?
In many cases these inefficiencies can be solved by modern meeting room technology - technology which many people aren't even aware of.
Presentation Technology in the Meeting Room
While presentation technology has become part of our everyday work life, the central meeting room is lagging sorely behind in the technology revolution.
- Why do companies fail to leverage the technology already in place at their workstations when equipping meeting rooms?
The answer lies in corporate organisation and culture. In many organisations, no one is assigned the task of supplying meeting rooms, and everyone thinks someone else is responsible for meeting room technology.
Facility managers deal with tables and chairs, maybe a phone line or two. IT people are responsible for workstations. Neither is normally involved in the selection of the productivity tools.
Whilst there is practically no limit to how boardrooms or meeting rooms can be equipped with the latest meeting room technology, just how far one should go is based purely on the organisation 's requirements.
Projectors
Most of us were introduced to the power of images to captivate and help us retain concepts with the overhead projector in school. Now multimedia projectors are even more effective in drawing an audience's attention and can enhance the image of the presentation and the presenter.
To get the most out of a projector, presenters need to be aware of what new equipment and presentation software can offer.
Interactive Whiteboards
If you were to walk into the meeting room of an average office building, you'd probably see a number of traditional porcelain-on-steel whiteboards full of manic scribbling, along with at least one note that says "Do not erase."
Dry-erase whiteboards have been used in meetings for years. However, with the widespread adoption of PCs in the workplace, the limitations of traditional whiteboards are beginning to show. For starters, the handwritten content is vulnerable to being wiped away for eternity when more space is needed. If the content must be saved, someone in the meeting needs to take notes off the whiteboard, distracting the note-taker from the discussion. And interpretation and context is sometimes lost in the translation.
Electronic whiteboards address these problems by giving traditional whiteboards the capacity to print notes, store them as digital files or lend them interactivity functions.
Interactive whiteboards are essentially large touchscreen monitors that can control an attached computer. Interactive models allow the user to display a computer screen, digitally write over (or in some cases into) an image with a finger or stylus, call up a Web page or access a database, all from the board itself. They are truly the pinnacle of presentation technology.
Electronic whiteboards are accommodating to people accustomed to working with everyday whiteboards. They allow presenters to use other familiar tools and focus on getting work done in a meeting rather than on taking notes or waiting to re-convene whilst a task generated by the meeting is being completed.
Document Cameras
Meetings come in two flavours: the organised presentation and the collaborative, sprawling meeting. A PowerPoint presentation streamed through a projector is a wonderful meeting tool if you have time to prepare and aren't looking for a lot of feedback or collaboration. However, as soon as a meeting becomes collaborative - as soon as you need to react to the demands of your audience - you are likely to need something more. That's when you might need a document camera.
Part overhead projector, part video camera, a document camera captures and sends video images of a document, 3D object or whatever is placed on its viewing platform to a projector or monitor for display.
While document cameras excel in off-the-cuff presentations, their ability to project 3D objects - a detail on an architectural model, for example, or a new gear for a machine - makes them unique in the presentation technology field. If your subject matter or object is something other than a computer-generated image, a document camera is sometimes the best way to get that subject matter displayed and into the digital pipeline.
Videoconferencing Systems
People in multiple locations have been conferencing via telephone for years. And while teleconferencing is a simple, quick and effective method for bringing large groups together across geographical differences, the technology does have its problems. For example, no one can point to a diagram or display over the phone, and it is often difficult to hold listeners' attention.
Data conferencing, essentially online collaboration on an electronic document, goes a long way towards solving the first problem. But true face-to-face contact in negotiations, explanations or meetings can be invaluable, and videoconferencing is the only way to get that contact without having to hop on a plane and travel to a meeting site.
Traditionally the exclusive domain of large, rich companies, videoconferencing has experienced a boom in popularity. Increasing bandwidth, outsourcing and disparate office locations have made videoconferencing a valuable tool for companies, large and small. This year's Infocomm was overrun by companies looking to capitalise on expanding bandwidth by offering videoconferencing over the Internet as a viable, inexpensive way to carry out remote business.
Considering the cost of international and national travel, videoconferencing makes sense to a lot of organisations.
Determining Your Meeting Technology Needs
The bottom line is that meeting room tools should enhance all of the different types of meetings your organisation holds.
Projectors tend to offer something for just about every presentation or meeting.
Interactive Whiteboards offer greater collaboration and meeting recollection. These items coupled with video conferencing allow you to conduct complex collaborative meetings just about anywhere in the world without leaving your office. The savings to your organisation could be invaluable and give you that competitive edge over your rivals.