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By Paul Pirner

Just about everyone can name a colleague who doesn't feel the need to use e-mail, finds the Internet a superfluous plaything and thinks dry-erase markers are on the forefront of meeting-room technology.

While these people may get the same satisfaction out of a Post-it note that they would out of an electronic whiteboard, chances are good that more typical meeting participants see things in a different light. That is, if they haven't already nodded off while Mr. Technophobe flips pages on his easel.

Used well, technology can energize a meeting with the flip of a switch. How many times in a meeting has the necessary information been someplace else? How many hours have you or one of your co-workers wasted on scribbling down, keying in and disseminating information generated in the meeting? In many cases, these inefficiencies can be solved by modern meeting-room technology – technology of which many people aren't even aware. 

For those of us whose presentations don't resemble Britney Spears concert extravaganzas, projectors and other presentation meeting tools can help sustain participant's interest and significantly improve meeting effectiveness. And as these efficiency-enhancing tools become more robust and easier to use, forgoing technology may actually cost you money. 

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. 

"People are finally recognizing that the meeting room and the meeting process are the last areas to have technology applied," says Nancy Knowlton, president and COO of SMART Technologies, an electronic whiteboard and meeting software manufacturer. "Over the last number of years we've visited a number of Fortune 500 companies. We've been in lots of meeting rooms, and I'd describe those meeting rooms as technology wastelands. Yet you walk through their cubicles and their offices and you'll see the latest and greatest computer technology on their desks." 

Why do companies fail to leverage the technology already in place at their workstations when equipping meeting rooms? The answer lies in corporate organization and culture. In many places, no one is assigned the task of supplying meeting places, 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. According to SMART's poll of a cross-section of Fortune 500 companies, generally none had a specific person in charge of meeting rooms. 

"We joke that we'll know people are serious about their meeting rooms when we see someone with a business card that has the title 'Chief Meeting Officer," says Knowlton. 

As a result, people are left without their tools when they hit the meeting room, and the enhancements and added productivity that meeting-room technology can bring to an organization are lost. 

While there is practically no limit to how boardrooms or meeting places can be equipped with the latest meeting technology, just how far one should go is based purely on the group's needs. If your entire staff resides in one office, it's a safe bet that your money will be more wisely spent on a conference-room projector than a videoconferencing system. 

Projectors
Most of us were introduced to the power of images to captivate and help us retain concepts with the overhead projector in grade 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. 

Don Fasick, portable projector product manager for NEC Technologies, explains the appeal of multimedia presentations this way: "If you have two potential vendors come in to make a presentation – one using overhead projectors and the other with a full-blown multimedia presentation based off a projector and a notebook – we hear from a lot of people that what that conveys is that [the multimedia projector user] is much more technically advanced and more savvy about the ways that business is being conducted today." 

According to Fasick, so many companies are making use of projectors and multimedia presentations that those who still don't "are realizing that if they don't do it now, they can be at a competitive disadvantage." 

Those in search for conference-room projectors should be aware, however, that different projectors are designed for different uses and preferences. Lower-cost, less-robust projectors designed to simply deliver an image are often suited for classroom use and the education market and can be had for $2,000 to $5,000, while high-end units with top-notch image capabilities, watermarks and HD-video imagery might be better suited to technical presentations or use in boardrooms. 

To get the most out of a projector, presenters, of course, need to be acquainted with what new equipment and presentation software can offer. "A lot of people still use projectors just for a data presentation," says Fasick. "When you incorporate DVD or other types of video applications into your presentation, the learning experience becomes more memorable and more worthwhile. A lot of people don't know the full capabilities yet for what a projector can do for them." 

For more shopping tips, trends and predictions and an overview of projector technology, take a look at the AV Avenue's buyer's guides to projectors and travel projectors. 

Electronic Whiteboards 
If you were to walk into the meeting space of an average office building, you'd likely 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 meeting collaboration 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 whiteboard the capacity to print notes or store them as digital files or lending them interactivity functions. Currently, the electronic whiteboard market is comprised of three generic types of products: copyboards, peripheral boards and interactive whiteboards. 

Copyboards, which scan and print information written on the board, are the most affordable and most widely used of the three. With a copyboard, you can draw your pie chart on the board and hit the copy button, and an attached printer spits out an 8.5 x 11 reproduction. 

Peripheral boards, which transfer whiteboard information to an attached computer as digital files for storage and dissemination, are the next most affordable and widely used. The advantage they have over copyboards is obvious: Digital files can be e-mailed, moved across networks and the Internet, and manipulated. Some models allow a projector to be attached and calibrated, transforming the peripheral board into an interactive whiteboard. 

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 and are priced accordingly. 

Interactivity – the ability to run and display computer functions directly from the electronic whiteboard – is what most boards aspire to, and this trend has spawned two similar hybrids, eBeam from Electronics for Imaging and Mimio from Virtual Ink. Both systems attach to an ordinary whiteboard and, using different technologies, triangulate and record the pen's motions across the board. Those pen strokes are then saved as electronic files, the same as a peripheral board does. But with this technology, you can project an image from your computer onto the whiteboard, tap a few calibration points, and you have an interactive whiteboard. The main advantage of these hybrid products is their cost: eBeam and Mimio go for around $500, considerably less than comparable technologies, although their somewhat clunky design and the extra wires running about are a turn-off for some. 

All electronic whiteboards are accommodating to people accustomed to working with everyday whiteboards. They also let presenters use other familiar tools. "By projecting your normal application onto the board, you are able to use your normal desktop applications in front of a group, and that has huge productivity benefits," says SMART's Knowlton. They also allow a user to focus on getting work done in a meeting, rather than on taking notes or waiting to reconvene again when another task generated by the meeting is done. 

But electronic whiteboards aren't without their problems. The foremost is that, with the exception of copyboards, these tools require a computer in order to do anything. Since many whiteboard users don't have laptops, a dedicated computer is often needed – and that, coupled with the price of the board itself, may be cost-prohibitive for companies with modest meeting-room budgets. 

The other problem is ease of use. While manufacturers are bending over backwards to make their products easier to use, each board still has its own operating procedures, and someone who is happy using a standard board may not be too inclined to learn how to use an electronic whiteboard. If a group is used to collaborating by jumping to the board and scribbling madly when an idea hits, the operating protocol of the electronic whiteboard may hamper creativity, diluting its advantages. 

However, if a group can take the time to learn and use the board, the advantages can be momentous. And a big, glowing board is sure to hold attention longer than mere dry-erase ink. 

For more shopping tips, trends and information, check out AV Avenue's "Buyer's guide to electronic whiteboards." 

Document Cameras 
Meetings come in two flavors: the organized 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. 

"Document cameras are the overhead projector of the 21st century," says Rob Sheely, chief technical officer for document-camera manufacturer VideoLabs. 

In many cases, such as with VideoLab's DocCamPro, the camera comes with a scan converter, drivers and other software that allow it to be used as a videoconferencing camera. And manufacturers are looking to make document cameras even more valuable by adding additional functionality and connectivity. 

For more, read AV Avenue's "Buyer's guide to document cameras." 

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 a negotiation, explanation or meeting 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. 

"As I'm speaking to you now, I have no idea whether you're rolling your eyes, picking your nose, or what you're doing," says Armando Diana, marketing manager for Sony's videoconferencing group, in that most basic audioconference, the phone interview. "With videoconferencing, I can see you and read your body language, and it facilitates the communication. If I'm beginning to lose you, I can adjust." 

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 capitalize on expanding bandwidth by offering videoconferencing over the Internet as a viable, inexpensive way to do remote business. 

However, bandwidth restrictions still make inexpensive NTSC-quality, 30 fps videoconferencing over the Internet a thing of the future. For the most part, the fat pipes required for high-quality video outside the walls of a single facility aren't widely available. And while standard IP configurations are gaining popularity, the results are still far below what most people would consider "good." 

On the other hand, the companies that can afford the proper equipment are instantly connected to all corners of the globe for face-to-face meetings. 

"This morning I came in at 7 a.m. and I had a meeting with our Japanese counterparts and our European counterparts," says Sony's Diana. "There were four of us in a room using a videoconferencing unit, and there were six of the Japanese and three of the Europeans in their rooms. I could have easily done that from home." 

Considering the cost of international flights for 13 people, for some companies, videoconferencing makes sense. 

For more information, see AV Avenue's "Buyer's guide to videoconferencing systems." 

Determining Your Meeting Technology Needs 
While videoconferencing may be perfect for an international conglomerate like Sony, where huge groups of people have to be addressed multiple times a week, for a 30-employee company in Delaware whose employees fly to Boston once or twice a year for customer meetings, it is likely a waste of money. 

The bottom line is that meeting-room tools should enhance the kinds of meetings your company regularly holds. Projectors tend to offer something for just about every business presentation or meeting. A document camera, while in many instances a valuable collaborative tool, may not be suitable for most. 

Consider the results of your meetings. Are members frustrated with a lack of the tools they otherwise use in their daily work? Do you in fact have to reconvene a meeting three or four times in order to get the desired results? Does someone spend more time gathering notes than in contributing to the meeting and additional time outside the meeting disseminating those notes? Is that productive? 

While not a panacea, meeting technology can help companies keep in pace with presentation tools and let meeting participants work more quickly and efficiently as a group. 

Paul Pirner is an associate editor for AV Avenue. You can e-mail him at ppirner@avavenue.com.

(Reprinted with permission, AV Avenue, July 2000)