How to Choose Boardroom Technology that Lets Your Style Shine

You might know a car enthusiast who dropped a lot of cash on some fancy rims or a movie buff who invested a little extra dough equipping a killer home theater, but when was the last time you heard someone bragging about tricking out their corporate boardroom? When it comes to meeting spaces, companies often try to get by with the bare minimum in audiovisual solutions, but without the right boardroom technology, you could end up losing more time and money in the long run.

“Without easy-to-use technology that’s right for the space, you may be throwing away 10 minutes of productivity for each person in every meeting,” said Jeff Bethke, VP of Engineering for Level 3 Audiovisual. “What is their time worth? It can be thousands of dollars wasted, or millions of dollars, depending on the size of the company.”

Boardroom conference equipment that is difficult to use also costs you the goodwill of employees who get frustrated when it doesn’t work the way they expect it to.

“It’s how people expect to be able to work and be productive,” said Jeff. “If you can get an idea across in a chat or a screen share or have a productive meeting that only takes half an hour versus an hour because you have the right tools, that’s huge.”

Whatever your managers’ or executives’ preferred meeting and presentation style, there is a technology solution that can satisfy their needs and help them work smarter. Below are five presenter personalities and the boardroom tech that fits them best.

Which Modern Boardroom Technology Best Fits Your Meeting Style?

The Collaborator. Your meetings are not about one talker and a lot of listeners. You like to share content and get people involved. Consider a collaboration engine such as the Mersive Solstice, which allows multiple people to share a variety of content simultaneously. A wireless solution like the AirMedia 2 from Crestron allows you to connect and collaborate from anywhere—including the hallway, cafeteria, or even your cubicle—so you aren’t limited to a boardroom at all.
The Minimalist. You probably keep your office or cubicle clean, uncluttered, and organized, and you want your boardroom to be the same way. Instead of using multiple collaboration tools, consider a consolidated control hub that unifies all your tools and work. The ThinkHub from T1V is an interactive, multi-touch tool that lets you present, collaborate, annotate and video conference all from the same device.
The Demonstrator. You prefer to show people rather than tell them, but you need more than just a pen and traditional whiteboard to get your ideas across, especially if you are communicating and collaborating with remote participants. “You can’t really point the webcam at the whiteboard because the image quality is no good,” said Jeff. “So you take pictures of the whiteboard with your cell phone, but those are terrible.” New boardroom technologies such as Kaptivo can digitize your whiteboard and stream it over the internet, put it into a video conference call, and store it so it can be downloaded and shared later. You never have to lose an inspired doodle again.
The Audiophile. When Lady Gaga walks onstage, she expects her microphone to work so everyone can hear her—and when you walk into your boardroom, you expect the same thing. Instead of fussing with individual wireless microphones or—gasp!—wired mics cluttering up your table, consider more flexible solutions. The Shure MXA910 ceiling array microphone, for example, provides no-fuss, Steerable Coverage™, while the beamtracking Tesira microphone from Biamp provides 360-degree coverage of any room without worries about wires, batteries, or dead spots.
The Long-Distance Relationship. The nature of work has changed, with more people than ever working and collaborating remotely. But just because you aren’t always meeting face to face doesn’t mean you’re not expected to produce the same quality of work as you would if you were in the same room. Solutions like Zoom Rooms, which can turn any space into a virtual collaboration workspace, or Microsoft Teams, which allows you to chat and collaborate on files in real time, can make it seem like even the most remote colleague is sitting right next to you.

Next Steps

Chances are you’ve taken enough personality tests to know most people probably don’t fall into just one presenter category. But never fear, you can have your boardroom technology and eat it, too. Let us help you combine all your favorite collaboration features and tools into an integrated and functional solution perfect for your users and your space.

Click here to find out more