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Creating a High-Tech Meeting/Conference Room?
papaia asks: "As the network geek in my company, I have been tasked with defining a high-end, fully connected and extremely easy to use conference room, for our CEO, who is your classic non-computer-using person. The requirements are to accommodate 'local' (to the conference room) meetings, as well as interactive sessions with people in other locations, allowing him to discuss/debate various product solutions, on files being opened and available to him to pinpoint issues, without the knowledge of the underlying software used to create them (e.g. CAD drawings where he could make annotations, etc). Do any of you have recommendations for building the 'meeting room of the 21st century'?"
"The solutions I have been looking into, so far, range from various types of whiteboards (Panasonic's interactive whiteboard, or SMART board one), to interactive displays, and software such as Netmeeting, or Cisco's meeting place.
I obviously need to combine any or all of the above with some capability of video (of course), thus I am looking into various webcams, and conferencing capabilities in some equipment - the latter is yet another challenge (VoIP or not?!?). I have also looked at meeting room suggestions, and I cannot really make up my mind."
I obviously need to combine any or all of the above with some capability of video (of course), thus I am looking into various webcams, and conferencing capabilities in some equipment - the latter is yet another challenge (VoIP or not?!?). I have also looked at meeting room suggestions, and I cannot really make up my mind."
Dual G5.
Yes. First, make sure that he's willing to actually spend money on this. Once you're past that hurdle, order something like a Tandberg 6000, and a dedicated T-1 line. Install the Tandberg in the conference room, and install either two large projection screens, or large plasma display units along with it. This will allow you to have the main conference on one screen, and a presentation on the other. Make sure that you have equipment at the remote end that is simmilar, or appropriate to the remote end, I.E. for a small office with 10 or so people, a portable Tandberg 1000 should suffice. For a large office, you'd need another 6000. The small remote officess can likely get by with a fractional T-1, or multiple ISDN lines, since each video connection only needs like 384k symetrical to work. YOU need the T-1 has the hub, and if that becomes insufficient, you can upgrade that to a DS-3/OC-3 type link pretty easily.
But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
skype A nice, free VOIP solution that plays nice with firewalls and is easy to set up.
Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
10.
Talk to the guy who did this for the Jedi Council. That guy did one hell of a job
A computer at each end, a phone and a overhead projector. Share your desktop with the other end, connect via telephone and what with the projector. If you want to see everyone then use a simple camera and share that.
KISS ~~~~
Cisco
You want a pitch black room with a couple of white spotlights and a bunch of tall black boxes with oversized orange numbers on them placed in a circle around the room. The boxes should project people's images on them when activated from secret remote sites around the world. The room itself should be located deep in an underground bunker.
All we want to do is eat your brains.
we have had really good luck with polycom products...
I highly recommend using Polycom's line of webcams.
They feature video auto-tracking (camera follows you) as well as PC integration. Using the H.323 standard, these webcams can connect with Netmeeting, Gnome Meeting, other webcams, and much more allowing you to offer conferencing to a wide range of people. With the PC integration you can share your desktop with your client while holding a steady conversation. H.323 also transmits voice as well elimating the need for phones. In our experiences, however, the clarity of voice is not as nice as a standard telephone call over a speakerphone. The unit will plug into either a monitor or television and can be connected directly into an ISDN line or assigned an IP address to receive phone calls.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
Make it interesting; get the setup that Dr. Monroe had for the Simpsons therapy session. It'll make for some seriously animated discussion. Not to mention helping people stay awake.
Just get a big whiteboard. Those computerized canvas devices are expensive toys, like buying a tablet PC when you need a notepad and pencil...they steal productivity, not enhance it. If you really want to get the whiteboard online, then point a very good digital camera at the whiteboard, hooked up to an iBook. Then you can output the shot to an AIM window, or whatever you want! I challenge you to find a "custom solution" that will have less problems.
I think Webex is expensive but it works. You can share applications across a presentation. You can accomodate dial-in capabilities. It takes a little bit to learn how to host a presentation but it's easy for participants.
...makes absolutely NO sense to me at all, and it's driving me nuts. What the hell is that supposed to mean???
We use Polycom equipment and it works quite well. It is capable of performing at multiple speeds depending on your bandwidth availability.
We have also used other equipment from High Vision Tech (formerly Miranda), but my experience with that is using MPEG-3 video.
As for displaying documents and computer images, a smartboard + video projector works quite well and there is also a device called an ELMO which works like an overhead projector but without using overhead slides (you can use documents, books, i.e. solid paper).
There is also another device that we've used called the V-Brick.
Fire the CEO, and hire one that knows his ass from a hole in the ground.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze
In my college (not entire university), we have every classroom equipped with the following:
PC with gyromouse
Touchscreen input control panel (this controls light levels, projector screen, input devices [computer, dvd, vcr, aux, doc cam {audio and video}])
projector
racks of input devices (dvd, vcr, tape, aux inputs [such as vga, rca, etc])
along with a university internet connection and general software, this has served all purposes just fine. given this setup, you only need to ensure you have software for remote meetings (no clue for that)
I have no idea if it works well or not. I just hear their ads on the radio all the time, and I figure if some people buy the product they'll ease up on the ads a bit.
Write up a paper with 3-4 options and schedule time to explain it to him. He'll have so many comments that he'll understand why you need more time to investigate.
Continue investigating until a real emergency comes up and distracts you. He'll understand.
Continue getting distracted and occationally researching more options until he either calls the whole thing off, finds a similar new stupid task for you, or decides he really does need a conference room and settles on the quickest easiest solution from the very first paper you wrote over 6 months ago.
Good Luck! -Ray
Hire a bloody contractor with EXPERIENCE in this area!!!!
You're going to be spending a LOT of money. Don't base those spending decisions on "what sounded good to folks on Slashdot."
There are experts in this area. Find them. Hire them.
If that's too expensive, with due respect, then this isn't a project you should be contemplating....
The best thing to do if you absolutely need it to work out well is to hire someone to do it for you, so that when it doesn't live up to your boss's expectations (which it won't), at least there's a bit of a buffer between you and the reason why.
A little more specific to your question, the place I used to work had SMART boards installed in several of our meeting rooms. They are cool, but they are also aggravating. There is a short but obvious lag between when you make a mark and when it shows up on the screen. If the calibration is off even by just a little, the cognitive dissonance of writing one place and having it show up another causes you to "chase" your own handwriting. It's very annoying.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/livemeeting/prodin fo/default.mspx
All the requirements you list can be serviced with a phone that has 'speaker' capabilities.
NEXT
The first and simplist concern would be to make the room dark. I've seen new conference rooms that had 12' high windows open to the sky. There was no way to even see a laptop screen, much less a surface to project an image onto.
Sure it looks open and friendly, but it was unusable.
ichat and isight runing on a mac mini ( or any other mac) would work fine even for you non-computer user. You could have a Jabber network for in the office and off-site or just use the AIM part.
Don't forget to support (secured) wireless!!
802.11g etc.
It's a pretty complex process involving getting all of the wiring in, the lighting rigged, cameras speced & set, sound adjusted, matching conferencing systems, etc. There's a lot of art to it, figuring out room layout & microphone placement so folks sound natural, nobody has to shout or whisper, noisy equipment is muffled, lighting works for cameras while not leaving everyone dazzled, etc.
Could you do it? Sure, with lots of trial & error.
However hire someone who does this all of the time & they'll keep you from going down dead-ends, give you real numbers to work with, know the vendors and their offerings. Almost none of this overlaps with networking, nor with consumer product experience you might have had, so really a pro is probably best.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Your CEO doesn't want to learn the technology, but wants the best technology.
What he needs is not only a room, but someone to facilitate it's operation. You can get the best equipment in the world, but if he from the get go has basically said he doesn't want to know how to operate it (which I interpret from the original post,) Then it is just going to be dead weight to him and a waste of money.
Long story short: Remember when you were the AV guy in high school? Welcome back.
"Look! There! Evil, pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension!" --Buckaroo Banzai
I've been involved in many meetings involving two or more sites spread around the country. These are either working meetings or presentations, but any graphics were always presented via PowerPoint or some other on-screen way, no whiteboard or posters or anything. We use PC's with netmeeting. Each conference room needs to have a high res digital projector for the PC display. Ideally the resolutions of the projectors will match. This way you know that all parties are seeing the same stuff.
MS netmeeting has always worked well for MS Apps and stuff like that not sure how it would all work out with CAD type applications.
We always use phone teleconferencing for the voice part of it. Seems like this started in order to save bandwidth, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm in a facility that is not used to keeping microphones and speakers working well on PCs.
We have video teleconferencing equipment that seldom/never gets used even though it works well and is not hard to use.
Not sure what kind of network infrastructure this all requires. I'm suspicous of people that say you need a "T?" Line. My experience is that you'll never be able to install a dedicated network. Even if you could you probably wouldn't want to. And if it's not dedicated, then you'll be sharing it with other people. So what you really need is a "big enough" network. Big/Fast enough for your gear, and everything else..
Also, we have some rooms with special whiteboards that have special markers and can be "be" the "mouse pointer" for the PC that has the projector. I've never seen these used by anybody and can only assume they are junk and should be avoided.
my $.02.
Kevin
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"-B.Franklin
A few years ago a teacher of mine somehow got the dept. to buy him a Smartboard to use in the classroom. Although it is an interesting concept, the front projection is not very usful at all when you are trying to write on the board. However, this was a couple of years ago, and probably a lower end model. But a word of suggestion to stay away from front projection.
G5 + ichat a/v apple cinema display.
"When they invent bitch slaps that can go through a monitor you better f'ing duck" --deft (253558)
Answer 1)
Wait 10 years, and all of the problems facing you to do this today will be solved... unfortunately, a new batch of problems will have arisen.
Intermission:
I think that we've just settled that your position is one in which you can't really hope to satisfy certain clients... lets hope your CEO is a very cool guy... here's what you do.
Answer 2)
1) KVM via IP. Everyone who wants to click into your system gets linked into KVM via IP over a VPN running connecting your virtual conference room. Too bad it isn't 10 years from now, otherwise, notebooks would come with a feature vaguely similar to this already. Too bad you have to accomodate a mixture of platforms, or I could suggest a different solution.
If you want a solution that is kind of a pain in the ass, we used to do something similar with RealVNC. I think that the KVM via IP solution will be easier, but expensive to support bandwidth-wise. Since it's your CEO, depending on the size of your company, you might be able to afford it. If not, scrap the idea altogether of having visitors pop their displays up, which is what you really want.
2) Teleconferencing solution. Get a COTS teleconferencing solution. Don't fool yourself. Putting one together will be more of a pain in the ass than it's worth.
3) Files openning magically... Set up a really nice fileserver that people reliably use... Now, here's the shitty part... whenever there is a problem, fix it. If you incrementally fix the mime-types and their associations, your boss will be able to do this. Your boss will need to be understanding, you'll need to be on hand, but, eventually, you'll get a system that is fairly glitch free.
4) Suggestion box.
When this is all done, realize that what you have done isn't very good... but what you are doing is good. Encourage everyone to submit suggestions, but persue the CEO's suggestions first. Don't throw away suggestions that don't sound important unless they really sound detrimental (or over budget, probably not the case if it's the CEO). Keep improving the place, and it will keep your CEO happy.
5) Keep improving.
This ties into the last one. Keeping improving doesn't just mean the technology. You need a budget to put nice stuff in this room. If the room feels nice, your boss will appreciate it. Get good looking stuff, put it in a good looking space.
The company I'm working for is using Interwise http://www.interwise.com/ for all netmeetings. The software provides shared documents and desktops, VoIP calls, etc. and performs pretty well, IMHO. It also provides support for using regular phone for conference calls as an alternative method for audio.
Execs want all this stuff to impress people with their high-tech toys and the "he must be important, look at this stuff" factor. Will he ever understand how to use it (both the operation of the equipment, and effective application of it)? Likely not.
I think I've been in maybe 2 video conferences over the span of 6 years that were better than a plain telephone conference call. The video usually adds nothing, or even detracts. We don't even attempt to integrate computers into the process, it'd just be more confusion (we tried to add a VGA feed once to a video conference, it did not end well, we ended up having the remote site refere to paper handouts of the PPT I'd made).
Keep it real simple. Wasting 30 minutes of an hour-long meeting making the electronics work right is no way to run things.
Take a look at Bontronics for a few examples of conference rooms that were designed and installed by an AV company.
Another option would be to convince CNBC to use your company to film the pilot episode of "Pimp My Conference Room!"
I do this for a living. Don't screw around with netmeeting or skype or any of that stuff. If you want the meeting room of the 21st century - it's going to cost you. I suggest you get demos of Polycom (the VSX series, not the iPower that's PC based) and Tandberg systems and decide which one is best for you. Polycom offers particularly good microphone and echo cancelling technologies. These systems also offer dual stream technology for sending video and high res content pictures at the same time. For that you need two indepenent front screen projectors with independent control systems from someone like Extron - or control them both with AMX or Crestron - but keep them logically separated in the menus for the user.
Document camera, DVD/VCR and good audio reinforcement.
How does one go about managing LAN cables? Specifically those needed for demo machines and laptops? We used the Deskspool by Teleadapt but, they are not very rebust. We've had to replace all 16. Wireless is not always the ideal solution either.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
"high-end".
These particular words are like gold dust and as such are to be worshipped. They are essentially a blank cheque to play with whatever expensive toys you think you can get your grubby mitts on.
Deleted
I liked how the Jedi Council would conduct virtual meetings across distant planets. There would be real people and holographic members. You'd need some near instanteous communication system to operate across the light years.
I did see some prototypes of this at SIGGRAPH where you use CAVES (a room with 3 or 4 television walls) mixing real and television people. Small TV screen arent as effective.
http://www.accessgrid.org/ This is pretty much as high tech as it gets. There are some technological hurdles such as access to a Multicast backbone and at least 12Mb bandwidth, high-quality a/v equipment, etc, etc., but this is the future for sure.
KISS. This building was/is chock full of Hi Tech gadgets. We had Video Conferencing in all of the Conference rooms, electronic White boards and such. None of them got any use. Now we only have one system in this building in the Big conference room which is not used that much but not worth the effort to remove all high tech stuff.
Today most meetings use Video projector, a speaker phone, I like polycom systems, and Netmeeting. The other stuff was a waste of money.
Amen brother..we spent a fortune on our executive boardroom...and we don't even have video conferencing. We have motorized projector that drops out of the ceiling, motorized blinds, wireless touch panel to control everything. It is as simple as that equipment can be, but the execs manage to @#%#$^ it up on a weekly basis and I end up having to get them hooked up for each and every meeting. They also like to go into the AV closet of the room and randomly press buttons thinking that will somehow fix everything.
I've been tasked with a similiar project. Budgets are thin, and alot of the conference attendee's are remote users.
:)
I LOVE Skype, but it doesn't do video......so I tried Ineen. Let me say I absolutely adore Ineen......think skype with video.
It supports upto 4 conferenced video users, and 10 (or more with multi hubs) conferenced voice attendees.
It works with PocketPC, OSX, Windows, and soon linux. This works with users on broadband (or faster), and just about every webcam we've thrown at it.
I've already used it successfully for meetings between Canada, India, the US and Singapore. Well worth the FREE download
http://www.ineen.com
Make the entire wall a whiteboard. Here is the first thing I found on Google. I'm sure there are more. When I visited Emerson Process Controls recently, they used something like this in their training center. The instructor could draw anywhere, as long as it was on the correct wall.
You might want to point out to your CEO that face-to-face meetings are far better and that the expense of using the high-tech "airplane". Will be more than offset by the cost of a high-tech meeting room and the costs associated with poor communication.
Getting people physically into the same room for meetings should always be considered close to non-negotiable. The exceptions? People who truly have nothing to contribute, or those who due to emergencies or other serious physical limitations cannot travel to be in the same room.
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
"Do any of you have recommendations for building the 'meeting room of the 21st century'?"
Yeah. Hire someone else (it sounds like you are in over your head).
Blarf.
I guess conference room babes would be out of the question then.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Tandberg makes a good Video Conferencing system. Sont makes another that is a little cheaper (they are trying to increase their VC marketshare) but does basically the same stuff. Tandberg charges for maintenance and upgrade software, Sony does not.
... again ... it;ll cost, but the simplicity is well worth it if you don't want to have to be in on every call for set up.
Lutron is a remote control lighting system. Very expensinve, but good lighting is important to make a video conference look halfway decent.
Crestron is a computer system that ties everything together, and makes it very easy to use
I just put a system in like this, and had UnivisionsCrimson group out of Wilmington, MA help me engineer it. They put together all of the CAD diagrams for cabling and equipment, helped me find the best prices on hardware, and were willing to send a crew out to install. I did the install myself (was more fun). Everything works great, but the engineers sure helped in planning the alignment of cameras, screens, lighting, etc. to make the room the most functional. I think I paid about $3000 for the engineering... and it was worth every penny.
And you were ever so much more constructive!
Check out the Versona product line from Alphalogix. I'm a developer for the product line, but it does exactly what you're asking. Two products you'll especially like are VCS and ClearView. VCS is a conference room application with built-in video conferencing, whiteboarding, app-sharing, etc. ClearView is a high resolution video-conferencing product that integrates with VCS. It's worth checking out.
Hi - I've already been involved with such an installation with my company already. Here are the exact ingredients in use:
- Polycom VSX 8000 Video Conferencing Unit (Rack-mounted, out of sight).
- Two mounted cameras at a front (head-on) and a side position.
- You'll want to have a few distributed microphones. You'll need to find out if they are OK if they are mounted to the table (say 12 or so microphones drilled through the bottom of the table and mounted at various positions) OR you can go with low-hanging ceiling microphones (better for not cluttering up the table and not picking up the tap tap tap of participant keyboards).
- Obvious ceiling installed speakers for full room integration
- Polycom Vortex product (auto audio mixing) - this is ESSENTIAL to mix together all the sound from the microphones, speakers, video conferencing.
- You will often want 2 drop-down projector screens if you have the width to do so - orrrrrr you can have one drop down projector screen for data presentation and a wall-hinged swinging plasma TV for the video.
- High-powered ceiling mounted projector to match your projector screens - so 2 if you have 2 screens, 1 if you have just 1 screen (You'll find this to be the most expensive part of the config actually).
- Polycom Visual Concert VSX for data sharing on both your video, and in room.
- And to control it all you will want a Crestron touch control pad to control every element of your set up.
This will handle phone calls as well as video calls and just plain in-room presentations.
I've dealt mainly with the products and technology and am a bit of a newb when it comes to lighting.
A large abundance of Polycom gear up there. I'm not a fanboy or anything, they just happen to make all the gear that works at the moment.
I would say all in all the above list would come out to $60,000-$80,000 depending on the cost of installation, and whether you buy a new projector or re-use something your company already has.
Lastly - this should *NOT* be all on you to go out and buy and install. You'll want to bring in a vendor to coordinate, install and support. Getting support for post-install is ESSENTIAL, you'll need it.
Raindance has a new product that just works...you can download and try it for free.
http://www.accessgrid.org/
It's a teleconferencing on caffeine solution from NCSA. It's used for large, distributed, meetings, and interactive collaboration. We had an access point at my last job, and it works, if you've got the hardware/bandwidth to throw at it. Nice for distributed learning and lectures, plus can be extended.
On a more personal level, i.e. if you can run a skunkworks for a while while you build the environment, would be for you and a couple of like-minded developers to start playing with OpenCroquet. This gives you a persistent virtual environment, with the ability to run programs from the remote participants as screens within the CroquetSpace. http://www.opencroquet.org/
Of course, these are academic solutions, for people with user communities used to space-cadet solutions. However, a Croquetspace with your architects/engineers meeting in a Cave, with people displaying and interactively working on everything from blueprints through solid-models would be majorly cool.
the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken
I think one of those really cool white boards/dry erase boards with some of those awesome colored pens would kick a**. ... and some pitchers of water -- you can get thirsty when you conference.
My job is setting up and maintaining conference rooms. Get yourself a great integrator and sit down with them. They would probably suggest a control system like AMX or Crestron. The skill of the programmer will make the system non tech savvy friendly. I use these guys http://www.hbcommunications.com/ they have done me well over and over again. They are based in the northeast.
Oracle has an amazing web conferencing product that integrates with existing phone services through a voice-XML gateway to provide voice services. It allows application and screen sharing, intermeeting IM, polls, you can convert microsoft office documents to HTML for sharing in a browser on the fly. Also, if you're already an oracle shop, it integrates very well with oracle internet directory and single-sign on environments. The archiving and logging features are excellent. If your not an oracle shop however, it is a bit of a pain in the ass to setup. The web conferencing comes with their collaboration suite, but you can probably get it stand alone as well. The licenses are free for external users (non-employee) so you just have license your company's employees who intend to use it. Here's a link http://www.oracle.com/collabsuite/feature_imeeting .html
I'm the all around multimedia specialist, kind of a one man shop for a larger goverment organization (our state's DOT and Executive Branch). All I can say is that no matter how simple (or difficult) it sounds, making a conference room that works, that works in a consistant fashion and is fairly braindead to use after a learning curve requires the help of an outside vendor. They can help you troubleshoot a room before you even build it. Are there windows? Don't accidently backlight your cameras? Is the room acoustically sound, or will go batty? The list goes on... Most major metropolitan areas have a dearth of media companies and production facilities and are a good place to start. You'll find most vendors are super friendly if you make it known that you are going to spend a few bills on a project. Two Other Things: Sonically - make sure you look into getting good aerial microphones for the room (and make sure your room isn't full of interference!) and most good microphone companies (Shure, Audio Technica, Seinheser) maker really nice table top microphones that'll capture conversations that aerials won't catch. A wireless lapel microphone works wonders for wandering CEO's (or politcal apointees in my case). Camera - Seriously consider using something BESIDES a web camera, like an actual prosumer or professional camera with a remote hooked to it. You'll spend a LOT more money, but you'll get a good data rate (most cameras now have IEEE ports that'll stream video) and you'll get a lot of more control of camera functions like your iris, the ability to introduce gain (important in low light conditions). Two cameras like that and a feed off of a computers video out into a switcher that goes to your main computer will make life a lot easier for whomever is running the facility, I promise.
I'll need the name of your company so I can short the stock.
Say hello to my little sig.
I know my reply is going to get a big "0" score, but the people who have responded sarcastically up until now are trying to make a point, which you should really listen to: A technologically-impaired CEO that asks for a state-of-the-art conference room is really just asking for trouble. Even if you buy the best package and set the whole hardware up correctly, you'll always have problems making software ABC or XYZ run correctly across the system, and there will always be annoying limitations that will creep up when you're trying to broadcast any kind of data. And let's not forget future software upgrades that will make the whole thing even more unstable. A computer-supported conference room requires a lot of maintenance (most of which is usually of the unexpected kind), and if your CEO wants to do meetings with clients, they'll be less than impressed when meetings are continuously held up by tech problems. The only good 21st century conference rooms I've seen are those that were build when the building itself was initially constructed. Aside from that, such conference rooms (especially those connected to intranets with firewalls) are the nightmares of tech support people. Consider yourself warned.
...as long as Maria does the pimping.
Better yet, I do the pimping, and Maria, well...
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
My group moved into a new furnished building just a year ago.
I'm sure whoever bought the conference room table thought they were doing a great job putting 4 power outlets and 4 network ports into the surface of the conference table, but I have to say it's a disaster. It has no facility for additional cabling.
In weekly meetings, we typically see 8-10 laptops on the table. So, we have an ethernet switch on the table as well. Naturally, 4 power outlets is far too few, so we have power strips on the table and the floor under and around. Also taking up space on the table is an LCD projector and a fancy conference phone with two remote microphones.
And since my group works on audio products, there's an A/V receiver on a side table, with cables snaking across the floor to its 6 speakers, too.
It is gross and horrifying. Basically if I had to design the perfect hi-tech conference room table, it would be a foot-wide recessed cable tray down the middle, with work surfaces on either side.
And for Pete's sake, mount the LCD projector to the ceiling. They come with remote controls for a reason.
Chris Owens
San Carlos, CA
I designed a very low-cost and effective solution that I teach in several times a week.
- Put up a whiteboard at one end of the conference room. This will double as your screen for the LCD projector. There will be some glare, but I like being able to write on top of what's being projected. A pull-down screen mounted on the wall above the whiteboard is an option if the glare is a problem.
- Make sure the projector is at least 1800 ANSI Lumens (the more, the better) and that it comes with a good wireless mouse. Any decent projector comes with a remote control that doubles as a wireless mouse by connecting the projector to a computer's USB port. I like Philips' projector models because they come with trackballs on the wireless remote/mouse pointer, which are far superior to joystick-type pointers that most remotes come with.
- Get two or more free AIM accounts. One for your conference room and the rest for people at the other end (to save them the bother of having to sign up at meeting time). Install the AIM software at each remote location, or (even better) use Macs with iChat AV (AIM compatible).
- Go here to register for the AIM accounts.
- Go here to download the AIM software or just use iChat AV if you have Mac OS X 10.4 or later (recommended).
- Get a couple of webcams with omnidirectional microphones (Logitech makes decent stuff). If the webcam and/or computer mic sound is crap (it probably will be unsuitable for a conference room), then buy a separate, PA-quality mics and plug them into the sound cards.
The total cost is about $1200 for the projector and a couple hundred bucks for the other stuff... Very cheap and easy to add more remote sites as you go.Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number...and make that a little louder?
Don't get a webcam. Get a real video camera and use a capture device. The sound and video produced will be way better than any webcam, and you won't really have to worry about drivers and such. They are very adaptable in varying light and motion conditions and cheap dv camera will be so much cheaper.
Firefox &
So you can receive ransom notices from megalomaniacal supervillains. That's how all the high-tech conference rooms are in movies, so they must be emulated. After all, if someone hijacks a nuclear warhead and is holding your company ransom, how else are you going to know, unless you have a huge live feed of them on the wall?
("Hey Butt-head, this chick has three boobs." "How many butts does she have?" "Huhuhuh.")
Signature.
Whatever equipment you end up using, get the acoustics in the meeting room right. If you get that wrong, it doesn't matter what geek toys are in there, it'll still sound like shit.
In my work we have meeting rooms with large VC TVs, expensive polycom gear etc and voice conferences on them sound like complete and utter crap because they just got this gear and set it up in a room paying no attention to lighting or echo or anything.
Silver
CamfrogWeb is the ticket.
Not always possible when you have regular meetings with people on the other side of the ocean....
Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
To make this work well, you need a conference room and a control room, with a window between them. In the control room is an experienced operator to run all the gear. Preferably someone with theatrical (not music) experience.
I'm building an infrastructure to support something similar. We have a 'dirty traffic' VLAN for the meeting rooms and publically accessible Kiosks. That VLAN has an ISA box handling routing. WiFi is broadcast, we haven't decided if it'll be free n clear, or just have a WPA password posted in all of the meetign rooms. The intent was to have a setup where a Sales droid could open his laptop, get a dhcp address, get DNS, and could access HTTP(S) to anywhere BUT our network. P2P, IM, etc, would be punted.
All that traffic is piped through Smartfilter to keep the kiosk users from surfing porn, and internal users use VPN from there to get a 'real' connection into our network.
Oh, and all packets are captured.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
but since I happen to have a dual degree in computer science as well as lighting and sound design, you should know this can get very complicated and costly rather fast.
if i were you i'd go back to your boss and tel him that the first day of research shows that there are probably as many solutions as there are people that can be asked about this, if not more.
your best bet at handling everything is to get a definitive ceiling on the budget and then line up a few professionals willing to make a sales pitch to your boss to get the contract. tell your boss the fastest way is to get someone who does it professionally, and you need a day to have him see sales pitches and decide whic profssional he feels is most competent. the reason you want him approving the professional is simple: he's going to have to use the technology, therefore you want him to have selected the person installing it.
First off, a virtual meeting space is only productive if there's a product or service that the participants are actually working on (or in the early collaboration stage). Second, you definately need to investigate this method versus face to face meetings - especially if the participants are not in the same city. Third, you need more than hardware to solve your problem.
My company was recently introduced to this solution: iPrisimGlobal. It't has a host of solutions that only require users and their net connections. The company will also work with you and your collaborators on bringing your products to market. The pricing is competitive and they provide an entire collaborative suite (shared documents, cad drawings, flash, commenting, live meetings, VoIP, etc). While my company hasn't had a need for this yet, I think it would work quite well with the right motivated people.
Either that, or his boss was looking over his shoulder when he was submitting the story.
Or maybe he's just "your classic boss-rear-end-cleaner".
In school I fould that the Distance learning classes had a pretty good system in place for both local as well as long distance meetings
All the classes had Large screens for display, microphones at various places in the ceiling, which produced surprising clear audio from all campuses, PC'c. A wireless network allowed everone in class to access the presentation material on their laptops.
A projector would display any handwritten notes on one part of the screen (as Picture in picture) The professor would be displayed in another and the other classrooms would in a different part. Any notes or presentations from other campuses could also be displayed from time to time
The classrooms were pretty effective as meeting places for clubs.
I am looking forward to ideas and insights from those who worked/works as a Lab Tech in such classrooms
My buddy has been doing this for cisco for the past couple of years http://cloudsys.com/CT_CS/Home.asp?pagename=Servic esIntegration
The simpler something is, the harder it is to make it.
Our campus has close to 100 "smart classrooms." Each costs roughly $50,000 to put in place -- and a "cool" set-up, doing what you've listed, is likely to be much more.
The key is a programmable controller -- Crestron makes a nice gui system.
There's a solid learning curve involved. My suggestion, especially since you're asking, is to find a contractor that's already been through the curve.
Where do you find a contractor?
Well, ask around. If there's a University in town, try and find the group that supports educational technologies and see if they know of anyone. Home theatre installers use similar, to identical, equipment -- and many already include computers in their set-ups.
Trying to do it yourself will be frustrating, time-consuming, and will probably fail. This is definately a job for an experienced contractor.
Good luck.
If you plan on using projectors- the pro's will recommend you pick the projector, then design the room around it- screen/ projector placement, seating, etc. Nobody wants to have sit through the meeting of the future with 3000 lumens in their eye or the shadow of your PHB's assistant's hairdo blocking the lower left of the screen.
Also talk to a lighting designer (theater or architectural) for good ideas to light the tables & video subjects subtly.
Firefox &
I saw one once - it was big and red and did all the connecting for an entire video conferencing system. The big cheese was impressed.
No one told him it stood for "Push Here, Dummy"
its targeted at classrooms, but may be what your looking for. www.tegrity.com
Whatever you do make sure yo uorder big plasma screens for the room that way even though the rest of the equipment goes t waste yo uhave an awesome room for a LAN party.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
It sounds like we would have been able to leverage some of the technical genius we have around here, but putting together a world-class conference room is much, much more about usability and interior design than technology. So much so, that Slashdot isn't even the right place to be asking about it.
First part of the problem is usability. Engineers do not typically understand how to make things easy to use, because they have a much higher tolerance for complexity than the average person. An engineer figures stuff out and gets the job done no matter what. They hardly even notice when something is hard to use or a user interface is clunky. A difficulty that would be a showstopper for a regular user is just background static to an engineer.
Then there is the other side of the problem: the interior design and looks. The average engineer has a superior IQ, but can barely match his belt with his shoes. There is no way they could pick out a color scheme, lighting, furniture, chairs, podiums, desks, etc., and have it all look professional and attractive. People go to school for years to learn how to do that successfully; it is such an intricate and intuitive discipline that most of us cannot even appreciate how difficult it is. We tend to think of interior designers as non-essential and trivial people, but they are very skilled and valuable when needed. I know people who are so technologically inept they cannot send an email even with extensive coaching, yet their house looks straight out of an interior design magazine.
If you want a good conference room, you do need nerds for the equipment selection, installation, and configuration, but they must be kept on a tight leash, subordinate to the interior designers. Engineers are a curious, helpful folk and probably won't be able to understand why they're a liability to the rest of the project.
"The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
Take a look at http://www.oncenter.com/ Creates Overlays, notes, takeoff's on blueprints!
1 - a big budget approval.
2 - A conference table that is network cable friendly (you will also want a switch that can accomodate each possible computer, and a wireless hub)
3 - Clearly labeled instructions for those who want to get onto the wireless or the wired network (so you do not have to run in EVERY two seconds, which you will anyhow.
5 - A high quality conference camera
6 - A high quality conference room phone
7 - A nice projecter or plasma TV for presentations
8 - Wetboard so he can write on (a laser pointer also)
9 - If he gives high quality audio/video presentation - a good stereo system with the wires hidden behind the walls
10 - A good phone conference provider
All in all, you could easily spend around 10,000$ US for this setup (mainly a good projector or plasma screen, high quality conference table, phones, etc)
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
We're using it quite a lot in our company. I estimate that every time we use it the company saves $5-10K. :0)
and IPContact from http://www.bnisolutions.com/
I would definitely suggest any Polycom products. Their web interface config was relatively easy to use and configure the device. The only issues you will run into is when you config your firewalls to support H323, in regards to things like TCP timeouts, etc; Polycoms support is pretty good also.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
A stark, gray empty room with no furniture but 4 bright spotlights shining onto your boss and a grayish, reptilian humanoid torturer repeatedly trying to make your boss say there are 5 lights.
Pay someone who is a meeting room professional to do a professional meeting room. If you try to roll your own, it will suck.
One of the companies I work for have a product labled Session by wave 3 software.
It is a conference applicaton, as well as desktop sharing/controling and a very powerful whiteboard, sounds like it would work well with what you are looking for. It should cover most everything you would need.
TruePunk | Games
My advice to you: do what any good coder does. First nail down your requirements (the Wired article may be a good starting point), and then evaluate any proposed solutions against your requirements. Otherwise, you'll act like a kid in a candy store, and not get anywhere.
I've spent more than my share of time helping aged senior executives with video conferencing systems. Although we typically purchase Polycom products for our conferencing rooms and my personal system is a Polycom ViaVideo, Tandberg's products are a better fit when it comes to our senior executives. Tandberg's desktop units are clean and simple - enough so that our executives have better "experiences" with them. They are also EXPENSIVE. I would put them in more places if they weren't so stinking expensive.
The European Union sponsors this project: http://www.amiproject.org/
It includes speech recognition, face tracking, gesture recognition, recording of meetings with multiple synchronised camera's en microphones, interactive white-boards, etc.
Partners include various universities, scientific institutes and industrial partners.
Lots of interesting stuff there...
(Score:5, Not Funny)
As for the topic, make sure the table has network jacks for the presenter and all attendees that can connect at least to where the presentation files or other relavent materials are kept, more prefferably to the internet as well so vendors and such can VPN back to their company. Power plugs should also be abundant, as meetings can last longer than your laptop's battery. The electronic whiteboard might be overkill, as most teleconferencing software has such functionality built in. Just project it on a screen (you would be dumb not to have at least 1 LCD projector), and it can be drawn on by both ends of the conference (and any attendee if setup that way) without anyone having to leave their seat. Other than that, comfy chairs, a nice big table, and windows with shades/blinds for privacy (and blocking out light for the projectors) are a must.
tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
This topic is departmentless.
Do Not Eat iPod Shuffle
Yes, power outlets and network outlets is a very basic suggestion, but also very important.
First off, plan for the number and type of users: how many (maximum) and whether these will be meeting attendees, training attendees, roundtable discussion attendees, etc. Knowing this information is vital to determining which room you will be situating the system in, the size of the room, the size of the table(s), the layout of everything, and the audio/visual/network requirements.
If you are planning on running meetings or rountables, mainly, then a standard long "boardroom" approach might work, but consider other options which might be more flexible. At one place I worked at, we had a room that worked well for training and large meetings which was set up as a "stadium" style raised platform workstations (that is, four tiered rows of "tables") with a rear-projected screen and surround sound system. It worked rather well for both meetings and training. There were identically configured PCs for all of the users (ghosted systems), and the trainer could "take over" one or all the machines for training purposes. With the raised platforms, everybody could see the screen without people's heads blocking it, and rear projection eliminated the "hairdo" blocking problem as well. Wires were hidden, and everything looked nice. However, it wasn't conducive to a "roundtable" meeting, because of the "straight" layout (you need a more circular layout for this) - the best compromise, if you have the space, then, is to use a "horseshoe" shaped, tiered layout for the users, with a central (or off to the side, or moveable) presentation podium/dais for the presenter, and a rear projected screen or large plasma screen.
Audio needs also should be thought of - for most uses, I would say ditch the idea of a stereo or surround system, and go for a clear sounding monophonic PA system, with wireless microphones (handheld, lapel, and perhaps headset). Mount several speakers in the ceiling and up front (near or behind the screen) so that everyone can hear equally well.
If you must use a front projection system, keep colors in mind, as well as the brightness of the projector. If the projector is overly bright, and you use light wall coloring, there might be glare issues. Perhaps, use a darker paint for the wall surrounding the screen...
Remember to have adjustable (dimmable) lights for the general room, perhaps with a spotlight or two for the front (to illuminate the presenter), as well as perhaps lights on the podium, and maybe individual lights for each user.
Give users enough room to be comfortable and actually work. In a "working meeting" this is doubly important. For network access, provide wireless connectivity. Try to eliminate wires as much as is practical and possible. Where it isn't, try to hide the wires. Also note that for video conferencing, you may want to have the PC grabbing the video be on a dedicated wired connection. You may also want this machine to be wholly separate from the machine doing the presentation (not always necessary, though - and sometimes, you will want both integrated together for collaboration).
Remember to set up for a wireless presentation mouse, and train your users how to use it. Get one with an integrated laser pointer. Something that I thought of, but I haven't seen (and I have too many projects to try to build one) is the idea of a "laser marker" for the screen - how often have you seen someone use a laser pointer to "circle" or "draw" around areas on a powerpoint presentation? Imagine if you could actually leave a "line" on the screen (a virtual marker)? A laser pointer, with the mouse button, with a camera focused on the screen and software tracking the dot of light...this kind of application has to already exist - if it doesn't, think of the possibilities...?
Provide comfortable chairs (they don't have to be expensive, but they should be fairly nice looking and comfortable to sit in and work in for 1-2 hour periods),
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Firstly, I work for Alias and our professional services group works with several large companies that are doing exactly what you a describing.
I have seen several companies that throw money at the problem and end up with a bunch of cool software and hardware but the room and experience sucks. Crappy room layout and a clumbsy user experience are very easy to accidentally build. Cable management, convienent connectivity for participants, projector location, screen placement, seating arrangement, etc. are all important to making this a place where people can comfortably collaborate and communicate. It's not just hardware and software.
I'm a nuts and bolts tech guy and normally don't think too highly of such lofty concepts but experience has taught me a lesson.
As I said, we do lot's of work in this area and have lots of relationships and technology to make Visulization Centers happen. Feel free to contact me at wbattestilli at alias.com. In any case, please do think about the room as a whole and design the experience before selecting the tech.
http://www.hitachi-software.co.uk/ have a very good software package for conferencing, and you can use panels http://uk.hitachisoft-interactive.com/Templates/Ty pe2_English.asp?modeID=Content&uID=44&DoLogin= which also walk remarkably well, using those with the webcam feature? And a couple of data porjectors maybe?
Sorry to all-caps the title, but this is crucial, and often forgotten.
... and frame them and bolt the frame to the wall. Be sure to include some kind of 'reset system' instructions as well.
Make sure the sound is tip-top, for both people physically in the room and the electronic attendees. So you want good speakers and plenty of good microphones. Get wireless mics for those who will be presenting.
Be sure to isolate from other sound sources like the HVAC in the ceiling. Putting mics on the table without some kind vibration deadener means electronic attendees will hear every rustle, key-click, and clack of someone setting down a water glass. If you don't filter these extraneous noises out, then the attendees are forced to do it (causing attention deficit). You may need to redesign the room's acoustic properties.
Everything else is secondary. Get the sound right, then move on to other stuff.
De-emphasize video conferencing. Nobody really likes it - watch people picking chairs in a videoconference room and you'll see many of them aiming (unconsciously I think) to get as far from camera as possible. In most situations, if you give remote attendees the ability to connect their laptop to the main display (both to see it and to write to it, selectively), that's enough.
Don't use a projector. Think of all the time wasted on projectors in meetings! If you need a large display, get a flatscreen instead. It will stay in focus and on the wall (notice how projectors tend to disappear?) and just work. However you absolutely should give people an easy way to plug laptops into the flatscreen.
Oh - and train the exective assistants on how to use the room. Otherwise the execs will cluelessly punch every button they can find, fiddle with every wire (hide the wires behind locking panels if at all possible!). Provide simple instructions for dialling, connecting laptops, changing inputs etc
I like the whiteboard-with-a-camera idea, though I haven't tried it.
All this really adds up to: get a pro to do it for you.
I work for an AV company in DC and we specialize in exactly this sort of thing - presentation, command, and control. My first inclination would be to echo several other posters: "hire a professional." Do not hire a consultant, however - get proposals from people in the integration business and who regularly makes these systems work.
My reason for saying this is that the complexity involved in such a system is immense and a depth of knowledge is required to know the difference between a marketer's claim and the real capabilities and limitations of any given product. These products, as much as the manufacturers try to make them compatible, do not always play well together. Then there is the fact that your audio system must be designed and balanced to eliminate feedback and provide echo cancellation, and your video system color balanced at the least. User interfaces need to be simple and intuitive. Making them that way is a challenge, but success means that the execs don't start poking at things. While learning the code (usually Crestron or AMX) to automate your system and provide a touch panel interface is not that difficult - it will still take a seasoned coder 40-60 hours to program a high end conferencing center.
But real point is this: get several proposals. Walk with an installer through the space and get line item pricing on everything. At the very least you will walk away with a broad level look at the costs and components involved. Pick their brains and go from there... the numbers you get back and present to your boss will be the largest determining factor in what you end up purchasing.
/Don Pedant Hat
/Remove Pedant Hat
Perhaps you meant "Caricatures"
noun: (the art of making) a drawing or written or spoken description of someone, which makes part of their appearance or character more noticeable than it really is, and which usually makes them look ridiculous.
http://www.packet8.net/
Disclaimer: I work for them, so I'm obviously a bit biased.
Regardless $99/VideoPhone is hard to beat, they work as soon as you plug them in, and they have video and jacks so you can plug them into any Video display, plus you get PSTN access as part of the monthly subscription fee.
Worst. Post. Ever.
This comment is guaranteed*
*not guaranteed
As infrastructure, these things aren't used often enough at most sites to justify the cost of installation, equipment, network QOS, and support.
So if possible, go down the street and use a videoconference facility run by someone else. They're not cheap once the hours really start to add up, but for the cost of a few initial test rides, and zero effort except that of showing up, they are an excellent way to assess the technology firsthand, and not incidentally, to develop a meaningful set of requirements.
I've had the privilege, I guess you could call it, of exposure to a variety of videoconference systems over the past decade, including some very large and elaborate ones that take an entire multimedia crew to manage. In my frank opinion, it's a very elaborate way to watch someone pick their nose.
A quite acceptable alternative is an ordinary voice conference call with headsets and a shared screen. Though it could perhaps use some refinement, the infrastructure is already all there! Until we're using it to the maximum and still find it wanting, it seems hard to justify a more elaborate solution.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
I have seen many such implementations, WebEX, and Macromedia Breeze. I like http://www.camfrogweb.com/ for Video clarity and decent audio, plus text. The price seems steep, but the software has tremendous possibilities. Just think of the Travel Expenses that would be saved alone. The price would justify the purchase almost instantly.
Surely "Ask Slashdot" is the ultimate in outsourcing labour - you've got to give the guy credit for that.
I've been looking at this kind of question for the last 10 years from two perspectives. first as a systems design consultant helping architects plan the kind of room you're describing, and later as a graduate student at Stanford. Based on that, I'll throw in my $0.02.
A lot of the comments on this thread have pointed to specific hardware (Smart Boards, webcams, Polycom VSX/Tandberg 6000, AMX/Crestrong control systems) or software (WebEx, iChat, breeze, LiveMeeting etc.) solutions. The problem with hardware solutions is that they are often expensive, unwieldy, and most of the time oriented toward the presentation of information rather than the ability to collaboratively work with it. Software, on the other hand, tends to provide only a metaphorical approximation to the realities of collaboration in a hybrid physical/digital environment. (e.g. Most software solutions don't REALLY provide a shared whiteboard. They provide a shared paint program with a white background. It's NOT the same thing.) The reality is that any room is going to be a collection of hardware and software solutions. The problem is that most vendors are designing only a portion of the total solution, and so the integrated experience of using all these systems is often not satisfying OR successful.
Another problem with most of the collaboration software out there is that it is being designed for individuals to use while sitting at their PC, instead of for groups in conference rooms. Using these in group settings is problemmatic. Either group members need to give verbal commands to a single person driving the projected display, or the meeting is forced into a "present only" mode.
For the kind of "easy to use" environment your CEO asked for (and that all of us really want....), you need to create a situation where people can walk in, connect in to the room systems, and then start working together. You want powerful tools to work with the actual information, not just push the video to a large display at the front (esp. where one person drives, while everyone else just watches.) You want a collaboration system that works independently of the software applications running there. And, you want it to accommodate the physical qualities of the room as well as the digital capabilities.
I was a member of a team of researchers working on such questions at Stanford. We were looking at ways to support co-located and distributed (group-to-group, where each was at a different site) teams working on engineering design tasks as well as other collaborative activities. Some of that technology is now being commercialized, so more functional group collaboration in conference rooms may get here sooner than you might think. In fact, Stanford has a basic trial setup in place that is open for use by student teams in its undergraduate library (see: http://teamspace.stanford.edu/). Other institutions, and some companies, are also deploying it in their environments.
The big shortcoming of a lot of the collaboration technology (hardware and software) out in the marketplace today is that it doesn't respond to the way people want to work. Before we see things improve, the folks who design the products are going to have to become willing to learn more about the realities of interaction in a physical meeting and then develop technologies that appropriately respond to the real needs. Metaphors for "awareness," "shared whiteboards," and "work rooms" that require everybody to interact with one another through their PC aren't going to get us there.
Macromedia Breeze. Our company did a ton of research on this recently and came up with this as the optimal solution. Just need Flash and, optionally, a web-cam. No other plug-ins, software, or installation required. With Breeze, you can share individual windows on your desktop, upload common office file-types (Word, Powerpoint, etc.) which auto-convert to Flash, and do a bunch of other stuff. User friendly, powerful. A quite pleasant experience.
With technology like this, Flash Paper, and the merger of Adobe and Macromedia, Microsoft better watch out.
Just get 20" G5 iMacs with iSight cameras and bluetooth in as many locations as needed. Pretend they are an internet appliance just for video converencing. In the boss's office he only gets the white no button wireless mouse and iChat AV is the only app. He won't need the keyboard. Cover the Apple logo with a smilely sticker or something.
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
Do you *have* to spam slashdot with this advert, posing as a question ?
call in outsider's and let them take the blame.
Just invent the holodeck.
Speech interfaces, project data on any wall. Don't have a wall? Ask it to create a wall. Project any graph. Don't have a graph? Ask it to create a graph. Not enough seating locally? Ask it to create some new seats. Problem solved.
Let me know when it's done. I'll pay you to install one where I work too.
I was just involved in the configuration of a new room here at my "large aerospace company in El Segundo" into what we call a 'collaboration' room. Some useful features we've come across after setting up three previous rooms here and using them for everything from vendor training sessions to real-time design reviews:
1) two projectors. One projects the more static material, the other dynamic content. EG projector 1 will have the presentation slides, and projector 2 will have a live CAD model. Both are ceiling mounted and out of the way.
2) SMARTboard (one, lit by projector 2). This works great for almost any discussion where someone is presenting at the front of the room - the ability to use the board as a big 'mouse' is not only 'cool', but functional: no running back and forth to the presentation/CAD driving PC/laptop.
3) install a good-quality A/V switch with at least 8 inputs and two outputs. This switches XVGA and audio from any source to either or both projectors. Run video drops to the center of the conference table so mobile users can 'jack in' and take over driving the collaborative session. You may need line conditioners if the run is more than 20'. Don't skimp on cabling -- good quality PC video cable will work where cheapy low-cost ones produce noise in the signal.
4) have at least one moderately powerful PC permanently hooked up to one video/audio input to the video switch, so you'll always have the ability to hold a meeting regardless of who owns a laptop (maybe not important at some companies).
5) configure your conference tabling such that all users can easily be face-to-face without "conference room gymnastics". We've used large relatively rectangular, U-shaped and V-shaped configurations, and the one of the latter two works best. The interaction level goes way up when everyone is face-to-face. I think the "V" configuration is probably the best for this.
6) use a remote desktop software such as Webex (ok for regular content) or VNC (better for more colorful such as CAD models; NetMeeting is really bad here) to include remote users, who also conference call in (you did install a speakerphone, right??). We have not yet seen much worth in videoconferencing at the non-executive level.
7) have a whiteboard off to the side, or behind the pull-down projector 1's screen (smartboard doesn't have a pull-down screen). Sometimes you just want to free-draw something, and this still works best on a whiteboard. Consider a Panaboard (or similar), which can scan your sketches directly to the PC.
8) consider running RS232 to the center of the conference table as well from the SMARTboard so that any laptop user can take advantage of the board. This would require an A/B switch at the fixed PC. Stock some USB-RS232 pigtails for those laptop users w/o DB9 serial ports.
We use these rooms alot, and feel much more productive than a traditional conference room in them.
My company blew the budget and installed one of these puppies http://www.thepooch.com/projector.html
Adventure City Tours
If you try to home-spin your own applications, or get your CEO to use Netmeeting (a BAD application at best) your clueless CEO's will manage to screw it up. That's not a slam against CEO's, but it's a fact of line. End users don't understand 99% of what the Slashdot crowd takes for granted.
A *good* high end installer will make a rock solid installation for you. A good high-end programmer will make the system sing. On the converse, a bad installer will make things nightmarish and unreliable. A bad programmer will make your system wacked out. It's a matter of doing your homework and finding out what dealers are good and what programmers are good. Many of the top end control manufacturers - like http://www.crestron.com/Crestron - have fairly easy to use programming languages and libraries of files for common equipment that makes it easier to program. Things are geared for quicker A/V programming and installs. I'm not saying use them, I'm only bringing them up becuase I am familiar with them and have programmed their stuff.
If your end users are tinkering with the equipment and pressing buttons on the AV Gear - LOCK the cabinet. Build the cabinet in another room. It's possible, and it's doable. And there are tons of successful boardrooms, conference rooms, classrooms, homes and facilities that use this technology on a daily basis. You don't typically read about it on here becuase it is not cheap, and it's not a home spun open source solution. But you know what? It works. Your company will be glad if you do it right. Get a budget and do it!
LOL, does noone else see the humor in parent post? /sigh, its a quote from Comicbook guy.
:(
Won't someone spare a thought for poor comicbook guy and mod parent up?
I would check into Macromedia Breeze. We are looking at it seriously for a client, initially using the services from Macromedia, and later setting up our own servers with custom "Pods" - software modules - tied directly into the vendor's software.
Its use is extremely easy, it is efficient, and most importantyl, since it uses the Flash player, most customers or business partners will have an easy way to tie in.
Then set up a conference room with simple PCs for every participant (screens recessed), video cameras, or laptops (depending on budget.) You could get more fancy with cameras following participants, a screen projector and white board.
The key thing is that this is scalable starting from the desktop, and starting with a service to setting up yur own servers. And it really works.
I do agree that virtual meetings do not completely replace in person contact, but in complex situations they sure beat conference calls!
We were going to build a custom solution, but this is so much better. Cross platform, too!
Harald Striepe
"without the knowledge of the underlying software used to create them (e.g. CAD drawings where he could make annotations, etc)"
All the advice in this thread will probably be all well and good. But grow some balls and tell your boss that what I quoted above is just not gonna happen. He needs to know the tech his company is using, because even face to face he can't function without that knowledge. Building him a nice teleconferencing unit isn't gonna solve that lack of knowledge. Even worse, telepresence is just gonna make matters worse. If he can't use a CAD program, what the fuck is he doing being your boss?
Simply put, a simple solution doesn't exist: if your boss doesn't know what his comapny is doing (and annotating CAD drawings is beneath minimum knowledge...firstyear trade school people can do that!) go behind his back, talk to your boss's boss and get your direct boss fired for incompetence.
It's all well and good being the IT got-to-guy...but no amount of money is going to mkae telkeconferencing an easy discipline to use...and it's going to be nigh on impossible to use even halfway effectively if your boss doesn't know how to use the software his subordinates sue daily.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
This product which is well suited to this if you have deployed IP Telephony as well..
http://pivod.com/Products/simphone.htm
(disclaimer: I work for them)
I have done tech/engineering support for Cisco (formerly Latitude) MeetingPlace systems for the last 5 years with a full-service reseller (I'm not with Cisco, hopefully this doesn't come off as a sales pitch.) It's a great but fairly expensive solution, and definitely not fool-proof (nor executive-proof.)
A Cisco 8106 (the small MeetingPlace server option) + at least one Cisco MCS gateway (required with all MeetingPlace purchases - required network-based backups from MeetingPlace) is quite a bit to bite off. The MCS can be $10K+ by itself. This doesn't even include licensing for a Web gateway (the computer based presentation / annotating), or any type of video conferencing integration.
So it might not be the way to go, especially if it's not going to be a heavily utilized solution.
As other posters have mentioned as well, it might be worth it to consult with someone who designs meeting rooms full-time rather than piece together a few things yourself. Getting the technology put in place is one thing, but getting a functional and elegant meeting room set up is an entirely different proposal.
I visited the RainDance web site, and discovered that they sell solutions. I was impressed... NOT!
Solutions are spendy:
5-User Pack, $274.95 per month*. Unlimited use of your online meeting room for you and up to four others. Integrated audio conferencing at $0.20 per minute per caller. Additional web participants at $0.50 per minute per participant.
Before all the other charges, the base cost is $3,299.40 per year, every year, for meetings of up to five people. There must be a better way.
What a coincidence...I just read the new Wired (red cover with Spielberg on it) and if you pick it up you can read about the groovy thing that Dreamworks Animation did with their room. They share a lot of work across multiple sites and with clever use of bg screens, cameras and well lit rooms, they give a good illuson of having everyone in the same room, collaboratively editing documents/storyboards/"film" etc. Offline till June 3rd though, at http://www.wired.com/wired/
Brian Smith "Jokers and aces, bruisy and blackfern" - Steve Kilbey, Day of the Dead.
Webex sells "solutions" that "empower your workforce". And "solutions" are expensive:
"WebEx Meeting Center Pro: $199 per concurrent port/month"
I don't know what a concurrent port is, but I'm guessing there needs to be a lot of them. $2,388.00 per year for each concurrent port.
Even if you hire a contractor, you will need to be a Customer With A Clue. Thus, it makes perfect sense that papaia would first do some initial probing and specsing, and i don't see /. a bad forum for that. If you don't do some initial "research" and check for input from your geekly peers, you'll have no idea what the contractor is talking about and how good, bad or worthless his/her suggestions are.
Btw, you should also make the conference room look and sound cool, to enhance the impression that this really is something worthy. You're supposed to do work in the room and everything in the design should support that, and the image thereof. The picture of the distance learning class on Wikipedia shows as a warning example: lots of dosh has probably been poured into the big screens and projectors, but you don't get the feel that this is something nifty, and the hard surfaces and unforgiving lightning will not be good for a classy meeting. Use clever and dimmable mixed lightning (fluorecent for utility, halos for nift), discreet carpentry to make it look and sound worthy, good but quiet air conditioning, and a couple of real plants.
Use noise dampening material in walls and door. Even if a meeting is hilarious on the inside, it can be hell to listen to it from the outside, and it feels a lot more secure to talk when you know that all you say isn't heard on the outside.
Install discrete speakers. Mount them into the walls or roof if you can. The meeting room will double as a movie theater and Quake arena after hours, so make sure it has proper oomph. Again, the echo/noise cancelling carpentry plays an important role here. Put plant on subwoofer :)
Put the video projectors and all other noisy equipment in a separate room, and shoot the picture through a high window from it. Or at least make sure your video projector is roof-mounted or laptop covers will obscure the picture, the picture will be distorted ("unstraight"), somebody always needs to focus the damn projector, and the people sitting next to the projector will hear less because of the fan. And it looks unsexy.
Get a slightly oval table so that everyone can see each other. Use old-tech flap boards for local work. They make easier giant-size printouts than the high tech computerized variety, even if they're not as sexy. Whiteboards are always useful, and the idea of having a whole wall that's a whiteboard is temptind but make sure you don't get a noisy environment by having such a large and reflective surface. Make sure that magnets stick to your whiteboard, and even more importantly, see that there are always a host of whiteboard markers and clean erasers available. As soon as one marker shows decay, throw it away. Clean the accumulated thin layer of whiteboard marker markings with a damp cloth daily, so that the whiteboard doesn't become a greyboard.
Get chairs that are confortable but not drowse-inducing, and do not squeak. Beta test chairs on real meeings before buying anything. Instead of having a more pronounced "chairperson's chair", have one end of the table looking slightly more pronounced. The table we had in our "top" meeting room was like an oval with the "pointy" ends cut off, only one end was cut off a little more than the other, so that the straight part on that one side was a little bit wider. This creates an illusion that it's the place of the chairperson.
As suggested in a previous article, have electrical and Ethernet outlets in the table. We've had solutions both above (actually, inside, but accessed from above) and under the table, and it is easier for everyone to plug into something they can see, rather than have everyone do an under-the-table excercise before the meeting, even if it looks nicer without the cables going over the conf room table. If you want to be insanely nifty, draw the Ethernet and power connectors into small groups between every two participant spots. Won't cost much extra, and you're preparing for microphone
a room where these two guys are riding up and down on something that looks like a seesaw with cameras on it...
And a ramp coming down from the entrance into the room.
And a big desk in the middle.
And wall screens - lots of walls screens - most of which are showing music videos of The Corrs...
And some bald-headed geeky-looking guy you can give orders to.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Our company is in a similar situation.
We are fortunate enough to be located near a university that recently built two buildings full of high tech presentation rooms.
We've schedule tours in order to help us write the specs for our new building. I'm sure we can't afford 1/5th of what they've done, but we hope to get some valuable input.
Check out www.telesuite.com. I used to be employed there. One hell of a concept!
Instead of at the walls. Otherwise people sitting at the tables will have to run their cords across the floor to the walls, creating a trip hazard.
AH-MEN! It's nice to see someone taking a holistic approach to the problem.
Check out this solution...it's very capable and easy to usex
http://www.conferencexp.net/community/default.asp
I am a trainor for a large voice/data/convergence company and what we use is very simple. We have a whiteboard wall, a polycomm video conferencing phone, and we use Microsoft's Live Meeting. Live Meeting just got updated and now alows you to share just about any type of document from pdf form to excel docs you can also have an online witeboard and PowerPoint presentations added in. In addition it lets you share your desktop or a single application to show everyone connected and you can connect it to the teleconference to view the video. Something else I personally like is you can have multiple presenters and the ability to allow the viewers to view and edit the docs as you wish. So it makes things fairly easy on me to make changes to whatever I am doing. Your company probrably uses a telecommunications company to maintain your PBX (phone system), ask them what they offer and check out Microsoft's website for Live Meeting at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010909711033.a spx they even have a 14 day trial of the software.
I'm suprised no one mention AccessGrid. You can check out more information at www.accessgrid.org. Basically it's a colaboration framework that allow group-to-group meeting and pretty much anything else that can be imagine. It's currently working and being in active development, so anyone can check it out. I've seen setup where there are 3 projectors shine on the wall and mutiple camera to capture all the audience in the room. If there's multicast network where you work that should be ideal because AccessGrid designed to work on a multicast enviroment. Unicast network will do but you will need a multicast enabled bridge server. hth.
Secretaries are the sysadmins and babysitters of managers. Get the guy a good one and let her operate the conferences and arrange the meetings.
Use lots of screws and heavy-duty anchors if you don't want your equipment to be moved. Four of them for a laptop-sized box, eight for a tower-sized box, and so on. Tux2000
Denken hilft.
Livemeeting is Microsoft's newest "Conferencing" solution, and its really good. (I must admit I'm biased, since I work for Microsoft). The newest version easy allows you to share your desktop, a specific App...or just upload a PowerPoint slide deck and run from the web based interface. The newest version (which was just released) supports PowerPoint slide transitions, and can run completely full screen (so its just like having the person in the room).
Some other features I like:
1. Easy polling slides if you want to quiz your whole audience (also keeps them awake).
2. Outlook plugin. Makes it easy to turn a meeting in outlook into a "online meeting". Addendants just need to click on the URL added to your meeting.
3. Ability to record your presentation (Audio and video)
4. Easy management. A webpage allows you to see who has entered your meeting, kick a users, mute a user, etc.
5. App is completely web installed, so installation is a snap.
So that I may short your company's stock. Gilded conference rooms are a common symptom of poorly run companies.
NetMeeting, SunForum, SGIMeeting and HP Visualize Conference are all based on DC-Share from Data Connection. Therefore it's not surprising that they interoperate :-)
Just get 2 nice and cool TFT monitors, put there two animated .gif of your bosses and download skipe.
No more money needed.
If you want a software solution, try http://www.groupworld.net/ which allows you to set up a web based meeting room supporting audio, video, whiteboard and desktop sharing.
Also you would need VOIP and Video conferencing from CISCO or an implementing Partners.
Quorum Tools make some interesting (Linux based) products in this space.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
Most of these comments are pointless. The last thing you need in a senior-level meeting room is an excess of data. What you need is decent furniture, a quiet setting, and a relaxing environment.
I would go for a country house with decent panelled walls, an adequate cellar, kitchen and library. I suppose we could have one phone, in the butler's quarters. A pad of paper and a pencil should provide all the visual aids necessary.
Since the primary user is non-technical, you can imagine who will be responsible for making the room sing at a moment's notice, so get gear you are comfortable with. That said, were it any other lower level lackey in the pecking order, I would tell him to take a hike unless he can substantiate a business need. Since it is the CEO, you likely don't have anyone to appeal to for the sake of reason, unless you have an in with the Board. It just sounds like a lot of this technology will be overkill and the user won't be able to use it, so he'll revert back to flip charts and handouts when he can't get things to work.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Take a look at this http://www.tixeo.com/Features.htm This is a virtual meeting room in a 3D environment where you can have audio and video conferencing and a lot more. A it is easy to deploy and use.
There is a company called Glowpoint which runs a enterprise-class video-over-IP network. I have used it at both 386Kbps and 512Kbps and the quality is phenomenal (was stunned when I saw it).
If memory serves me, they actually run the NFL draft over it (rather than satellite).
All they provide is the network, you have to provide your own "video phone" (We use a polycomm unit). Also, even though you can talk to people running traditional ISDN videoconferencing, it is much better when both people are running on the GlowPoint network.
If you are interested you can get more information at http://www.runonideas.com/glow and http://www.glowpoint.com/
Hope this helps some.
Just FYI, our company recently moved its corporate offices, giving chance to rebuild the conference room as we saw fit. Interestingly enough the CEO was against projectors, insisting that they force attention to one person - not necessarily the best technique for collaborative efforts. To that end, we purchased four 15" LCD's and have two at each end of the (10") table. with approx 2' of wiggle room the monitors can be adjusted to whoever is viewing.
In terms of simplicity of use, we have a thin client mounted under the table going to a basic KVM, which shares the monitors among the thin client or a VGA cable (to connect to laptops).
(note: don't ever look under the table... the KVM, in addition to the powered switch, plus power strips... aren't exactly easy on the eyes)
Using Opti-Rite dry erase wall covering is an excellent way to create a full wall dry erase writing surface. There are actually 5 styles of dry erase materials to select from: Opti-Rite 1 is a plain white, high gloss, non magnetic receptive material that comes in a width of 4' wide in lengths up to 100' long. http://www.whiteboardsetc.com/PolyRiteIWallcoverin g.htm [whiteboardsetc.com]
Opti-Rite 2 is a plain white, high gloss, light magnetic receptive dry erase wall covering in widths of 4' wide in lengths up to 75' http://www.whiteboardsetc.com/PolyRiteIIWallcoveri ng.htm [whiteboardsetc.com]
Opti-Rite 3 is basically a projection wall! It is an excellent Lenticular surface material that comes in rolls 50" wide up to 100' long BUT... it is ONLY if you plan on writing less than 5% of the time. It is difficult to erase because of the textured surface. http://www.whiteboardsetc.com/poly-rite_iii.htm [whiteboardsetc.com]
Opti-Rite 4 is a high gloss, dry erase writing surface with a white on white grid in a 5cm x 5cm (approx 2" x 2") grid pattern... Awesome for those of us who can't write in a straigh line and for graphs, etc. http://www.whiteboardsetc.com/poly-rite_iv.htm [whiteboardsetc.com]
Opti-Rite 5 is probably the MOST popular... It comes in either a 50" or 60" width in rolls up to 98' long. This is a lower gloss projection quality dry erase wall covering material. The perfect solution when you want to create a full wall of materials. This one is available through OptiMa's other site MyWhiteboards.com http://www.mywhiteboards.com/opv5060proj.html [mywhiteboards.com]
OptiMA also offers magnetic full height dry erase walls in a Low Gloss porcelain steel in heights up to 8' and lengths up to 16' long.
http://www.mywhiteboards.com/fulheigdryer.html [mywhiteboards.com]
5' tall low gloss porcelain steel boards in sizes 5x6 up to 5x24 http://www.mywhiteboards.com/cus5talmagdr.html [mywhiteboards.com]
The OPTIMA companies have put in a special discount coupon for all Slashdot users good through June 30 for an additional 10% off any item on our sites. Use coupon code ASKSLASH in the coupon box and click apply.
Thanks
Doug K
If you can, try this one: http://www.vrvs.org/
Lots of people gave you some pretty decent advice. I would recommend hiring someone to at least guide you through the process. The video part of it is not that bad: Tandberg and Polycom codecs are both great Their supplied cameras are decent They easier integrate with PC's, Document Cameras, any type of video, etc... There are several benefits to using a direct view technology (rear projection, plasma, LCD-TV) over projection (LCD projectors). But this depends on the size of the room and the budget. The tough parts are the lighting, control system (ease of use), and the audio. Poor lighting in videoconference rooms can make people look terrible on the far side. A good rule of thumb (as measured by industry experts) is to have 80% indirect lighting (fluorescents, sconces, etc), and 20% direct lighting (angled filters to brighten the faces). This will make participants come alive. The control system, something like Crestron or AMX, are a great way to bring everything together for your conference room. Think about the five or six remotes you have for you home theater...think about having a remote for every piece of equipment in a high tech conference room. They can make controller the room a lot more simple for the CEO types, and it adds a wow-factor to the room that users and clients love. Plus, Crestron offers kind of a high end whiteboard now where your CEO wouldn't have to draw on a large board..but, just drawing on the touchpanel that controls the system is displayed in the room. It's a pretty neat and fun technology. The most important thing is the audio. The DSP boxes out there are complicated and very few people really understand how to program them to make sure everyone in the conference room (local) and far end get the same experience. The idea is to bring all the participants within three feet of everyone else (virtually), so everyone can see and hear everything they are supposed to.
Hewlett-Packard Company is working on a solution for this market. Please contact me at mark.minne@hp.com if you want to talk. Regards, Mark Minne