Ingredients for an Awesome Conference Room

This is going to be a quick post to talk about conference room technology and what products we commonly use!

The ingredients for a well connected conference room are a TV, camera, microphone(s), computer, and a streaming device (for showing presentations from a laptop/phone).

Not everyone necessarily needs the camera and microphone, but online meetings are becoming so common. We consider them essentials now.

Distributed team, working on the road, no problem.

A post shared by Raxxos (@raxxostech) on Dec 13, 2017 at 3:23pm PST

TV

For a TV, get the biggest and highest resolution one you can afford. Higher resolution will make text and graphics sharper and easier to read. A 1080p TV is the bare minimum and won’t offer an amazing reading experience. A 4K TV, while quite a bit pricier, will give you the best presentation experience.

Camera and Microphone

There are hundreds of camera and microphone combos. The best one for you depends on your budget, room size, and number of attendees. Our meeting room at Raxxos is fairly small and has 2-4 people present during a call. We use a Logitech Connect Conference Cam which has a wide enough angle to fit around 5 people, a loud speaker, a microphone that can pick up voice from a distance without sounding far away, and excellent noise cancellation.

For a larger setup of 8-12 people, you might want the Logitech MeetUp Camera with an external microphone or two placed on the meeting room table.
Here is a link to the full Logitech line of conference room equipment: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/conference-cam

Computer

You need a computer in your conference room so the web camera and microphone have something to plug into!

A cool option is to use a Logitech Smartdock with a Microsoft Surface. Or else any computer will work fine. We tend to use small form factor or micro PCs to save space and give us more placement versatility.

Streaming Device

What if you want to stream a presentation to the TV from your laptop or smartphone?

We use to use cables, but who wants cables running across their board room or meeting table? Then you have to deal with adapters for all different types of laptops.

The solution is to use a streaming device that plugs directly into the TV so you can wirelessly stream presentations to it!

A common one we use is called the Airtame. We found it is the easiest to use with all devices. Ease of use is our main benchmark for streaming devices, because if it’s not easy then no one uses it, but the Airtame happens to be a quality product in all aspects.

We use the Airtame to improve conference room connectivity. Drop the cords and stream your device wirelessly to a TV. Makes presentations effortless. #burnabybc #smallbusiness #techsupport #itsupport #entrepreneurship #vancouverbiz #vancouvertech #vancouverbusiness #vancouverautosales #vancouverdealerships #airtame

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Conclusion

This is by no means an exhaustive list of conference room equipment, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what is possible and helps you achieve meeting room bliss!