2007 TechNO Expo

What's new in audio-visual presentations?

Rik Roberts
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
EPA Audio Visual, Inc., Rockford

We get a lot of requests for high-definition and wide-screen technology in conference rooms and boardrooms. As of now, there is limited equipment and content available that addresses high definition. The majority of information being shown on projectors today comes from a laptop computer or network. This information, for the most part, is delivered in a 4:3 aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height of a projector screen) and a resolution not as great as high definition.

Customers are also looking   for anything that will make the equipment more user-friendly. A simple equipment list can include a projector, electronic screen, digital document camera, VCR or DVD player, wireless mouse, and in some circumstances audio and videoconferencing equipment. Even a tech-savvy presenter will have trouble operating all of this equipment. Because of this, we install room controls from companies such as AMX and Crestron. The user only has to work with an LCD touch panel that is programmed to control the entire environment.

A lot of today’s audio-visual products can directly interface with computers, networks, and other equipment. Projectors come with network jacks that allow the user to pull files directly from their company’s network. They also come with RS-232 communication ports, which allows a user to pull information from the projector—status of the projector, hours on the lamp, etc. Projectors are equipped with wi-fi ports and their own presentation software.

Some digital document cameras are now equipped with ports to file share with the presenter’s laptop. In other words, an item shown on a projector from a document camera can be saved and stored in the presenter’s laptop for the next presentation.

Shelley Hawkins
District Sales Manager
CompView, St. Paul

Networked and wireless capabilities are the newest innovations in audio-visual projectors. Our clients are asking for high-definition products, video streaming, and data collaboration. The newest trend in videoconferencing is high-definition, desktop, and Internet protocol (IP) conferencing. Desktop videoconferencing is simply using desktop computers for conferencing— a step beyond Web conferencing. The IP videoconferencing uses standard Internet lines versus having to pay for ISDN and T1 lines, which can be expensive. Though the IP version is less costly, it can take up huge amounts of bandwidth.

The cost of ownership is the main reason why the desktop and IP versions are becoming popular. The desktop versions allow for conferencing with one individual at their desk. You don’t have to reserve rooms with conferencing systems. For the IP versions, the technology has improved so that the image is good—in the past, there was choppy sound and images, which can still occur, depending on the bandwidth available.