How many meetings have you gone to where there was a scrabbling for the lights at the beginning and end of a slideshow? One new addition to the meeting room technology industry is interactive room-control systems. A room control system will let you control most of the Video Conferencing in the meeting room from a single centralized area.
A room control system ends all that rushing to switch on the lights, complaints that the thermostat should be turned down, and questions about who is nearest the projector (and who knows where the button is to turn it on).
Another more essential addition to Video Conferencingtechnology in meeting rooms is a dedicated computer. This is especially convenient for those that tend to spend a lot of time hosting meetings. Instead of being required to unplug and haul a laptop into the conference room (or, worse, calling the tech unit to set one up in there for you), all you need to do is bring a CD of your presentation, or find the presentation via the web. This makes setting up for meetings rapid and painless, and also helps with Video Conferencing, as everything is already in its place.
With the cost of travel ever-increasing, video conferencing is becoming more and more significant, especially in larger companies with nationwide (or world-wide) branches. While the traditional teleconference still has its place in a meeting, and probably always will, the opportunity to see and speak normally to your coworkers or clients can be very important.

After a digital projector, the next step in conference room technology is the electronic whiteboard. The customary dry erase board has been a conference room standard for years. But it has limitations which really are seen when compared to some of the Video Conferencingtechnology available today. For one, everything written on a white board is temporary, and must be erased if you want to leave room to write more. This means that, if the meeting notes will have to be referred to later, one person will have to be assigned to take notes off the board. But this old-fashioned custom is a thing of the past. Electronic whiteboards take away the need to take notes by hand, as all that is written on their surface can be printed (as with Copyboards), kept as digital information (as with Peripheral boards), or even be arranged, grouped, and interacted with (Interactive Whiteboards).
A new edition of the electronic white board is the PDP, or Plasma Display Panel. A plasma display panel is essentially a huge, but much slimmer, flat-screen IP TV or computer monitor. PDPs are normally 42″ to 50″, and have a very clear, intense screen, making them great for video conferencing. Because PDPs are a relatively new addition to the Video Conferencing market, they’re also very costly, ranging from about $8,000 to $20,000. For around $4,000 more, companies can invest in an interactive overlay for the PDP. This is a somewhat small investment when compared to the price of the PDP and when allowing for the many practical uses of a PDP with an interactive overlay. An interactive overlay will include touch sensibility and annotation abilities, allowing you to use your PDP just like an interactive whiteboard.

www.edgevision.co.uk