10 Questions to Ask Your Team When Looking for Meeting Room Tech

When it comes to pulling together a great meeting room setup, some practical tips can be invaluable. There’s plenty of advice out there, but most of it focuses on the technical elements. So, what would the advice be from those who’ve actually been tasked previously with setting up a meeting room?

All experts say the key is to start from the perspective of your users first rather than from the technology.

The options on the market can be overwhelming but at Projectorpoint we’re determined to remove the confusion and mystery for our customers.

So, we’ve created this tried and tested, non-technical guide of the questions you need to ask your team to help you identify the right meeting room tech for your company. We’ve also then pointed you in the right direction with some suggested products based on the answers to each question.

1. What is your ultimate goal?

First off consider the goals you want your meeting space to achieve. New technology in your meetings rooms can greatly improve productivity and collaboration, but you may be keen on achieving softer goals such as improving staff morale or creating a wow factor to impress new clients.

Looking to impress? Check out our 4K resolution display screens.

Is collaboration your main goal? Find out how Barco ClickShare could help your team.

Need to improve productivity with a remote workforce? View the latest videoconferencing systems.

2. Who will be using the meeting room?

This seems like a question so obvious there’s no need to pose it, but when your team carefully think about it, this includes a varied bunch of workers with vastly different needs. How your clients, staff, suppliers, even potential investors use the room will vary greatly, and each will have different requirements and expectations of the space and the technology.

The answer to this one will likely influence your answer to the next question …

3. What devices will be being used?

Or more accurately, what’s your company’s BYOD (or bring your own device) policy? The trend towards using employee-owned devices within a business is on the up. So if your company has a flexible BYOD policy then your meeting room tech needs to work for Android and Apple users alike. Will you be using Macs or laptops? How will these devices connect into the video and audio facilities?

Need a wireless collaboration system to get everyone hooked up to your display screen from almost any device? Take a look at Barco ClickShare.

4. Will you be hooking up with people remotely?

How many of us have huddled around a speaker phone trying to drown out the chatter from next door’s meeting room, straining your ears to hear London HQ? If, like most companies these days, you’re going to be collaborating with people remotely, you’re going to need good quality video and audio conferencing facilities.

Really need to impress in your boardroom? You can’t get much better than the Barco ClickShare Conference.

5. What kinds of meetings will you be holding?

Will you be holding training or presenter-led sessions? Formal meetings or informal huddles? The type of meeting you hold will influence where you focus your meeting room investment.

If your team have a lot of presenter-led meetings, then it’s well worth investing in a touchscreen. The interactive nature of touchscreens breaks up the “death by PowerPoint” style of presenting and works especially well during workshop sessions where you might be guiding a team through some new information or ideas. Touchscreens help navigate presentations from the front of the room without being stuck behind a laptop, they’re also superb for taking notes or annotating live on screen then sharing these digital notes post-meeting.

6. What kinds of content will you be working on?

The content that you’ll be working on will have an impact on the types of display equipment you will need.  Detailed work where your teams are spending a lot of time looking at data or spreadsheets will require a high-resolution solution, so invest in 4K here for guaranteed accuracy and clarity.

If the room is only going to be used for slide shows and power point presentations then top quality 4K resolution is less of a concern and your money might be better spent on increasing the size of your screen or providing better connectivity options.

7. How many people will be using the meeting room?

You need to ensure that everyone can see a screen and can hear any audio, so you need to know in an average meeting how many people will be in the room and how far away from the equipment they will be. This will then influence the size of your screens that you choose.

You can read more about how to choose the right screen size for your meeting room here.

8. How will people contribute to the meeting?

Remote meetings have moved on considerably in recent years. There’s no longer any excuse for the remote participants not to join in fully. Everyone, whether present or remote, should be able to share the content on their laptop or smartphone at the click of a button.

That’s why we love Barco ClickShare because it does exactly that. Anyone can share their content on the main display screen in the meeting room so that everyone’s ideas can be discussed in real time, which is, after all the point of meetings!

Want a wireless collaboration solution for less? Try the BenQ InstaShow

9. Do you need to consider sustainability and environmental targets?

All facilities managers will know this, but you need to consider your company’s environmental targets when planning a room. This is where technology is on your side.  Some industries such as legal firms and architects’ practices are more paper hungry than others but smart use of large format display screens and touchscreens is really helping to change this.

Ready to get serious about your remote meetings? Find out more about Barco ClickShare Conference

10. What is your budget?

Everything comes down to budget. Money dictates pretty much every business decision and meeting room technology is no exception. But don’t worry; at Projectorpoint we’ve sourced some great value technology allowing you to pull together a full, 4k meeting room solution from as little as £1,500. If you want to have a higher end solution, we’ve got that covered too.