Sharing Displays

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Heller Financial needed a better videoconferencing environment than they were able to get with one or two screens.

Designers considered an LCD projector-based system, but instead recommended a system using individual Panja displays.

At Heller Financial, Inc. of Chicago, ceiling height was not a problem, but managers needed a better videoconferencing environment than they were able to get with one or two screens. At Heller, a typical conference includes at least 13 managers or board members at the near end, with up to 40 in the boardroom for some conferences. As these meetings grew over the years, the traditional roll-about setup they owned proved more and more inadequate. They brought in United Visual to design a better solution. The United Visual designers considered an LCD projector-based system, but instead recommended a system using individual Panja displays.

The displays, which combine an 8" LCD monitor, video camera and microphone, maximize the feelings of personal contact and warmth during a videoconference. Instead of 20 or 30 people squinting at a far-away monitor or projector, now only one or two people share each station. They no longer have a tendency to raise their voices talking to a far-away system, and looking someone straight in the eye is a breeze. A glance across the table at local participants and back again to far-end people is a perfectly natural. Instead of a huge group of tiny faces, remote participants can focus on the person speaking. The room's built-in control system can serve as "traffic cop," switching the live camera automatically to the appropriate speaker, or a meeting chair can do it manually from a Panja touch-screen.

Designing a system using multiple displays

If you find yourself in charge of a project where individual displays may be appropriate, there are several things you should keep in mind.

Consider the technical requirements of the project as you plan the physical layout. For example, your conference table and your podium are logical places to hide cables, interfaces and other equipment, as well as providing a place to put laptops and control devices. Be sure your architect or furniture supplier fully appreciates your technical needs before the furniture is specified.
Talk to your end users because it's essential to know how they want to use the room and how the AV system will meet their needs. If, for example, they expect to run a lot of informal meetings, you may want to put laptop connectors at several places in your table, so that people can present from the conference table itself. In the same way, you'll want to plan connectors for your control system, company LAN and AC outlets in whatever part of the table or the room that people are likely to need them.
Be sure to think through the flow of the meetings typical to your organization. Multiple presentation monitors are, of course, just as effective with PowerPoint presentations as they are with data from other sources, such as the Internet, VCRs or document cameras. Nonetheless, United Visual recommended an LCD projector for Heller Financial in addition to the individual monitors. Because Heller managers make a lot of formal presentations, they wanted to keep audience focus at the front of the room when a presenter is at the podium. Many organizations, however, would not see this need. At the University of Chicago Hospitals, for instance, board members generally want to keep their attention on each other. Thus a screen at the front of the room would usually be a distraction.

As with any new technology, new uses for multiple presentation monitors will undoubtedly spring up. It didn't take cell phone users long to realize their new equipment could be useful outside their cars. Who knows where the growing use of tabletop monitors will lead us?