Bring Your Own Technology
Trends we see today suggest that conference room technology and presentation requirements have changed from relying solely upon furnished presentation sources to the need to support BYOT, bring your own technology, and all the types of personal technology that may entail.
When designing Audio Video Systems for conference room applications, it is essential to know which types of AV sources and presentation equipment your clients may want to use now and in the future.
When you ask your client what type of sources may be used for a meeting, you might get the answer “I am not sure but everything needs to work.” Today’s challenge in AV systems design is to provide support for legacy and current sources as well tomorrow’s technology while utilizing today’s equipment in a cost effective way.
Integration
In a functional conference room, presentation sources and equipment may be located in an equipment rack as well as at the conference room table. Presentation devices mounted in the rack are easy to integrate with the A/V system. Meeting participants at the table will also need connectivity to the AV system.
This presents a design challenge due to the need to support a large variety of sources and BYOT. The Audio Video Systems Designer will need to provide an infrastructure that will allow the meeting participants to seamlessly connect to A/V equipment housed in the rack. In both cases the range of sources will most likely require support for legacy and current video technologies alike.
New Construction
With traditional cabling systems, analog and digital signals utilize separate infrastructures. VGA signals are run over bulky coax cables while long haul HDMI cables are thick and inflexible. As the number of presentation device inputs at the conference table increases, the required conduit size to house the cabling quickly becomes a concern.
In new construction, large conduit and cable requirements drive up project costs while in retrofitting a room it could be the limiting factor in the systems design. With this in mind, the designer has to find ways to control costs and ensure the room will meet the client’s expectations. Cnetworks Design & Engineering