I like a side of silliness with my AV, so I love the term BYOD. For those of you who have not heard—this is the new coined term for, “Bring Your Own Device,” in the conference room arena. I'm not sure which company or person came up with the slogan, but I like it.
In that respect Barco's ClickShare, which has now been on the market about 6 months, has announced a few exciting updates. Clickshare allows users to bring their own device (Mac or PC) to a meeting, and by connecting the USB dongle with their notorious “button,” your laptop is mirrored to the main screen in the room via the Wi-Fi network.
- Updates just announced are a higher frame rate (30 FPS), as well as, an extended desktop version. This will allow the main user to view, “notes” from their presentation without those notes showing up on the main screen. IPhone and iPad will now be able to share Excel and Word.
- ClickShare is a hot topic out there in conference-room-land, and these upgrades are sure to help them continue to succeed in the market.
- Then for the blow-you-away factor—just for fun—there is Barco's video wall. Note: you can't even see the entire wall from this picture. Barco did let me see behind the wall (as in, behind the curtain), but wouldn't allow me to take a picture (sorry kids).
- How can I explain the magnitude of this wall to you? It is designed for 24 hour 7 day a week usage. The screen is a black matte, there is a 3D option, and it is fully scalable with crazy high contrast. You really can't see any lines between panels, and this makes it an overwhelming experience. I probably won't be selling any soon, but it was fun to see.
