Author: Ubiq

AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?

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Your department has just been put in charge of renovating each of your company’s 10 conference rooms. New displays, new speakers, and new connectivity hubs will all be required. What do you do? Do you hire AV system integrators to do the job for you? Or do you attempt to do the job yourself?
For the absolute best results, hiring an expert is usually the way to go. Someone who has spent their entire life practicing something is usually going to do it better than someone attempting it for the first time. Anyone who has ever attempted to install a new bathroom sink can testify to this.
But is hiring an expert always necessary? Here are three reasons why hiring AV system integrators may be more hassle than it’s worth.

AV System Integrators: A Costly Solution

4K TVs and projectors are a lot cheaper than they used to be, but they’re still fairly expensive. So right from the outset, this project is going to cost tens of thousands of dollars. To pay a contractor’s salary on top of that will send the costs up significantly.
Now, if you’ve chosen to run wires from the conference room TV to a connectivity box in the center of the conference room table, then letting costs run that high is fully justified—installing HDMI, VGA, and mini DisplayPort cables in a way that’s seamless is a task which requires years of study, and the expertise of an AV system integrator will no doubt come in handy.
But we live in the year 2017, and connectivity boxes are borderline obsolete. Wireless solutions are readily available, and they only take 10 minutes to set up.

AV System Integrators: A Time-Consuming Solution

Since an AV system integrator can’t charge thousands of dollars for 10 minutes worth of work, it’s unlikely that they’ll recommend a wireless solution. Cables, they will insist, are your friend. For a truly stable connection, wires just can’t be beat. (If you’re planning on using your conference rooms to watch The Revenant in 4K resolution at the best possible quality and don’t care about wasting 10 minutes at the start of every meeting troubleshooting connectivity problems, this argument may have some validity).
But installing wires behind baseboards, under carpets, and through walls takes time. Do you really want your 10 conference rooms to be out of commission for a few days when you can easily solve all of your connectivity issues in just 10 minutes with a wireless presentation device?

Hard to Future-Proof Your Conference Room With Cables

Once wires are installed, they’re installed for good. Taking them out requires just as much time and effort as putting them in. And who knows which wires end users will require in 5 years? Thunderbolt 5? USB 7? HDMI 4?
If you decide to hire an AV system integrator to install wires, you should plan on re-hiring them every 5 years. Those wires are not to going to replace themselves.
A wireless presentation solution, in contrast, is only the size of an iPhone and requires only two short cables to install. Taking it in and out of the conference room requires no effort whatsoever.

Conclusion

If you decide to spend thousands of dollars hiring AV system integrators to install wires, prepare to spend thousands more on conference room delays. By offering your end users a wide variety of cables to connect their laptops to the TV with, you are essentially offering them a recipe for confusion. End users who have standard laptops may figure out which cable and which TV settings to use after two or three minutes, but end users with atypical laptops may need to call IT to help them out. The cost associated with all of these delays adds up fast.
A wireless presentation solution, meanwhile, gives end users the ability to connect their laptops to the TV in under 1 second no matter what video outputs their laptops have.
ADDITIONAL READING
5 Must-Have AV Products For Your Conference Room
6 Reasons System Admins Spend More Time in the Conference Room Than the IT Office
Conference Room Cable Management Checklist
 

Want to set up a wireless Conference Room?Try Now

The Magazines CIOs/CTOs Should Be Reading

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One of the oldest jokes in the IT world is that the acronym CIO doesn’t actually stand for Chief Information Officer, but rather Career Is Over. Why the joke has endured for so long is hardly a mystery: Being a CIO is a stressful, difficult job in which failure is the norm. And since boards and shareholders rarely understand what the CIO does, it is also an extremely undervalued position that tends to end up on the chopping block whenever cutbacks are introduced.
But it’s not just boards and shareholders that don’t understand what the CIO does. Sometimes not even the CIO has a firm grasp of what the CIO does. The world of technology evolves at such a rapid pace that keeping up with it requires a commitment to learning that’s almost unthinkable in any other profession.
Luckily, there are dozens of magazines out there to help CIOs avoid this unfortunate fate. Here are 10 of them.

PC Magazine

PC Magazine cover
PC Magazine is the quintessential resource for reviews of technology solutions from hardware to security. While it’s not purely geared towards industry professionals, its Features section can provide insights into the competitive landscapes across the technology sector for personal computing that can be carried over to enterprise solutions.

Macworld

Macworld cover
Macworld is a consumer magazine focused on Apple and compatible products and services. Whereas PC Magazine focuses on the broader consumer base, Macworld hones in on the hardware and software nuances of Apple with tutorials, reviews, buying guides, and more. While it is consumer focused, CIO/CTOs can use its content to help colleagues understand technology with less tech-speak.

Wired

Wired cover
Wired Magazine covers how technology connects to various industries from business to entertainment. It’s a mix of consumer and trade publications, giving insights on trends and the impact of technology on individuals and companies.

CIO

CIO cover
No tech leader’s magazine rack is complete without a copy of CIO on it. Leaders not only need to know about new tools, they need to have the data to back up the viability of technology trends. CIO provides it all through informative features, sharp opinions, and case studies/analytical reports. Its online content, including blogs and videos, act as professional development tools for IT managers.

IT Professional Magazine

IT Professional cover
The IEEE Computer Society, an offshoot of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, publishes IT Professional Magazine to connect with developers and enterprise IT managers. They share informative content on a variety of topics from Internet security to system integration. This publication focuses on peer-reviewed, academic research as opposed to news trends or product reviews.

Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review cover
No matter your position in business, the Harvard Business Review is a must read. It contains a balance of news articles, professional profiles, case studies, and academic research from across the globe. It explores business from a variety of angles, including technology, marketing, and human resources. Readers can benefit from the information to develop strategy and communicate with other business areas.

Forbes

Forbes cover
Forbes is a classic publication in the business. It is not as academic as the Harvard Business Review, but it digs deep into the business world, no matter the industry. It makes the connection between finance, technology, and efficiency by covering current events, business trends, and top influencers across the globe.

Fast Company

Fast Company cover
Fast Company makes technology news cutting-edge. It focuses on innovation across industries and hones in on how technology has helped people and business thrive. It looks at how creativity is re-inventing how we view business, each other, and the world around us. For CIO/CTOs, it helps to “humanize” technology and make it accessible to everyone across your company.

MIT Technology Review

MIT Technology Review cover
What the Harvard Business Review is to the business world, MIT Technology Review is to the IT world. Based out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this publication features a mix of academic research and current events to report on how technology is filling gaps from education to business to non-profit (and more). It explores innovation, strategy, and development in technology, specifically to business and IT leaders.

Inc.

Inc Magazine Cover
Whether your business is big or small, Inc. reports on current events and business trends to help get your company on track. It provides insights and resources through relatable storytelling while demonstrating success through companies embracing technology and innovation. Their profile business leaders and rank top companies to give readers a view of the competitive landscape in business and what’s on the horizon.
All of the above-mentioned publications are available in multiple platforms: print, digital, mobile, etc. Many offer supplemental content in the form of videos and podcasts. You can read in the office or during your commute. All the way, you’re continuing to learn as a leader in business and technology.
Have a favorite publication we haven’t listed? Tell us about it and how it has helped you develop your leadership skills in IT.
Additional Reading
5 Must-Have AV Products For Your Conference Room
AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?
Top 10 Conference Room Cable Management Fails of 2016

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Conference Room Design: A Guide For the Perplexed

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Did you know that temper tantrums occur more frequently in conference rooms with yellow walls than in conference rooms with blue walls?
Or that you can download the blueprint for your conference room table online, then send it off to your local 3D printer to be built?
Or that it’s now possible to turn your entire conference room ceiling into one giant LED light?
All of this—and much, much more—is covered in our first e-book, Conference Room Design: A Guide For the Perplexed.
From picking a wall color to picking a font for your conference room sign, no aspect of conference room design goes unaddressed in this document’s 17 pages. So if you’re thinking about renovating your conference room but aren’t quite sure where to begin, or if you’ve been tasked with upgrading your conference room’s AV setup but are worried you might compromise the room’s aesthetic, don’t panic—we have you covered.
Conference room tables, conference room chairs, conference room decor, conference room lighting—if any of these topics confuse you, simply click here, and we’ll get you all caught up in no time.
And if you enjoy references to Street Fighter 2 and the “over 9000” meme in your descriptions of conference room furniture, we have a feeling you’ll find our e-book especially helpful.
A special thank you to National Office Furniture, Opendesk, Teknion, Krost Furniture, Boss Design, Calibre Office Furniture, Trilux, and Philips for making this possible.
ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Design: 10 Examples Worth Studying
Top 10 Conference Room Cable Management Fails of 2016
5 Must-Have AV Products For Your Conference Room
Motivation in the Workplace
 

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6 Reasons System Admins Spend More Time in the Conference Room Than the IT Office

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Q: What’s the difference between a pizza delivery guy and a system admin?
A: Pizza delivery guys deliver pizza to houses, system admins deliver VGA adapters to conference rooms.
This classic IT joke, second only to the one about how CIO really stands for Career Is Over in the repertoire of IT humor, may at first glance seem like a bit of an exaggeration. Surely system admins spend more time on things that are part of their actual job description (like, say, system administration) than on delivering cables and adapters to end users who are having a hard time connecting to the conference room TV or projector?
A few years ago, this may have been the case. But now that everyone brings their own laptops to business meetings, connecting to the TV via cables and adapters isn’t so easy. Laptops come with a wide range of video outputs, smart TVs come with many different video inputs, but sometimes the inputs and outputs don’t match up. This presents a source of confusion for even the most tech-savvy end user. And whenever an end user gets confused by something tech-related, their first instinct is always to call IT.
It’s no wonder then that every system admin, at some point in their career, has toyed with the idea of setting up a tent in the conference room and just doing their work from there.
Here’s a quick overview of the cables and adapters that are responsible for wreaking the most havoc in the conference room, leaving IT departments with no choice but to use their system admin as cable connectivity troubleshooters.

1. HDMI to HDMI Cables

Kevin from Home Alone is horrified by the prospect of using HDMI cables in his conference room.
If your goal is to connect a computer to a TV screen or projector through a cable, HDMI cables can be pretty handy. All HDTV’s come with an HDMI input, as do virtually all projectors that were manufactured during the last five years. HDMI outputs are also fairly commonplace on higher-end laptops (although Apple seems to be phasing them out). So if you’re dealing with equipment younger than your average kindergarten student, an HDMI cable should do the trick.
A few things to consider though: Do you buy just one HDMI cable and have your end users share it from a connectivity box in the center of the table, or do you buy multiple HDMI cables and install a connectivity box at each seat? No matter which option you go with, things are bound to get messy, so you may want to look into getting a cable management box to handle the extra slack. And since HDMI cables have a well-known propensity to go missing, you may want to buy a few back-ups.
Is your cable collection starting to get a bit unwieldy? Better brace yourself: It’s about to get a whole lot unwieldier.

2. VGA to VGA Cables

VGA cables make Matthew McConaughey weep.
Although HDMI cables have been the standard for the last several years, not all projectors come equipped with an HDMI input. A surprising number of old war horses from the pre-HDMI era still work perfectly fine and are still in widespread use. Likewise, not all laptops come with HDMI outputs. There are still thousands of 2011/12 MacBooks kicking around that may not be able to handle El Capitan, but still run Leopard perfectly fine. Better get some VGA cables to send through that connectivity box (or boxes).

3. VGA to HDMI

From this day forth, Scarlett O'Hara swears she will never use VGA to HDMI cables again.
What if the projector you’re using only has an HDMI input but the laptop only has a VGA output (or vice versa)? Don’t worry: Buying a handful of VGA to HDMI cables should solve this problem.
You may want to buy a label maker too: VGA cables look almost identical to DVI cables (the next item on this list), which can cause endless confusion.

4. DVI to HDMI (plus 3.5mm male-to-male audio cable just to be safe)

Although DVI to HDMI cables were not around in Joan of Arc's day, experts speculate that she would've disliked them.
A world in which every single connectivity problem involving laptops, projectors, and TVs could be solved with just three cables would be an annoying one, but at least it would be tolerable. Unfortunately, that’s not the world in which we live. DVI cables also exist, and they can only handle resolutions of 1,920 x 1,200 with no audio, so if your presentation involves sound, a separate audio cable is required. Have fun with that.

5. Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt/HDMI or Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort/HDMI

Thunderbolt cables are amazing for transferring huge files quickly, but do they belong in the conference room? Laura Dern fromEnlightened seems to think not.
Thunderbolt 3 cables have a bandwidth of 5 GB/s and can drive two external 4K displays at 60 Hz. For this reason, they’re pretty much indispensable for people who work with video shot at extremely high resolutions. Will they be useful in the context of a business meeting? Having a couple on standby couldn’t hurt.
And don’t forget to invest in a few Thunderbolt to HDMI/VGA adapters while you’re at it. You never know when those will come in handy.

6. Lightning to HDMI and Lightning to VGA

"What's in the box?" Hopefully not cables, thinks Brad Pitt from Seven.
What if someone forgot their laptop at home and wants to give their presentation through their iPhone? Better stock up on some lightning cables in order to prepare for that contingency. (You may want to buy a few bottles of Tylenol also).
By now, the collection of cables you have in front of you is so big that you may require multiple wheelbarrows to carry them around. Is it any surprise that end users don’t find this web of cables intuitive and need to bring in a system admin to bail them out?
(Editor’s note: To avoid the cable pile-up described in this article, we recommend investing in a wireless presentation system which allows end users to connect their laptops to the conference room screen in 1 second without any hassle. As chance would have it, we offer a free 14 day trial of a wireless presentation system on this very website. Click here for more info).
 
ADDITIONAL READING
Top 10 Conference Room Cable Management Fails of 2017
Wireless Conference Rooms vs. Cabled Conference Rooms: Which Has the Better ROI?
Conference Room Cable Management Checklist
 

Want to set up a wireless Conference Room?Try Now

Conference Room Technology: 5 Investments You Should Make

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Just as the invention of the printing press eliminated the need to copy out entire books by hand, just as the invention of the airplane shortened the trip from New York to LA by 35 hours, and just as the invention of e-mail made it unnecessary to send pieces of paper across the Atlantic and then wait two months for a response, so too can conference room technology help your company reduce the preposterous amount of time you waste in unproductive meetings each year (about 372 hours, according to one study) .
Here are 5 conference room technology investments you should make in order to enhance the business meeting experience:

Wireless Presentation Solution

It used to be the case that if you wanted to accompany your business presentation with a visual aid, you’d have to print it off on a sheet of paper, get the paper made into a transparency, and then book an overhead projector to show it.
Now all you have to do is connect your laptop to a screen or projector.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always as easy as it sounds. In conference rooms that rely on wires, finding the right cable or adapter can be just as time-consuming as making a transparency. Laptops come with so many different video outputs (HDMI, VGA, DVI, mini DisplayPort, etc) that accommodating them all is an exercise in futility.
This is why a wireless presentation solution can come in handy. By taking wires out of the equation, end users just have to press a button to connect their laptops. Needless to say, the amount of time it takes to press a button isn’t quite the same as the amount of time it takes to call up the IT department and ask them to rush over to the conference room with a VGA-to-HDMI adapter.

Visual Display and AV Equipment

Presentation software and hardware can only work to their full potential with the right visual equipment in place. Projectors, 4K TVs, electronic whiteboards, interactive displays, etc. can bring thoughts and ideas to life. For team activities, the display is the stage for real-time, in-depth discussion. People can connect, see each other, and heighten the meeting experience without time and location barriers.

Productivity Tools

One of the biggest culprits of meeting room time-wastage is the non-delivery of deliverables. If a team member hasn’t adequately prepared for the meeting, everyone loses. A great way to keep everyone on track is to invest in productivity tools such as Trello, Azendoo, or Redbooth.

Unified Communications

The number of communication tools — both hardware and software — currently available is staggering. By investing in a unified communications system, you can create a centralized location for tools on your network to be accessible from anywhere. This makes communication easier, both inside and outside the conference room.

Meeting Room Scheduling Software

It can be hard to have a productive meeting when all of the meetings rooms in your building are booked. By implementing meeting room scheduling software such as Teem, you can make sure that double bookings are a thing of the past.
Meeting room software can also help you optimize your meeting rooms. If a large room with a projector is constantly getting booked by a small group that never uses the projector or a small room with no projector is always being used by a large group that needs a projector, your company would greatly benefit from Teem.

Conclusion

Any investment you make in your company’s conference room technology comes down to the people who will be using it. It is important to consider them in your decision-making process. We all want to have the best technology available to our teams. Make the right decisions to make sure technology is working with—and not against—you and your colleagues.
ADDITIONAL READING
AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?
Conference Room Design: A Guide For the Perplexed
7 Must-Have Video Inputs For Your Conference Table Connectivity Box
 

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Top 5 Conference Room TVs of 2017

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What separates conference room TVs from home theater TVs? Unlike projectors, which are explicitly marketed for both uses (super bright for conference rooms, moderately bright for home theaters), the line between a conference room TV and a home theater TV is a bit blurrier. As a general rule, if a TV works well in the home, it should also work well in the conference room. In most cases, any $700 TV from Best Buy should be more than capable of handling all of your conference room needs.

That said, some TVs work better in the conference room than others. Models intended for commercial displays/digital signage, for instance, are generally of a higher quality and come with more features than models intended for home theaters, and there’s no rule that says these models can only be used in shopping plazas or subway walls. Companies that intend to elevate their conference rooms to the next level would be well-advised to explore these models, starting with the five 4K TVs included in this list.

4K conference room TV

Samsung QM65F — QM-F Series 65″ Edge-Lit 4K UHD LED Display

Price: $5,105.99
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 500nit
Samsung’s QM65F comes with a non-glare panel and 500nits of brightness, so even if your conference room has curtain-free windows that overlook the rising sun, it should still be theoretically possible to see the screen.
lg_65ux340c_ux340c_commercial_lite_ultra_1170396 conference room TV

 

LG 65UX340C

Price: $2,544.00
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 400cd/m2
The LG 65UX340C has an IPS 4K panel which delivers true color from every conceivable viewing angle. If your conference room table is so large that only the people sitting in the middle will get a good head-on view of the TV, this is the 4K TV for you.

conference room TV

NEC 65″ X651UHD-2ED

Price: $5,999.00
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 450cd/m2
The main advantage that commercial display TVs have over their home theater counterparts is that they can remain on all day, seven days a week, without overheating. By introducing one into the conference room, you can (with the aid of, say, the Ubiq Hive) use your conference room display for digital signage when meetings aren’t in session.
When you think about it, there’s really no point in having a giant black rectangle in the center of your conference room wall when you can use that space to display the meeting room schedule, promotional images of your product, or anything else that you feel would be more compelling to look at than a black screen.
conference room TV

Panasonic TH-84EF1 84”

Price: $13,923.51
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 500cd/m2
If the above screens are too small, Panasonic will give you an extra 19 inches for more than double the price.
conference room TV
 

Sony FWD100Z9D 100″

Price: $64,199.99
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: N/A
If the 84 inch Panasonic model isn’t big enough, Sony will give you 100 inches for the price of a BMW. Companies that require a screen this size may want to look into purchasing a projector. Even if end users leave it on all night so that you have to replace the bulb every week, the cost savings will still be enormous.
ADDITIONAL READING
5 Must-Have AV Products For Your Conference Room
Wireless Screen Sharing Vs. Conference Table Cable Management
Conference Room Design: 10 Examples Worth Studying
 

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Wireless Screen Sharing vs. Conference Table Cable Management

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To share your laptop screen with a room full of people, you basically have three options: 1) hook your laptop up to a TV or projector using an HDMI, VGA, DVI, or Thunderbolt cable and/or adapter, 2) ask everyone in the room to awkwardly huddle around you, or 3) share your screen wirelessly.
The first option has been the go-to solution since the 90s and it works fairly well, except for one thing: In today’s BYOD environment, hooking a laptop up to a TV isn’t so easy. Laptops come with so many different outputs that you’ll need to have at least a dozen different cables on standby to accommodate them all. It should go without saying that a conference room with dozens of wires strewn across it is not only an eyesore, but due to the tripping hazards associated with cables, also a palm, elbow, and face sore as well.
Some businesses attempt to deal with this problem by hiring an AV installation company to drill wires through the conference room table and put cable management boxes and connectivity boxes at each seat.
In addition to being costly and time-consuming (an AV installation can leave your conference out of commission for several days), this solution is also a little near-sighted. Who’s to say what ports end users will need in 5 years? Thunderbolt 5? USB 7? HDMI 4? Will they even have ports at all? Companies that go this route may as well make “Conference Room Table Cable Management Expert” a full-time salaried position.
This is where the Ubiq Hive enters the picture. It only takes 5 minutes to set up and costs a fraction of an AV installation. All that’s required of the IT department is to: 1) Take the Hive out of the box, 2) Hook the Hive up to the TV or projector and to the company’s LAN, 3) Hold down on the power button.
When we say that it only takes 5 minutes to set up, there’s a good chance that we’re being overly cautious. The below video explains everything you need to know in just 57 seconds.

Once the device is up and running, your end users can begin presenting. For internal users, only one action is required—going to www.goubiq.com/downloads and downloading the app. This is a fairly self-explanatory task, but we made a quick video (27 seconds long) explaining how to do it anyway.

For guest users, the process is almost identical. The only difference is that guest users go to a different url (www.goubiq.com/guest) to download the app. The below video is basically the same as the one above, except we swapped in a different title card for the section where the url is displayed. We will not be offended if you decide to skip it.

(Alternatively, both guests and internal users can just use our browser-based solution at https://present.goubiq.com/).
Once the end users have connected their devices to the Hive, the IT department can monitor the Hive remotely through the Ubiq dashboard. To do this, go to https:dashboard.goubiq.com and login with the credentials that were sent to you in an email with the subject heading “Dashboard Credentials.”
The dashboard also comes with a bunch of other features that you can play around with. The two videos below will walk you through each of these features step by step.


In addition to solving all of your screen sharing issues, the Ubiq Hive will also solve all of your digital signage issues as well. If you want to optimize your conference room displays when meetings aren’t in session by showing videos, stills, or websites, the below video will show you how it’s done.

To book a free trial of our product, please click here.
ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Technology: 5 Investments You Should Make
Top 10 Conference Room Cable Management Fails of 2016
Meeting Room Setup in 1 Day

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Top 10 Conference Room Cable Management Fails of 2016

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Unlike climbing Mount Everest, which some 80-year-olds have done without difficulty, conference room cable management is not something which should be undertaken lightly. Not only does it require an enormous amount of equipment and an unlimited supply of free time, it also requires the soul of an artist, the unswerving dedication of a marathon runner, and a mind for strategy comparable to that of your average chess grandmaster.
While most people who attempt conference room cable management fail spectacularly, some fail more spectacularly than others. Here are 10 conference room cable management fails that reach the absolute apex of faildom.

1. Multiple Cables at Every Seat With No Connectivity Box

Conference Room Cable Management Fail

2. So Many Cables Along Baseboard that Baseboard No Longer Visible

3. Cable Dangles From Ceiling

4. Cable Gets Stuck In Wheels of Chair

conference-room-fails-11

5. Cable Forms Trip Wire at Door

conference-room-fails-4

6. Cable Too Close to Garbage Gets Garbage Juice All Over It

conference-room-fails-6

7. Cable Wrapped Around Leg Of Table

conference-room-fails-7

8. Cable Wrapped Around Leg of Chair

conference room cable management fail
 

9. Cable Goes Out Window and Across Train Tracks

conference-room-fails-8

10. Cable Resting on Heater Gets BBQed

conference-room-fails-9
If this is what conference room cable management failure looks like, what about conference room cable management success?
Unfortunately, no photographs of a successfully cabled conference room are known to exist. Like extraterrestrial life or the Higgs boson particle pre-2012, it remains a mysterious phenomenon that no scientist can claim to fully understand.
We can, however, point you toward two devices that make cabling a conference room unnecessary. The first is a garbage bin (for throwing our your pre-existing cables), and the second is a wireless presentation solution.
One of the reasons why conference cable management is such an imposing task is that people bring their own laptops to business meetings and no two laptops come with the same video outputs. Some have HDMI outputs while others have VGA, mini DisplayPort, USB, Thunderbolt, etc. To have just one of these cables readily available at every seat of the conference table is difficult, to have all of them available is well-nigh impossible.
As it happens, all laptops come with WiFi. By allowing your end users to connect via WiFi, you not only save yourself the hassle of running hundreds of dollars worth of cables behind the baseboards, underneath the carpet, and through your connectivity boxes, you also save yourself the hassle of getting called into the conference room every hour to explain to your end users that their SD slots and HDMI outputs aren’t interchangeable.
For more information on the benefits of wireless presentations, please click here.
ADDITIONAL READING
Conference Room Technology: 5 Investments You Should Make
AV System Integrators: Are They Really Necessary?
Top 10 Conference Room Projectors of 2017 
 

Want to set up a wireless Conference Room?Try Now

Top 10 Conference Room Projectors of 2017

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The world’s brightest flashlight produces 90,000 lumens—enough to light up an entire mountainside at night.
To project an image in a conference room, you won’t require quite that much power. But if you want your image to be visible without dimming the lights, your projector will have to be a bit more powerful than the standard 1200 – 1500 lumens offered by home theater projectors.
This is basically the only thing that separates conference room projectors from their home theater counterparts. So if you hate turning off the lights at the start of every business presentation, you’re going to want to make sure that your conference room projector is capable of producing 3000 – 5000 lumens.
Another important thing to ask yourself before purchasing a conference room projector: Do you intend to use the projector exclusively for PowerPoint presentations that will only be seen by a small group of internal employees in conference rooms that look like this? Or will the projector ever be used to show non-internal employees (i.e. potential clients) things that aren’t PowerPoint presentations (i.e. videos)?
If the first scenario describes your conference room situation, you may want to consider going to your local Best Buy and purchasing the first $300 projector you see. It doesn’t matter what the specs are and there’s no need to do any research beforehand: If a reputable outlet is willing to sell it for $300, it will be more than adequate for the task at hand.
But for those who want to impress clients with videos that aren’t blurry, dim, and look as though they were filmed through a screen door, you may want to consider some of the conference room projectors on this list.

BenQ SU931

BenQ SU931 conference room projectorProjection System:‎ DLP ‎
Resolution‎: 1080p (1920 x 1080)‎
Brightness: 6000 Lumens‎
Contrast Ratio: ‎3000:1 ‎
Weight: 15lbs
Price: $3445.00
The BenQ SU931 produces a whopping 6000 lumens (three times what most higher end home theatre projectors produce), which should be enough power to cancel out your conference room’s ambient light even if it’s lit like Wimbley stadium.

Optoma EH500

optomo conference room projector
Projection System: DLP
Resolution: 1080p (1920 x 1080)
Brightness: 4700 Lumens
Contrast: 10000:1
Weight: 8.2 lbs.
Price: $1199.00
For half the price of the BenQ SU931, Optoma EH500 offers an image which—although not quite as bright as the BenQ—is still extremely bright. Its low weight makes it ideal for businesses that can afford multiple conference rooms but can’t afford multiple projectors.

Sony VPL-CH370 Projector

Sony VPL-CH370 Projector
Projection System: 3LCD
Resolution: Wide UXGA (1920 x 1200)
Brightness: 5000 lumens
Contrast: 2500:1
Weight: 12.5 lbs.
Price: $2864.00
For a projector that’s light, bright, offers a crystal clear high-resolution image, and isn’t prohibitively expensive, look no further than the Sony VPL-CH370.

Optoma EH505 Projector

Optoma EH505 Projector conference room
Projection System: DLP
Resolution: Wide UXGA (1920 x 1200)
Brightness: 5000 lumens
Contrast: 2000:1
Weight: 18.6 lbs.
Price: $3295.00
By most metrics, the Optoma EH505 is identical to the Sony VPL-CH370. The only major difference is that the Optoma uses the DLP projection system (which is what most movie theatres use) rather than LCD (which is what most TVs use).
For more information regarding the difference between DLP and LCD, click here.

Epson PowerLite Pro G6470WUNL

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Projection System: 3LCD
Resolution: WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
Brightness: 4500 lumens
Contrast: 5000:1
Weight: 21.5 lb
Price: $5,179.00
If you’re tempted by the Sony VPL-CH370, but wish it had double the contrast for double the price, then the Epson PowerLite Pro G6470WUNL could be the projector for you.

JVC DLA-RS400U Reference Series 4K Projector

JVC – DLAX500R conference room projector
Projection System: D-ILA
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Brightness: 1700 lumens
Contrast: 40,000:1
Weight: 34lbs
Price: $3999
Although it may not be powerful enough to project a clear image in an already bright room, JVC DLA-RS400U is ideal for conference rooms that have dimmer switches. If you can find some relevant 4K media to play, the resolution is bound to knock clients off their feet. (Although this projector doesn’t technically offer true 4K, 3.84K is so close that clients shouldn’t be able to tell the difference).

NEC NP-P501X Projector

 
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Projection System: LCD
Resolution: 1024 x 768
Brightness: 5000 Lumens
Contrast: 4,000:1
Weight: 14 lbs
Price: $1749.00
For spectacular brightness at an affordable price, the NEC NP-P501X can’t be beat. As far as resolution is concerned, however, the NEC certainly can be beat. So if your business meetings involve wooing clients with stunning 4K videos, you may want to look elsewhere.
 

Sony VPL-VW1100ES Native 4K 3D SXRD

Sony VPL-VW1100ES Native 4K 3D SXRD conference room projectorProjection System: SXRD
Resolution: 4096 x 2160
Brightness: 2000 lumens
Contrast: 1,000,000:1
Weight: 44 lbs
Price: $27,998.00
If you’re fairly confident that you won’t get fired for purchasing a conference room AV product that costs as much as a car, you can’t go wrong with the Sony VPL-VW1100ES Native 4K 3D SXRD. Turning this thing on during a business meeting will have the same psychological effect as picking up your clients in a MacLaren F1 and taking them on a tour of the world’s most expensive restaurants.

Conference Room Projectors & Connectivity

No matter which conference room projector you end up purchasing, it’s important to make sure that your end users will be able to easily connect to it. Most of the projectors listed above come with a wide variety of video inputs (HDMI, VGA, mini DisplayPort, etc), so if you purchase a large collection of cables and adapters (some of which are listed here), your end users should only face 5 to 10 minute delays getting their laptops connected.
Alternatively, you can invest in a wireless presentation solution which will allow your end users to connect to the projector in 1 second no matter what video outputs their laptops come with.
ADDITIONAL READING
5 Must-Have AV Products For Your Conference Room
Wireless Conference Rooms vs. Cabled Conference Rooms: Which Has the Better ROI?
Death of the Shared Conference Room PC