Mar. 07, 2024
Consumer Electronics
If you're looking to setup an interactive solution in your business or school, there are 10 simple things to consider.
Next-generation interactive digital displays, such as the Sharp BIG PAD, are proving more popular than ever in both corporate and education settings. They offer an amazing array of features, deliver seamless integration into existing technology platforms and are proving more cost-effective than ever before.
The best systems let users do exactly what they need to do, when they want to, while at the same time using their own familiar and IT-approved software tools and existing peripherals.
Also driving this growth is improved AV performance, a smaller hardware footprint, so taking up less space in ever crowded rooms, and a move to open architecture solutions. Being able to use your own software and peripherals is key to this adaptability, as users often bring non-standardised devices, such as smartphones and laptops, and want to connect them to the interactive display for easier collaboration.
If you’re looking to setup an interactive solution in your business or school, there are 10 simple things to consider and answer to help you find the best one for your needs.
1: Size and space are often a key factor, so choose a display provider that offers a wide range of screen sizes. Sharp, for example, offer up to 30 touch points on the latest SHARP BIG PAD devices.
2: If you’re looking to add the interactive display to an existing setup, is the interactive display brand you are considering a “closed architecture” product? Or is it an open architecture solution that will integrate smoothly with your existing videoconferencing, cameras, software and other equipment?
3: Does the brand of interactive display you are considering have Windows embedded, or does it let you run the displays from your own OS that’s already approved by your IT department?
4: Will the purchase of the interactive display also require proprietary annotation software, proprietary cameras for video-conferencing, etc. in addition to the flat panel or projector-based display for the system to work optimally?
5: When it comes to using the displays, will the interactive display vendor require software licensing for all of your staff, adding further initial setup costs.
6: Enquire as to whether annotation and collaboration software is included in the price of the interactive display. Furthermore, will staff need training to operate the interactive display?
7: Does the interactive display use a third-party touch overlay for the multi-touch functions, or is it integrated into the design of the interactive display from the start of design/engineering?
8: For true collaboration, consider how many users can use the interactive display simultaneously. Enquire as to how many touch points the display you are considering will support. Sharp interactive displays, for example, offer 30 touch points on its latest BIG PAD Pro devices.
9: If you’re looking to set up your display for interaction with multiple users, will it work in a BYOD (bring your own device) environment?
10: Will the interactive display perform additional digital signage functions if needed?
Interactive digital displays based on an open architecture model are proving to be the best way to seamlessly integrate new advanced interactive display solutions into the classroom or meeting room. Increasingly, organisations are doing this at a more modest cost, while simultaneously taking advantage of existing best practices and existing AV and video-conferencing equipment and software investments in the user’s organisation.
If you’d like to know more information about interactive displays and some of the thinking behind this article, Sharp USA has crafted a white-paper ‘The New Game-Changing Interactive Digital Displays‘, which is available as a free download.
Interactive flat panel display is the new hype in the world, and not just in the business sector but also education. Various schools and universities are actively opting for this new mechanism to enhance the system of teaching they have.
If you are an educator wanting to purchase this technology too, here are a few factors that you need to consider before you go forth with the purchase –
The first thing that you should bear in mind when searching out an interactive flat panel is your needs. Ask yourself if this device helps meet some specific needs in your classroom environment. With a large Interactive flat panel display, you get to present text-heavy slides and web pages seamlessly, alongside enhancing interaction among the students during studies, through it.
LCD or Liquid Crystal Displays come with backlighting which means they have a light source fitted behind to aid in picture visibility. LCD backlighting is of two types, namely light emitting diodes or LEDs and cold-cathode fluorescent lamps or CCFLs. Now the thing with LEDs is that they have greater contrast which helps produce better images, also they consume less power in comparison to CCFLs. So decide accordingly when making your purchase.
4K, UD, UHD are ultra-high-definition TV displays and the number of pixels that they have is four times that of HD or high-definition. And even though UHDs cost more than HDs the fact that they create more beautiful images cannot be overlooked.
So when you decide to go forth with your decision to purchase an interactive flat panel display, you need to weigh the benefit that those extra resolutions shall fetch against its costs.
The size of the screen you decide to invest in has a lot to do with the size of your classroom. When buying a display what you must look for, is a screen size that offers easy visibility and readability from the farthest corner of your classroom.
Generally, a 70-inch display does so for a distance of 17.5 feet and an 84-inch display serve students well for a max distance of 21 feet. So, keep this equation in mind, and figure out if the screen you are considering, offers the best view for your classroom size and seating arrangement.
Although interactive flat panels aid you in showcasing videos, images, animation and other collaborative activities to you class, what you must actually focus upon is the software. It is after all the software which actually enables the hardware for an interactive classroom.
A few things that you need to check out in this respect are the required features, user-friendliness, language available for the user interface, flexibility for usage, and so on.
An interactive flat panel display allows three major connections which include two HDMIs and a VGA. The HDMI cables are responsible for carrying audio and video digitally, simplifying wiring and offering higher quality over longer lengths of cables in comparison to analogue VGA signal.
Since VGA inputs do not carry audio and video, you might need a corresponding stereo analogue input.
Interactive flat panel displays come equipped with internal speakers and in-built audio amplifier. These features make them fit for serving a classroom efficiently. The lack of these aspects would mean an external system for you which will add to your costs and the also make the resulting system more complex.
The image size, resolution, audio quality, quality of picture, selection of audio-video inputs and outputs are all significant considerations which you need to make when choosing to purchase an interactive flat panel display for your classroom. However, in addition to that, you also need to ascertain the number of single and dual touch panels that the room can accommodate without looking cluttered.
Purchasing an interactive technology requires good planning. Therefore, taking the above-mentioned into consideration will help ensure that you get to maximize benefits out of the purchase you make.
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