Spring 2016 | P2P Magazine |
25
PRESENTATIONS
example, allows you to present wirelessly
from your tablet and send content from
your computer to any connected device
in the meeting room. You can annotate
over any kind of media, take and save
notes, send messages and even conduct
voting.
Multi-touch is another feature that
fosters true collaboration, by enabling
more than one person to touch and/or
write on the screen simultaneously. Even
gesturing or zooming in with a finger
pinch requires multi-touch functionality
and this is vital if you are live editing a
document, says Sharp’s Parker.
“Increasingly, we are seeing users
expect their display screens to behave
in the same way as their smartphones
and tablets. Today’s workforce is made
up of digital natives who have grown up
around touch-screen technology, so they
will expect their working environment
to reflect this. Poor touch response or
difficult-to-use equipment is a huge
turn-off,” he said.
Whilst multi-touch is important for
collaboration, even more important is
connectivity, says Panasonic’s Meredith.
“Being able to work without connecting
to a PC and having the ability to easily
send content direct from the display are
definitely some of the most important
features for encouraging group
collaboration,” she said.
Is bigger better?
The needs of businesses are changing,
and some want more than the traditional
meeting room has generally offered.
For example, common screen sizes for
interactive displays in meeting rooms
are 55’’ or 65’’, but now there is growing
demand for larger screens. Manufacturers
have responded by introducing larger
models, such as the 80’’ BIG PAD
(PN-80TC3) from Sharp and NEC’s 90’’
(E905SST) and 98’’ (X981UHD SST)
interactive flat panel displays.
Daniela Dexheimer, product manager
solutions, Marketing & Business
Development, NEC Display Solutions
Europe, says that the trend for larger
The rise of
the flat panel
Forget dull and static presentations;
today it’s all about interactivity,
creativity, teamwork and
collaboration – in business and in
education. And the tool that more and
more are using to achieve this is the
interactive flat panel display (IFPD).
According to research company
Futuresource Consulting, IFPDs have
now taken over from interactive
whiteboards (IWB) as the optimum
interface for multimedia presentations,
video conferencing, brainstorming and
collaboration on documents.
Commenting on figures from Q2
2015, Colin Messenger, senior market
analyst at Futuresource, said: “The surge
of IFPDs from IWBs continues. In half
of the 67 countries we track, IFPDs now
make up 20% of sales. In 17 countries
it is well over 50% and in the UK, one
of the most advanced countries, it has
grown to 80%.”
The move away from interactive
whiteboards has also been noted by Lucy
Meredith, product marketing specialist
at Panasonic Visual System Solutions.
She said: “Whilst interactive whiteboards
are still used today, engaging minds and
creating more interactive meetings, we
have seen that interactive screens are
now dominating the market. Interactive
display screens are making it easier than
ever to bring interactivity and content
sharing.”
One reason for this change is that
projector-based solutions were always
much the cheaper option, but as flat
panels have become more affordable,
IFPDs have become a viable choice for
more people. In addition, IFPDs overcome
some of the disadvantages associated
with IWBs and projectors, such as
shadows thrown on-screen.
For Chris Parker, Senior Product
Manager at Sharp Business Systems, the
key reason for this shift is the superior
performance of IFPDs. He said: “IFPDs
have grown significantly in recent years.
In fact, many older, projector-based IWB
technologies are now being replaced
with IFPDs. The fact is that IWBs have
historically been projector-orientated
and do not offer the same performance
and reliability as a flat panel display.
They cannot compete.”
Sharp has worked closely with
several educational establishments on
the replacement of old, projector-based
systems, among them Caister Junior
School near Great Yarmouth, which has
swapped its projectors and interactive
whiteboards for 12 Sharp BIG PADs.
Parker points out that the school
was attracted by the interactive
touchscreens’ ability to produce great
quality images, even in daylight, and by
their reliable long-term operation. “The
school had previously used projectors
with interactive touch screens but
were looking for something with better
resolution that offered an intuitive
teaching aid that displayed content with
a high degree of clarity,” he said.
Encouraging collaboration
Collaboration is a key trend for
businesses today and interactive
displays need to facilitate and support
it. To this end, some vendors offer
integrated touch displays with built-
in speakers and cameras for video
conferencing. Others have embraced the
‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) trend by
developing solutions that allow multiple
participants in a meeting to connect
their wireless devices and share content
with others for easy collaboration and
teamwork.
NEC DisplayNote software, for
Interactive flat panel displays are
taking over in the boardroom.
Tayla Ansell looks at the reasons why.
Continued...
Lucy Meredith,
product
marketing
specialist,
Panasonic Visual
System Solutions
Steljes Vivid Touch
VTF 8410
Daniela
Dexheimer,
product manager
solutions,
Marketing
& Business
Development,
NEC Display
Solutions Europe
