Subscriber Discussion

Anyone With Experience With Conference Rooms Screens? Do I Do A Projector, Video Wall Or TV?

DM
David Matyas
Apr 11, 2019

I am currently building my conference room and I want to put a screen in there. I am trying to decide between a large TV, a short throw projector or a video wall.

The room is 23' X 12'. The screen will be on the 12' side. The purpose of the conference room is to be used for us internally as well as demo capabilities for customers. What do you suggest? What size is the right size?

 

Thank you

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Anthony Jones
Apr 11, 2019

I think a TV is the easiest, most space conscious solution.  If you want to demo a video wall for customers, I would go that route though. 

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Ethan Ace
Apr 11, 2019

If you're going to be showing live video, I would not recommend a projector. Unless you spend money for a high gain screen and overly bright projector, it will never look as crisp as a monitor. I'd probably do a 2x2 layout of displays if you want to get very fancy and have enough to display on that much space. Otherwise, just two side by side.

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Brian Karas
Apr 11, 2019
Pelican Zero

4K TV and one of the wireless broadcast dongles so that visitors (or your own people) can stream presentations to the TV without having to deal with HDMI cables and such.

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RW
Ryan Wood
Apr 11, 2019
IPVMU Certified

David

Anthony is right that all things being equal a flatscreen display tends to be the best choice.  No lamps to change and generally far more cost effective than a video wall.

That said, your screen type will really be a function of your screen size and your screen size should be determined by what type of content you're displaying on it.  The more detailed the info you're displaying, the larger the screen needs to be in order to view it clearly.  It's easy to get deep in the weeds doing screen size vs viewing distance calculations but this article does about as good a job simplifying it as I've seen.

You're probably looking at a screen size of about 100" diagonal if your furthest viewer will be the full 24' away from the screen.  You can adjust up or down from there depending on how detailed your content is and whether or not you will have seating all the way to the rear wall of your conference room.

Once you've got your screen size you just need to compare it to your budget and decide if you want to spring for a commercial or consumer flatscreen or whether a projector is more realistic.  I wouldn't think this is a video wall application unless you have a particular need to show it to customers.

Don't forget that with a screen that size it will get uncomfortable to view it from less than about 8'-10' 

Best of luck with the build-out.

U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 11, 2019

The architect on the link makes no mention of pixel pitch, but what do I know? 

UE
Undisclosed End User #2
Apr 13, 2019

If you got the capital, go with a MS Surface...very pricey but you can video conference with clients, write on the screen during internal design or strategy sessions etc. Think whiteboard meets PC. The bezel on the side hosts the cameras and speakers so their slightly wider than a regular 16:9. We have a couple of key boardrooms between 50” - 120”, think they run about $1K per inch (that’s Canadian dollars though). 

Measure out your boardroom doors, twists, turns and elevators if your on an upper floor...had to take out the windows and crane ours into the executive boardroom on the top floor.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Apr 13, 2019

I prefer doing video demo’s and training / meetings with a high definition television instead of a projector.  

One time I was surprised by a very expensive 4k projector.

You could start with a 2x2 of just high quality, edgeless or small edge televisions, if you have the ceiling height with separate inputs and add a monitor wall matrix as you get more money.

Chromecast and other wireless input devices are sure handy.

Be cautious of room lighting so you can have the room lit up, but not causing reflections.   The monitors allow the room to be bright in the morning so the team doesn’t want to nap.

UD
Undisclosed Distributor #4
Apr 13, 2019

We have a demo room, it's around 15x25 ft

We have a 3x3 49" video wall running 1080p on all monitors, an 85" 4k white board and several 32 inch 4kTV's used as monitors 

We find that the video wall is fantastic for making a statement and giving video wall demonstrations, but we tend not to use it much for general demonstrations, presentations or conferencing. As stated above it's not that comfortable viewing it at close range for long periods.

We find the 32" TV's work very well as real world demonstrations for live / recorded video, they give a true representation of the performance of cameras / recorders. But they are not very good for more than 2 or 3 people viewing at close range, and useless if you want to present a spreadsheets or presentations.

We find we use the white board the most, we have connected it to an external computer running windows and among other  software we have installed VMS so we can easily access live cameras, and recorders. We  then use it for demo and training on product as well as general use as a monitor and white board.

We use it for presentations as its also on our local network.

We use it as a white board for meetings.

We also attached a web cam and we use it for live remote conferencing.

So it depends on you requirements and available budget, but I would seriously consider a white board first, then 4k TV's and finally a video wall if you need one or you want to make a statement.

 

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