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Presentation Systems
Control Freak
6/1/2007
At Crestron Electronics, AMX's nearest competitor, touchpanels interface--via electronicwhiteboard- like capabilities--with the company's AV control systems. Crestron's MediaMarker, for one, enables real-time annotation over still images, computer graphics, live video, and even streaming media, directly from the touchpanel display. And touchpanel graphics can be output to an external display, along with speech audio (from the built-in microphone) and stereo program audio.
"The common thread [among these products] is their ability to control the presentation environment, whether it's the AV control podium or the whiteboard," observes Alfred Poor, senior research associate at high-tech market research and publishing firm Pacific Media Associates. "You see this ability to pull in content from anywhere, and then mark it up, appearing in both systems. This is a popular feature in schools and corporate meeting spaces, because those environments generate a lot of ad hoc content. People come up with ideas; they brainstorm. Teachers and students interact with each other, and you want to be able to capture some of that."
But that doesn't mean that the presenter must be glued to a lectern at the front of any one room or space, or wired to the network, for that matter. Notably, PolyVision offers the Walk-and-Talk Cordless Lectern, an AV controller on wheels. In podium-based control stations, the podia (which are actually lecterns, but carry the now industrystandard misnomer) house computers connected to local area networks, and various media players linked to projectors and sound systems in the classrooms. But the PolyVision product comes equipped with a touchpanel interface that accepts stylus input, remote controls designed to allow users to control computer applications from any point in the room, an eight- to 10-hour rechargeable battery capable of powering two devices, and wireless capability. (The MTSU Honors classroom is equipped with a PolyVision Walk-and-Talk Cordless lectern.)
Predictably, as the AV controller makers squeeze more and more functionality into their products, expect to see them sporting larger touchpanels, Carter says. The demand for the annotation capabilities, in particular, is forcing AMX, for one, to expand its "control surface." The company's Modero touchpanel line, for example, now includes a 17-inch version (in addition to its 15-, 12-, 10-, 8.4-, 7.5-, 7-, and 5-inch Modero offerings). The Modero VG Series widescreen touchpanel can display RGB and component video sources, analog stereo audio, streaming MPEG-2 digital video and audio, and network video. It uses industry-standard Ethernet connectivity for both wired and wireless networking.
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