Here today: the boardroom of tomorrow

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Auckland presentation technology specialist Audio Visual Concepts has installed a futuristic high-tech boardroom at property company Phoenix Management's headquarters.

The boardroom features a $29,500 Pioneer plasma TV that may be used for video conferencing, playing videos or DVDs, but it will also act as a display for a PC or guest laptop.

The boardroom includes a movable camera for video conferencing and a fixed, ceiling-mounted camera for viewing documents.

At maximum zoom the image of a business card on the boardroom table will fill the 120cm plasma screen.

For collaborative sketching, there is a $1395 whiteboard system from eBeam that picks up the movement of ordinary marker pens against any flat surface and translates it into an image displayed via a PC. This image can be relayed via the internet to other PCs, and another eBeam user could make alterations by remote.

Rob Love at Audio Visual Concepts said too many high-tech boardrooms used multiple remote controllers which were prone to battery failure, but his company had supplied and programmed a single cordless touch panel which controls the room's functions, including camera movement and lighting.

Mr Love said a boardroom featuring basic video conferencing started at around $30,000 but some companies had no difficulty in justifying spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Much of business is about the presentation of concepts and turning concepts and ideas into persuasive arguments. To do that effectively you need the best tools on the market."

Audio Visual Concepts will be showing off its presentation technology in association with Canon at Avcom 2000 at the Auckland Novotel next Tuesday 15 August.

Audio Visual Concepts