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and networked information delivery systems, ranging from the need to rapidly move data and present data in multiple ways to the several types of technology being used that allow you to create what we call a group display. Much of this data is available in real time so you must have the technology to support real time data. I personally think that a boardroom that is meant to do only powerpoint presentations is too elementary and doesn’t qualify to be called a boardroom. The boardroom technology must assist decision making and make it easy for its participants to be able to have access to all the information that they need to make highly critical decisions. I liken the technology role to what a pilot or a sea captain needs in the cockpit of a large airliner or the bridge of a large naval ship. Without this visioning capability, the pilot or the captain will not be able to control the efficiency of the airplane. When you consider the importance of decisions taken in the boardroom, the presenters that are managing the agenda wish to seek consensus on the issues and opportunities that are being discussed. The outcome needs to be a winning outcome. For this reason boardrooms need multiple types of displays, the capability to present visual data, audio, real-time imaging, video footage as well as the capability to annotate and write and draw. There is requirement for voting on issues requiring consensus. Ideas need to be presented in a fast-paced environment and the outcome of the meeting is to be captured and translated into action. The function of technology is to support all these needs of boardroom users. Confidentiality is important to boardroom proceedings and often
that warrant a boardroom have far-flung operations. In the past, for a meeting of five people, twenty subordinates would be flown in and would wait outside the room with data if required. Today video-based communication and telepresence is essential in a boardroom environment – in fact 50% of the AV requirement for boardrooms revolves around video communications. This technology saves time and makes the process of meeting more green. It has also become a legally acceptable method for a board meeting to be conducted. When I look at my history in this industry, I still remember preparing for a board meeting – 25 years ago,
“The boardroom technology must make it easy for its participants to be able to have access to all the information that they need to make highly critical decisions” written notes can be lost or worse, ‘wander out’ of the room. Therefore, electronic annotation and capture of the written notes and proceedings of the meeting need to be secured to avoid leakage of information. The same goes with audio and sounds that emanate from the boardroom. One shouldn’t be able to stand outside the room and hear the proceedings inside and with the large penetration of mobile phones that have recording capability; this is an area of major concern. The audio needs to be secured, so you don’t have information leakage. Another aspect that impacts boardroom technology is the flattening of the world. Businesses
and having to paint the 35 mm slides with colour – slide by slide. Some of us veterans in the industry will remember the slide projectors from Kodak that made a “khatak” sound when the carousel would shift each time. Today’s technology has moved considerably ahead in what we can achieve in boardroom presentations. AV integration often falters at the users’ level. How do you overcome that in a boardroom? Complexity has to, most decidedly, vanish from boardrooms. The most complex user-environment for ICT is the classroom as it needs a high level of user interaction. In boardrooms all the technology including the October 2011 | AVPro | 25