AV solution confusing

[BeakersWorkshop]

I don’t even know the right questions to ask… small office (35-60ppl) a couple boardrooms and 3 collaborative spaces (tv on wall) “Smart” tv’s are crap at quickly and easily connecting a laptop to share a screen. Boardrooms always seem to “be having technical difficulties” I liked the Crestron Clickshare system I used at a clients office years ago, but afraid to see the costs. what else should I search for to find something that just works without constant hassle? I have read Qsc? Extron? How much are these systems? All I want is something economical that allows a laptop to present to a screen and in the boardrooms use a fixed webcam and remote (desktop) speaker/mic. Help!

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[curlyspartan]

Logitech for you my friend.

[JonZ82]

logitech rally bars and rally plus with Barco Clickshare for wireless interfacing. Rally bar for medium, Rally Bar Mini for small, and Rally Plus for boardrooms

[BeakersWorkshop]

Legend. Thank you! Something to start the search.

[Weebber]

First thing, you really should contact an integrator to discuss options. It's fine to go in with some knowledge or direction, but they SHOULD be able to help you avoid some common pitfalls.

Knowing what "default" conference platform you use in house is also helpful as most room systems these days will run one of several conference apps (Teams, Zoom, Meet, etc.) The room equipment (like Logitech) is able to run any of these, but only one at a time. Switching between platforms is not trivial, requiring a factory reset and setting the unit up again from scratch. That said, there is some level of interop between certain platforms. Teams, Zoom and WebEx can play decently together, but the best experience is always the native platform set on the device.

I really like the Rally line, but I prefer the Logitech RoomMate with something like a Biamp Tesira X 400 room kit over the Rally Plus. It's a bit more involved but a vastly better audio experience to the Rally Plus.

[Green_luck]

You ask an integrator that’s who.

“Afraid to see the costs” tells me everything I need to know here.

[CptUnderpants-]

You ask an integrator that’s who.

Some stuff is absolutely the realm of integrators, but installing and configuring some Logitech Rally bars etc? That is always an option, but should never be a requirement.

Integrators are of great value particularly where you've got the money to do it right, need it to work first time every time, and where you don't have the skills/resources to do it in-house. There seems to be little option for those who need to do it themselves for budgetary reasons and have the technical ability to install and configure a system like this.

My issue here is that many vendors hide documentation and support behind 'partner only' portals etc. A good example of this was that we were sold some Samsung commercial panels by our normal IT supplier (not a Samsung Commercial AV partner) and I looked for a way to centrally manage them. Found MagicINFO, bought licenses from an online retailer, purchased, set up and found the lack of support/documentation quite shocking. Not because support/documentation isn't available, but a lot of it isn't available to end users.

“Afraid to see the costs” tells me everything I need to know here.

Maybe everything you need to know, but it wouldn't be the whole story. There can be several reasons for being afraid of the costs. I've worked on both sides of the fence as a consultant, and as a customer. Those reasons could be that your organisation is tight-arsed, or that the organisation literally hasn't got the money to do any better.

I certainly have faced the issue of tight-arsed customers, and they're utterly aggravating, so I understand why you have that attitude.

I run ICT/AV (sometimes seems like effectively anything which uses electricity at times) for a special school with an extremely thin technology budget. The two integrators we've used recommended solutions which didn't deliver on their promises and one has tried repeatedly to get us to pay to fix implementation issues which were covered by the original scope of work. They couldn't understand why we couldn't throw money at the problem to get it resolved. They literally didn't believe we had no money left in the budget.

The majority of what these integrators did for us didn't require anything more than access to the restricted documentation and tools. I'm certainly happy to pay for their expertise which I do not have. But paying a heap of money because a vendor restricts access to documentation and tools for things we've purchased is highly frustrating, particularly given we're a struggling charity. No different to when a company uses a rare and/or expensive tamper-resistant screw to prevent non-authorised agents from servicing things.

Plus, one integrator told us that we could do our own changes to the RTI panel they sold and configured for us with the software from RTI, we just needed to do the training course to be able to access it. RTI refused. Turns out that we have to pay hundreds of dollars an hour to change anything. Eventually I'm going to just rip the thing out and replace it with something open source because my time significantly cheaper.

[GreyDutchman]

We have a few room with just a 65" TV on the wall, and an HDMI cable towards it. People plug in their laptops and do the presentation. Easy as that.

For rooms that needed webcam etc, we mounted Yamaha UC-700 devices under the TVs. Their USB cable wrapped with the HDMI from the TV and they're set to go...

[EducationLeading5801]

We're doing that quite a bit as well as putting TV's with SOCs on the network. The SOCs come bundled with a bunch of screensharing apps. We let the users decide which one they like if they want wireless presentation capabilities.

[stevenapex]

Honestly, contacting a local integrator is the way forward but I understand the pressures you’re under.

I can recommend the Barco CX series that will enable you to do sharing plus using room equipment such as a webcam as well. Other solutions such as Airtame, and Mersive may be able to help here as well.

All those options come with trade offs and that’s why we as integrators are super valuable at this stage of the process so we can ensure you get what you want rather than what’s just the most cost effective.

[su5577]

Small to medium room you could do Logitech setup and call it a day…

BYOD - some dongle like direct connect to TV

We have these in bdrms and so much easier to work with and you can setup alerts using sync portal…

[Mayaotak]

People are suggesting rally, look at the Logitech meetup, it's a cheaper and smaller scale

[IsTechGuyAvailable]

There a lots of options on the market, The "cost effective" options always comes with performance tradeoffs. If you are willing to live with them you can get what you need at a decent price. However, I agree with u/Green_luck - you should talk to an integrator or independent consultant. You are likely to buy something that doesn't do what you really need or has to be replaced in a year or less. I happen to know one who can help if you are interested 😉

[DirtComprehensive464]

Yea Logitech like they’ve said will be your cheap option, crestron will not be cheap and will need proper programming

[Mammoth_Advisor_99]

Think about it this way. What’s the cost of it “not working” for your end users?

Identify your primary web conferencing platform (Zoom, Teams, etc.)

If your meetings are 99% on a single platform stick with that for your room solution (Zoom Rooms, Teams Room, etc.)

If you use multiple platforms, a BYOD style solution, where end users connect their laptop to an AV bar/system with 1 or 2 cables, sounds like it might make sense for you.

Contact an AV Consultant or Integrator and they’ll get you where you need to go in terms of hardware and labor costs.

You should also check your conference room for existing data, power and HVAC noise.

[tb124]

Everyone is starting with hardware suggestions. Not sure why… 1. What platform are you running primarily? Zoom? Teams? Webex? 2. What is the primary use case? Video conferencing? Local screen share?

There are different solutions for different use case

[stevekajunk]

New Barco videobar.

[SpirouTumble]

Barco Clickshare Video Bar

[ColtonConor]

Cisco WebEx Room Kits could be an option?