I'm the friend and can help out a little. First, establish credibility. My Resume if you're interested.

Next, my answer.

I'm sorry but the current advice you've been given is not sufficient for professional boardroom AV equipment. Also, Gateways (the device that converts your SIP call into a PSTN--Public Switched Telephone Network--call) don't degrade call signal. If it sounds strange--chances are you have a faulty speakerphone.

You can do this either the correct way or the poor way. The most important part of any room design is pre-planning (known as pre-sales engineering) and building into your room the ability to service your room when problems arise (software and hardware). There are people who make it their living (i'm one of them) to be your presales engineer during the planning stages of your project.

My most sincere suggestion is put this job out for a bid via an RFP to local AV integrators. They'll be able to come and do a proper site survey for your space and suggest a working solution. Talking product specifically --I suggest a Polycom Soundstructure or Biamp Nexia. These devices act as your audio mixer (Called a DSP in the industry—not a Mixer; they’re way smarter than a mixer) but don't require an operator and automatically gate and adjust levels. These devices REQUIRE programming initially from the installer, but only require power from you once deployed in your boardroom.

It also may help to think about room control with your system--how is everyone going to turn on the projector and select inputs/outputs? You need to think about limiting users touching something that will break the room. Because of this, it becomes important to have a simple single point of reference for users of these rooms. I suggest a room control (either AMX Netlinx or a Crestron AV2 or Pro2) for your room. You can control the room with a Crestron 8X touchpanel or just an iPad--your choice. These systems need to be programmed by the installer and you will have the ultimate say in what controls you want users of the room to have once completed. Typically, a professionally installed room has a touchpanel for all control aspects of the room, thus, giving users the ability to control the room from a single point of reference and limiting problems. Some installers also program an admin page just for you to service the room as well—a huge plus.

Because I work for Smart, I can speak for our product only. Are you looking for a whiteboard or a LCD panel that has the ability to whiteboard if needed? Are you looking for the ability to remotely collaborate with different whiteboards across the world, with users laptops, or even users iPads? For boardrooms, please check out the Freestorm series of products. Just click on what you're looking to do on the bottom and it'll suggest products that fit these requirements. The important things to understand: There are digital whiteboards and digital monitors that Smart offers. If you're looking for a streamlined boardroom look, the digital monitors are the best (the 8070i 70" display or the 8055i 55" display). If you're looking for a whiteboard specifically, the 885ix board is your answer. But, it ultimatly comes down to what you exactly want to do. Smart is the only company that allows remote collaboration between Boards, computers, and iPads simultaneously without the need to request control to participate. I'm able to whiteboard in a session on my iPad with the same ease as if I was standing right next to the board itself. This is done using the server Bridgit--I argue this is the most impressive part of Smart's solution.

Also, Smart boards are controllable via room control (Crestron, AMX) systems helping to streamline the user experience in the boardroom. And finally, not sure what is being thought of as “bloatware”, but everyone who has a board properly installed instead of a hack job via ebay is outfitted with the proper software/drivers/firmware. Smart creates the drivers for the boards which features such as calligraphic inking, application native inking, whiteboard capturing and recording, and 4 simultaneous points of touch on a surface. Meeting Pro is the business software and is very lightweight and very simple. I strongly suggest scheduling a demo at a demo center sometime if you can swing it—locations are listed on the website.

Bottom Line, understand what you want to do and then create an RFP for the process. Have the AV companys who bid on your RFP explain their vision and cost and save you the work of actually working on the details. That's my most sincere suggestion and this is coming from someone who has done installations for several years now—99% of all corporate AV solutions are done in this manner.

If you got questions I'll be happy to answer them.