VIA Collage – Collaboration AV systems in the age of BYOD
Posted on January 22, 2015 by Kramer AV | 0 comments
VIA Collage - a powerful wireless collaboration hub
Halfway through the second decade of the 21st century, two clear trends have emerged with respect to meetings: First, meeting presenters and participants are relying more on tablets, smartphones, and "phablets" than traditional computing platforms to display slides, photos, and videos. And second, meetings are taking place in unusual spaces, including areas without traditional desks, chairs, whiteboards, and projection screens.
Sales of tablets and smartphones, also known as "bring your own device" (BYOD) products, have grown at exponential rates in the past four years while cutting into the sales of traditional notebook and desktop computers. That should be no surprise, as BYODs are actually powerful computing platforms with fast CPUs, gigabytes of flash memory, sophisticated operating systems and touchscreens, and high-resolution display screens.
Unlike notebook computers, BYODs can easily travel anywhere with their owners. As a result, many of us use our tablets and phones around the clock and feel lost without them (particularly Millenials!). So it's logical that we'd want to share the contents of our BYOD display screens with others in meetings, rather than drag along and boot up a laptop.
Until recently, the most practical way to show PowerPoints, documents, and photos from a tablet or smartphone has been to employ a Wi-Fi connection and some sort of "bridge" device, a.k.a "collaboration hub," to display them on a projection screen or a large, self-contained display. All BYODs have Wi-Fi radios built-in and support Transport Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (
