The results of Barco’s obstacles to effective business meetings survey published in October 2013 found that European business leaders question the efficiency of meetings. The visualisation expert is seeking to change those perceptions with its ClickShare meeting room collaboration system. Barco’s ClickShare is gaining plaudits from businesses across Europe.

ClickShare has been deployed to bring greater efficiencies and flexibility to meeting rooms across various industry sectors, from hospitality and education, to energy and engineering. Blue chip companies such as LMS, a Siemens company, as well as higher education institution the Technical University of Munich, and engineering enterprise VDC, are realising the benefits of ClickShare.

The collaboration system offers ease of use and is quick and simple to set up. A base unit, with a fixed connection to the meeting room’s visualisation system, acts as a processor. Multiple devices can be connected to a shared screen, up to 64, via USB or wireless. Android, iOS and Windows operating systems are supported, as well as smartphones.
Andreas Jung, Engineering Operation Group, Technical University Munich, says: “We were looking for a more user-friendly technology and found it in ClickShare. Speakers can now deliver their presentation in an uncomplicated manner without a technician’s help.”

Hans-Günter Göring, head of project controlling, VDE, echoes these sentiments and says the company had been looking for a new meeting room presentation room for some time, due to the inconvenience of cabling, before selecting ClickShare. “It is very easy to connect and display content, from whatever laptop. We truly feel like ClickShare improves the productivity of our meetings.”

ClickShare allows multiple users to connect to a shared screen simultaneously with the click of a button. Users can connect via multiple devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops – that use a variety of operating systems.

Christoph Runde, managing director, Virtual Dimension Center, explains: “The VDC organises around 30 workshops and seminars per year and these are all about discussing and sharing information. Speakers to these events often have exciting content to show, like movies or 3D applications, which is stored on their own devices. In the past, these images or videos had to be embedded into the demo room AV system. Copying took a long time and images were often distorted. With ClickShare, everyone can simply plug in their own laptop and show their content on the big screen.”

Installing ClickShare in a meeting room can also help to increase participation and collaboration amongst meeting participants as multiple users can connect to the system simultaneously, and up to four people can share the screen at the same time.

“ClickShare fosters meeting dynamics. It’s so much simpler now to share presentations, diagrams and images and to discuss these. If one meeting participant wishes to clarify an argument or raise an issue, he simply clicks the button and shows the information to illustrate his point,” says Jan Leuridan, CEO, LMS.