A boardroom's delight: gone are the chalkboards. In are plasma screens, high-tech projectors, computers, electronic whiteboards and much more.

Welcome to the 21st century, where the relevance of capture and control takes on a whale new meaning. Chalkboards and erasers of just a fortnight ago were not limited to the one-room schoolhouse of the Alaska Bush. Many a business executive of today--no matter the size of the school attended--had the unsavory and memorable experience of remaining after school to clean seeming miles of those dusty green boards. Those very black and green chalkboards were equally as common in the hallowed boardrooms of corporations and companies both public and private.

Eventually, overhead, slide and film projectors cut down on the dust--but not necessarily the fuss--in the classroom and boardroom alike. Throw in a few paper easels with smelly marking pens and lots of paper and that made up yesterday's typical training session or boardroom. Oh, and let's not forget the smoke. Sometimes, the pulse of a business was set in those smoke-filled boardrooms, where it was difficult to even see the chalkboard or easel.

The heart and soul of many a business today remains its board or meeting room. The look, the equipment, the presentation is changing dramatically. And if there is a common thread to the boardroom of yesteryear, it might just be the oak table and leather chairs. Most of today's rooms of assemblage are smoke free and have more electronic gadgetry than an amateur radio fest in July.

GAGGLE OF GADGETS

The tools that create a functioning boardroom nowadays include a plasma screen, high-tech projectors (front and rear), computers, Internet and network connections, surround-sound systems, electronic whiteboards, digitizing styluses, keyboards and self-dimming lights. And this list is not all-inclusive. The advent of the local area and wide area network (LAN and WAN) now means a boardroom can in reality constitute many rooms and many locations.

A skilled art and graphics department was once forced to spend many hours with an Exacto knife and a lot of dollars to create a presentation suitable for the annual board of directors meeting. Today, that same department--equipped with a couple of computers, some fancy graphics and editing software, and a product like PowerPoint--can, in much less time, crank out a board-of-directors-quality presentation for the weekly staff meeting, new employee orientation session, sales department's daily update, company Web page and a customer fain meeting.

CHALKBOARD EVOLVED

The exponential evolution of the visual presentation has at least two Darwins in its making.

Probably the principal factor is the personal computer, Mac or PC.

The evolution of the Internet, and then software solutions such as PowerPoint, constitute the factors that contribute to the escalation of high-tech changes occurring in today's digital boardrooms. This communication technology is not limited to stuffy boardrooms. It has found its way into classrooms, training rooms, sales offices, and the like. It's in fixed locations and travels with the mobile presenter requiring portability and lightweight equipment. And, we can't forget the distant classroom or boardroom connected via network or the Internet, in town, in state or worldwide. Basically where there is a message and an audience there is a place for the ever-growing list of technologically advanced presentation hardware. In many situations a computer or a disk is not even required. Log onto the network from the included system computer and the presentation is pulled off the intranet or Internet. Changes may be made on the fly and saved for a subsequent staging.

And, cost. Prices on high-end, techy equipment have dropped almost in direct proportion to the rise in the technology.

THE COMPONENTS

"The primary elements of a good boardroom installation are display, control and capture," says Terry Shimek, owner of Shimek's, an Anchorage company specializing in electronic boardrooms.

There are many options to display video images: a computer, videotape, DVD, live camera and the network all are displayed on either a plasma panel or screen using a projector system.

Plasma screens mount directly to the wall, are a slim 4 inches thick, and are available (for most applications) up to 60 inches diagonally. Shimek notes that in today's set up, the plasma screen is just "cool," they have a bright, crisp picture that adds a lot of punch to any presentation.

For larger groups and larger presentations, projectors are more appropriate. In addition to availing themselves to a much larger screen, the projected image has a much wider viewing angle. In other words it is not necessary to be seated nearly directly in front of the screen to see a sharp, bright image. Three major types of projectors dominate the board and training room today: DLP, LCD and D-ILA.

The most common is the new DLP or Digital Light Projection (developed by Texas Instruments, using what they call a Digital Micromirror Device or DMD chip). The DLP projector puts more lumens on the screen for a much brighter, crisp image, with incredible contrast ratios all housed in a very small package.

LCD or liquid crystal display has been around for several years. Now at very affordable prices, the LCD projector is primarily for smaller applications and when cost is more important than quality.

Digital image light amplification, or D-ILA, is used for large presentations, 12-foot screens or bigger. These units are usually brighter than even the DLP and offer the higher resolution needed for a much bigger screen.

Once the company has a great presentation, either created in-house or contracted out to a professional agency, it is important to make it a "living" production. As changes are made in a sales presentation, the board's report is updated, or progressive activities are noted in a training session. They can be saved, stored and used in subsequent sessions. The 21st century version of the old chalkboard is the electronic white board. This interactive whiteboard turns any computer and projector into an active part of the presentation. When teaching, collaborating and presenting, the presenter works naturally at the board, takes notes, highlights important information and makes changes. Interactive white-boarding allows participants to write over the top of any application and edit, save and e-mail the changes and notes. The presentation is saved at the end of the session to be used in future conferences and shared via the company LAN. "It's almost like creating a PowerPoint presentation on the fly," says Shimek.

Rick Thomas, president of the Chariot Group Inc., specialists in presentation-related group communications like Smart Board, an electronic whiteboard that makes it possible to interact with the presentation, highlight key information with electronic ink, write notes, draw diagrams and illustrate ideas using natural and familiar, easy-to-use tools. Smart Technologies Inc., the manufacturer of Smart Board, suggests, "Whenever you meet, teach, train or present, the Smart Board helps your group save time, increase interactivity and improve communication."

Perhaps one of the greatest parts of all of these dazzling media centers is that almost anyone can run them. The "command center" as it were, is now so "user friendly" an 8-year-old can do it. Both Thomas and Shimek stressed the simplicity of the new control systems that are available. One of the more popular control systems is the AMX. Using a touch screen, it walks the operator through the setup and startup. Virtually every device used in the most extensive production is simplified and controlled from one location. In the media-driven presentation room, AMX's one-touch controls are ideal for an interactive showcase. Raise and lower the screen, activate the audio or teleconferencing, cue the sound equipment, VCR and DVD players, dim the lights, even open or close the drapes. A passionate presentation in the making.

MEETING AND PRESENTATION ROOMS

No longer do board meetings have to take place in a single boardroom. Lately the rush is to implement video conferencing, says Thomas. He is quick to point out that video conferencing is, in reality, a lot different than just plugging another PC into the network.

There are basically two standards for video conferencing. First is a direct-connect, one location to another with, or publicly switched telephone connection (ISDN); and the second is over the IP network or World Wide Web, the Internet. In Alaska, ISDN is only available in Anchorage.

When it comes to video conferencing project leaders may not be satisfied if they don't spend a good amount of money to get the quality, says Scott Armstrong, president of Mercury Data Group. Armstrong's company specializes in networking and the connections between facilities.

While the Internet may be the cheapest, it is not best, according to Armstrong. The Internet does not guarantee bandwidth and connections like cable modems and DSL are asynchronous, not offering equal throughput in both directions. An organization looking to replace face-to-face meetings needs to explore the connectivity options. Even as good as today's technology is, all of our sources agree that even the best video-conferencing systems do not replace a one-on-one meeting. Lesser connections are jerky and miss much of the body language and even with the best systems, attendees can only see what the camera sees. However, there is the cost and travel time factor that more often than not makes video conferencing look very good. Add the PowerPoint presentation that is equally impressive at all locations. Also, the popularity of video conferencing is on the rise.

HAPPENING SO FAST

The convenience, technology, availability of equipment, cost, feature-rich interactive software and quality of the presentation is catching on for all sizes of business. Businesses are finding they can-not be without this modem technology. "It is almost like a fad!" says Shimek. Fad or necessity, the electronic boardroom is not just a passing fancy.

RELATED ARTICLE: VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS: The Terms

Kent L. Colby

PLASMA DISPLAYS OF SCREENS Around since the 1960s, the plasma display contains millions of tiny pixel-bubbles or cells filled with a mixture of neon and xenon gas which is stimulated by a digitized electrical current causing ultraviolet (UV) light to be emitted. The UV light causes the red, blue and green fluorescent substances in the cells to re-radiate visible light in the appropriate color. Plasma screens range in size from 32 inches to 61 inches diagonally. The widescreen of a plasma display is 1 1/3 times wider than the TV of old. Consequently the plasma display is ready for HDTV (high definition television). which offers five times the resolution as SDTV (standard definition television). A 50-inch plasma screen has a viewing height about the same as a 35-inch standard TV but almost twice the viewing area.

WIDESCREEN: The defacto viewing aspect of DVD. DVD is the fastest consumer-accepted item in the history of mankind. Widescreen displays have built in "scalers to reformat other formats (Hollywood. TV and European) by stretching or expanding and cropping.

DVD: Digital Variable/Versatile/Video Disc: Similar to CD-ROM and capable of storing up to 12 times the data (between 4.7 gigabits and 18 gigabytes).

DLP: The integrated display was invented in 1987 and uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate the light digitally. Texas Instruments says it is the only display solution that enables movie projectors, television home theater systems and business projectors to create an entirely digital connection between a graphic or video source and the screen. DLP technology-enable projectors offer very high image quality for high brightness applications.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN evolved in 1979 and brings the feature of PBX systems and high-speed data-transfer capability to the telephone network.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line A method of high-speed Internet access provided on telephone industry's copper wire competing with cable-modems.