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Topic: Looking for advice: High tech Projector for Meeting rooms
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Joined: Jun 19, 2023
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Hello community!

I'm tasked to create a new meeting room for my organization that would feature different new high-end technologies related to how meetings are organized.

In particular, I'm interested in installing projectors that would not just project on a wall, but project on the tables, allow interactive, overall feel kind of gimmicky and create wow effect.

Can you please help me direct my search? It seems that what is available on the market is extremely hard to manage.. will require professional support and not accessible for regular user use..

Thanks in advance!
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Joined: Mar 28, 2005
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Generally, projectors are display devices. They are like computer monitors. There isn't much new in the main usage of projectors in many years. They are typically connected to video devices of various types and are designed to show that video effectively.

Using a projector as a touch/interactive interface is only an occasional desire, and usually falls in the purvey of educational use, not as often corporate use, and more often, there are interactive whiteboards used with the projector, rather than the projector itself being the active interface.

Every now and then someone comes along and says "I have this idea of what I expect a projector to be able to do...." and they throw out a bunch of one-off ideas that only applies to their specific use case.

But, projectors are not a 'one-off' type of device. They are built to meet the needs of as many people as possible, for as little money as possible. So, when they add things like 'interactive' ability, it is literally the ability to act like a 'mouse' for a computer which is hooked up to it. Nothing more. Some have some basic ability to show/use Microsoft Office apps. That function is even more rudimentary.

Why? Because projectors, at their core, are little more than computer monitors. Asking them to be more is somewhat futile. If you want them to be awesome computers, just hook up an awesome computer to the projector.

But, the vast, VAST majority of projector users, are not projecting onto a table. Nobody wants that. Or, more accurately, .01% of all sales would be for that. The other 99.99% of sales are for typical front projection use. They aren't catering to the .01%. For that, you would need to call up Panasonic, or Epson directly and see what they may be able to do, and your pockets have to be really, really deep.

If you look at Epson's website, you will see that their lineup of interactive projectors is very short compared to all their other models, and they are all designed around ultra short use....
https://epson.com/For-Work/Projectors/Interactive/c/w340

There is a reason for this. You can't use a long throw and block the image when trying to interact with it. So, it makes sense to be ultra-short throw (UST) instead. This means they are designed to be mounted just above a 'screen' just a foot or so from the surface. They can't project down at a table from above.

If you built a table from a interactive whiteboard then you could use any projector with it above it. But, the reality is that with large format displays getting cheaper and cheaper, there are not interactive tables which would look better and work better which are available...
https://ideum.com/products?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnMWkBhDLARIsAHBOftqB4NS4In83Qri_zI8bjcJC7ltm7GjD8oOWpSvmS37is5fBSH6SQIEaArOgEALw_wcB
AV Integrated - Theater, whole house audio, and technology consultation during the build and installation process in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.