Mondopad Ticks All The Boxes

The conferencing, meeting and collaboration capabilities of a public sector entity have been given a significant shot in the arm thanks to a new boardroom, featuring two Infocus Mondopads.

Tasked with creating a large interactive meeting space, the Infrastructure Manager seized the opportunity to turbocharge the organisation’s capabilities after an enforced move from one level to another within the building.

Previously the organisation had a small video conferencing space but nothing that gave them the capability needed to engage in interactive training (on site and remote). In fact, team members would sometimes need to hire a video conferencing space off site, which wasn’t great for operational efficiency or the bottom line.

Having additional space as part of the relocation, the organisation was keen to invest in creating new meeting spaces, and in particular, having a multipurpose boardroom/meeting/training room as the jewel in the crown.

The Infrastructure Manager explains some of the demands placed on the new space:

“Our services and products are always being updated and these changes need to be conveyed to stakeholders across the state. Traditionally, we undertake ‘road shows’, travelling across various regions state-wide conducting presentations. While this won’t change immediately, having the ability to now also conduct interactive training with the Mondopads is a real advantage, and we anticipate significant cost and time saving as we continue to extend use of the platform.”

TWO IN ONE

Control of the room comes via an iPad loaded with an Elan control system. Wall-mounted LaunchPort inductive charge docking stations ensures the iPads are always ready to roll. With a press of a button the system is configured and ready to operate. Either the room can be used as one large space with the two Mondopad working as one, or the room can be used as two independent spaces (a Bluestream 8×8 HDBaseT matrix switcher takes care of the routing in the back end).

The Mondopad has its own wifi access point, allowing participants in the room to share content wirelessly and for guests to share their device’s content without the need to log-in to the department’s wifi network (a security advantage).

The organisation is a long-time Polycom client, and is able to leverage a network of hundreds of nodes throughout the state. The Mondopad has its own advanced VC capabilities but in this case has been set up to integrate with the Polycom codecs.

Once remote participants have joined the meeting, those in the room can use the Mondopad to run the presentation. On-screen annotations can be made and, in fact, the presenter’s laptop can be controlled (reverse connectivity) via the Mondopad during the presentation wirelessly — a key selling points for this project.

BEST OF BREED

The AV design (and subsequent installation and commissioning) is the brainchild of Phil Tait, Co-director of Cable & Connect. He worked closely with installers, IT Connect Communications, led by Terry Huybens, who has worked on many customised projects with this customer.

Phil Tait: “The centrepiece and most critical decision was the choice of the Mondopads. We attended the Integrate show in 2017 and it seemed like every vendor had an interactive whiteboard offering. We looked at the Cisco Spark, the Surface Hub, Promethean, the CommBox offering, but we kept returning to the Mondopad — it ticked all the boxes. The annotation tools are excellent, the wireless connectivity and the collaboration tools are excellent, the ability to print, share, email content… it’s all very obvious and intuitive.

“One of the biggest factors for me was support. When I took the design to other suppliers their comment was: ‘our product hasn’t been used in that way before’. It didn’t fill me with confidence. On the other hand, I felt confident that Westan could offer me the support I needed to jump the technical hurdles in this job.”