Is crowdbeamer a ClickShare alternative?

Both crowdbeamer and ClickShare are wireless presentation systems that make it remarkably easy to share screen content. But their goal and how they work, is different.

Crowdbeamer’s top priority is to provide your audience with a great productivity experience: make sure they get the best possible view of what you present, deliver up-to-the-minute digital handouts and provide smart note-taking capabilities. ClickShare on the other hand is entirely focused on eliminating cable clutter in the meeting room. We’ll tell you more about all this, and briefly

• explain how crowdbeamer works,
• describe how crowdbeamer & ClickShare work together,
• highlight how crowdbeamer focuses on delivering a more productive user experience,
• summarize how crowdbeamer extends the benefits of ClickShare wireless presentation sharing to your audience.

Reaching out to your audience

The crowdbeamer device & the app for your audience, a 1-to-many screen sharing solution

The ClickShare CS-100 base unit & USB button, a many-to-1 screen sharing system

Crowdbeamer is a 1-to-many screen sharing solution that lets you reach out directly to your audience. Often mistaken as a ClickShare alternative, crowdbeamer streams your presentation content wirelessly to all portable devices of your audience. The crowdbeamer app provides everybody in your audience with a comprehensive set of features to capture your presentation content and complete it with personal notes.

ClickShare falls into the category of many-to-1 screen sharing systems and consists of a base unit and one or more click buttons. Depending on the type of base unit, up to 8 people can simultaneously share screens to a projector or a flat panel display by clicking a button, avoiding the use of a video cable.

Both crowdbeamer and ClickShare are wireless presentation systems. While ClickShare lets you share screens to a conference room display with the click of a button, crowdbeamer lets you reach out directly to your audience.

What is your top priority?

Getting rid of cables in the conference room will make life easier for you as a presenter. There’s no doubt about that. But there is more to better presentation productivity than getting rid of messy cables, including questions such as

• How do I get my message across to every individual audience participant?
• How do I make this meeting productive for everybody?
• How do I let my audience capture my message, and complete it with personal insights?
• How do I enable my audience to take my message with them once this meeting is over?

Crowdbeamer can help you with all of that, either just by itself or combined with ClickShare (or any ClickShare alternative for many-to-1 screen sharing).

To show you how, we’ll discuss the user experience both products deliver and how they work.  Of course, you can always ask us any question that you have on crowdbeamer. We’re only a button click away:

How crowdbeamer works

Just connect your laptop to a crowdbeamer, and you’re ready to share content directly with your audience. With the crowdbeamer app installed on their laptop, tablet or smartphone, all participants can instantly view your presentation on their portable device of choice. They can zoom in if more detail is needed, and readily create their personal handouts. Using crowdbeamer, you no longer need a projector or a flat panel display. But if there is one available, you might as well connect it to crowdbeamer and use it.

What you need:

• a crowdbeamer,
• a video cable (VGA or HDMI) to connect your laptop to the crowdbeamer.

What you don’t need:

• a flat panel display or a projector (but if there is one available in the meeting room, you can perfectly use it),
• a power outlet for your crowdbeamer (its built-in battery will keep you going for 4 hours).

What your audience needs:

• a laptop, tablet or smartphone (which they will probably bring along anyhow, and which they can now put to use capturing high-quality images of your presentation content and adding their notes).

How ClickShare works

To share content to the conference room display, you need to plug the ClickShare button into your laptop. Make sure the button is wirelessly connected to the ClickShare base unit, and click to share your presentation. With any ClickShare alternative for many-to-1 screen sharing, that procedure will be very similar.

What you need:

• a flat panel display or a projector (otherwise your audience won’t see anything),
• a ClickShare base unit (which is connected to the meeting room display using an HDMI cable),
• a power outlet for the base unit,
• a ClickShare USB button to plug into your laptop.

What your audience needs:

• something to take notes during the meeting (a laptop, a tablet, or even pen and paper),
• a smartphone or tablet(in case they want to take pictures of the big screen).

How crowdbeamer & ClickShare work together

If you already have a ClickShare system (or any ClickShare alternative for many-to-1 screen sharing), using it with crowdbeamer is a breeze. One option is to install the crowdbeamer device fixed, in between the ClickShare base unit and the projector or flat panel display.

Then plug the ClickShare button into your laptop, and start sharing. Whatever you share to the conference room display will now also be streamed to all portable devices of your audience.

By using crowdbeamer, benefits of wireless presentation sharing are no longer limited to yourself. Crowdbeamer upgrades your existing many-to-1 screen sharing system (whether it is ClickShare or a ClickShare alternative), boosting meeting productivity for every individual in your audience.

A second option is to install the crowdbeamer device fixed, and use a video splitter to replicate the ClickShare signal to both crowdbeamer and the projector or flat panel display.

Again, all you need to do is plug the ClickShare button into your laptop to start sharing with your audience. Whatever you share to the conference room display will also be streamed to all portable devices around you.

How crowdbeamer & ClickShare work together ad hoc

With a weight of 500 grams, crowdbeamer is a portable solution that you can take with you into any conference room and instantly deploy whenever the need arises. Just connect crowdbeamer to your presentation device using an HDMI cable, and use it ad hoc during any meeting.

Again, this doesn’t change how you use the ClickShare button to share information with your audience. But by connecting crowdbeamer directly to your presentation device, anything that you share to the conference room display will also be streamed straight to all laptops, tablets and smartphones around you. There is simply no better way to boost meeting productivity for everybody in your audience.

Crowdbeamer is not a ClickShare alternative.

It’s a powerful extension to any ClickShare installation.

That is because crowdbeamer extends the benefits of ClickShare wireless presentation sharing to your audience, making it so much easier

• to get your message across,
• to make meetings productive for everybody,
• to let your audience capture your message, and complete it with personal insights,
• to let your audience take your message with them once the meeting is over.

By streaming your content directly to all portable devices, crowdbeamer puts your content straight into the hands of your audience and provides them with up-to-the-minute digital handouts. Crowdbeamer’s smart note-taking capabilities then let them easily personalize these handouts by adding personal thoughts and remarks.