Using SMART Board Pro interactive displays with crowdbeamer
Boosting the collaboration process
SMART Board® Pro interactive displays enable teams to collaborate in ways that are natural and intuitive. Crowdbeamer is a clever presentation system that makes it easy to stream any display content to all personal devices within reach. When used together, crowdbeamer delivers the results of SMART Board Pro team collaboration straight to every team member in the conference room – boosting a productivity rise of the entire collaboration process.
In this article, we’ll explain
How SMART Board Pro interactive displays work
SMART Board interactive displays let presenters switch with a tap between different display modes. Both the 6000 Pro & 7000 Pro series provide a choice between:
- WHITEBOARD mode, enabling colleagues to write in different colors using a pen or a finger,
- WEB BROWSER mode, making it possible to instantly start surfing the internet without the need to plug in a laptop first,
- SCREEN SHARE mode, sharing content wirelessly from all sorts of Android (Chromecast), Apple (AirPlay) and Windows (Miracast) devices in the conference room without the need for any apps or extra hardware.
The SMART Board 6000 Pro’s WEB BROWSER mode makes it possible to instantly start surfing the internet and write over websites without the need to plug in a laptop.
The SMART Board Pro’s Object AwarenessTM technology allows users to perform mouse functions with their fingers, write in digital ink with the pen, and erase with their palm or an eraser. All of this can be done without switching tools or modes, making it possible to write over websites, video, PDFs and Microsoft Office® files. And with a total of 8 (6000 Pro) or 16 (7000 Pro) simultaneous interaction points, several colleagues can even do this at the same time.
How crowdbeamer works
Crowdbeamer is a plug-and-present system that lets presenters reach out directly to their audience, streaming any HDMI or VGA video signal in real time to all personal devices connected to its private WiFi network.
Crowdbeamer is a 1-to-many screen sharing solution. It consists of a device for the presenter and a free app for the audience
Creating a set of personalized handouts
Anybody using the free crowdbeamer app on a laptop, tablet or smartphone, gets a clear view of what’s being presented. And a comprehensive set of app features makes it easy to create a set of personalized handouts. That is done by capturing relevant presentation content in Full HD quality and completing it with notes.
How crowdbeamer & SMART Board® Pro interactive displays work together
Using a SMART Board Pro interactive display with crowdbeamer is easy. By connecting the SMART Board Pro’s HDMI Video OUT port to crowdbeamer with a certified HDMI cable, all meeting participants can view any SMART Board Pro screen content directly on their device of choice.
All that is needed to use SMART Board® Pro with crowdbeamer is to connect its HDMI Video OUT port to crowdbeamer.
Crowdbeamer mirrors the screen of the SMART Board® Pro interactive display and then streams it to all portable devices in the conference room using its private WiFi network.
Screenshots: BuildSoft
Since SMART Board® Pro interactive displays support several display modes, the possibilities go far beyond sharing and collaborating on a digital whiteboard. Working in SCREEN SHARE mode, teams can work together and write over different types of file – whether it be a PDF, a PowerPoint presentation, an Excel spreadsheet or any industry-specific application. Working in WEB BROWSER mode, the SMART Board® Pro’s built-in web browser lets the entire team work together on any digital asset that is available in the corporate cloud.
Why using a SMART Board® Pro interactive display with crowdbeamer boosts the collaboration process
In a nutshell: while SMART Board® Pro lets teams collaborate in a natural way, crowdbeamer enables them to share collaboration results with everybody on the team. That makes both systems a perfect fit for companies that want to take collaboration to the next level and boost productivity of their collaboration processes.
Crowdbeamer strengthens the collaboration process
Crowdbeamer delivers any SMART Board® Pro screen content directly and in real time to all portable devices in the conference room, bringing progress and results of the meeting to every individual team member. All participants can entirely focus on working together as a team, using the free crowdbeamer app to take screenshots of the meeting highlights. As a result, there is no need to send any emails after the meeting. On the contrary: everybody can leave the meeting room with a custom set of personalized handouts, ready to be used off the shelf. And from within the crowdbeamer app they can even share these handouts to popular business apps such as Microsoft OneNote, Evernote or Dropbox.
Crowdbeamer further strengthens the collaboration process enabled by SMART Board® Pro, and the crowdbeamer & SMART Board® Pro combination delivers a top productivity experience for all because
everybody can focus on working as a team,
it’s easy to share information to business apps,
there is no need to send emails afterwards,
and everybody can leave the meeting room with ready-to-use handouts.