What are collaboration displays, and how do they support, enhance, and optimize teamwork in the modern office? In the last few years, the evolution of the office space has led to increased demand for interactive, dynamic, and immersive display options.

Teams need more than just a traditional whiteboard to list ideas. They need to be able to share content and screens, annotate documents in real time, and brainstorm with both remote and in-office staff. They also need to ensure they can preserve the outcomes of their collaborative sessions in the cloud and share key action points with distributed team members.

That’s where leading collaboration displays come in. These screens combine the tools for hybrid conferencing, like cameras, microphones, and speakers, with interactive elements. Here’s everything you need to know about collaboration displays and their impact on the future of work.

What are Collaboration Displays?

Collaboration displays are interactive screens that offer access to interactive tools for dynamic brainstorming, knowledge sharing, and communication. Most of these displays build on the value of the traditional whiteboard, turning it into a digital resource for teams.

You may already be familiar with a handful of vendors offering these products, such as Microsoft with its “Surface” solution or Cisco with the Cisco Board Pro. With collaboration displays, teams can view and interact with various forms of content, from documents to images, stream video, share screens with collaborators, and save everything in the cloud.

Notably, like many collaboration devices, displays come in various shapes and sizes. Some are small displays, like the Neat Board, intended for focus or huddle rooms. Certain vendors also offer display systems that can be connected to create an entire interactive video wall for larger conference spaces.

While the features and sizes of collaboration displays can vary, they always focus on connecting teams, boosting productivity, and ensuring all companies can access the benefits of collaboration.

Common Types of Collaboration Displays

Just as other meeting room devices have evolved over the years, collaboration displays have transformed to match employees’ changing workflows and requirements. Various types and sizes of collaboration displays are available, each with unique features and designs.

Some are even specially designed for portability, ensuring teams can rapidly move their display into any meeting room for an ad-hoc collaborative session. Overall, most collaboration displays fall into a few distinct categories, such as:

All-in-one Conference Displays

All-in-one displays combine the tools companies need for effective hybrid meetings into one plug-and-play solution. For instance, the Cisco Board Pro G2 is a touch-enabled screen with built-in AI assistant functionality and a 96-megapixel dual-lens camera system for video conferencing.

It eliminates the need to implement extra hardware into a meeting room, such as microphones and cameras for hybrid conferencing. It can access a full software operating system that natively supports Cisco Rooms and Microsoft Teams Rooms. This ensures teams can access all the screen-sharing, digital whiteboarding, and file-sharing features they need for stronger meetings.

Touchscreen Whiteboards

Some collaboration displays focus exclusively on giving employees a flexible surface to brainstorm, annotate documents, and share ideas with colleagues. The DTEN ONboard, for example, doesn’t have its own camera and microphone system, though it can integrate with those devices.

Instead, it gives teams a digital whiteboard that integrates seamlessly with the collaboration tools they’re already using, such as Microsoft Teams. The touchscreen display includes a 4K screen and even provides users an interactive toolkit for creating shapes, sticky notes, and more.

Plus, it can double up as a wayfinding signage or a meeting room booking screen when it’s not being used in a meeting.

Interactive Projectors

Often ideal for smaller meeting spaces, or companies with limited budgets, interactive projectors are devices that project images onto a surface such as a whiteboard or wall. Though they lack the touchscreen capabilities of other collaboration displays, they can still enhance teamwork sessions.

These tools can integrate with collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams and whiteboarding tools and allow users to annotate images using their own devices, such as smartphones or tablets. Some companies are even experimenting with projection tools that can map and monitor user gestures and movements to add a “touch screen” element to experiences without a physical touchscreen.

The Key Features of Collaboration Displays

Since there are various types of collaboration displays to explore, the features of these solutions can vary. However, based on what we’ve seen in the AV market so far, some features are becoming more valuable and crucial in this space, such as:

  • Exceptional screen resolution: Most of the top collaboration displays offer a 4K screen quality or higher to ensure employees’ images are clean and crisp.
  • Touch capabilities: Touch-based control is common with collaboration displays. However, some companies are experimenting with motion tracking and spatial computing features to eliminate the need to physically interact with displays.
  • Collaboration features: Some displays will have collaborative features built in, such as the ability to create digital sticky notes or stream and share content between devices. Some may also include screen mirroring solutions for connected devices like smartphones.
  • Integrations: Most collaboration displays will integrate seamlessly with meeting room solutions, like Microsoft Teams Rooms, collaboration apps, digital whiteboarding apps, and the other devices in a meeting room.
  • Artificial intelligence: AI is becoming increasingly common in collaboration displays. Many solutions come with their own built-in AI assistants, as well as intelligent algorithms which allow for more precise input tracking.
  • Security: The majority of display vendors are now ensuring their devices are secure by design and even giving companies access to tools they can use to manage endpoints remotely. Some even come with cutting-edge sensors that can help to protect employee wellbeing.

Many modern collaboration displays also come with access to Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) functionality, ensuring teams can connect any device they bring with them to the meeting room environment. Plus, they can also include integrated cameras, microphones, and speakers.

The Benefits of Collaboration Displays for Businesses

The benefits of collaborative displays can extend outside of the enterprise environment. For some time now, countless educational institutions have used these devices to create more immersive learning experiences for students and help faculty plan lessons.

Interactive displays with built-in collaborative tools are common in some retail environments. These allow users to interact with sales assistants and experts from a commercial kiosk.

In the business environment, collaboration displays are primarily used to enhance the quality of meetings, upgrade team productivity, simplify knowledge sharing, and boost creativity.

They’re also becoming increasingly valuable in the hybrid office, as they can bridge the gaps between remote and in-office staff, creating feelings of inclusivity and improving meeting equality. In our opinion, the biggest benefits of collaboration displays are:

1. Enhanced Employee Experiences

Collaboration displays make sharing content and knowledge straightforward. Most top solutions today are simple plug-and-play devices that can be managed and configured remotely and integrate seamlessly with the collaborative apps teams already use.

This means teams can rapidly turn on a display, connect to their favourite conferencing platform or tools, and start brainstorming instantly. Moreover, since most solutions support instant wireless connectivity for other devices, it’s easy for anyone to share their screen or content.

Collaborative displays support natural input options, allowing people to draw on a virtual whiteboard or tap on a screen to access features. Plus, with built-in AI tools and cloud saving options, employees can save time uploading documents and brainstorming sessions to the web.

2. Improved Inclusivity

As mentioned above, one of the best things about collaboration displays in today’s world of work is that they help to connect distributed team members.

With collaboration displays in the meeting room, connected to a collaborative app like Teams, in-office staff can share ideas with remote workers in real time. Those remote employees can also submit their own annotations from whichever devices they use, allowing for a more equitable meeting experience.

With the addition of video and audio conferencing devices built into screens, remote participants can also have more “presence” in a meeting room. This helps to ensure that every employee feels like they have a seat at the table for meaningful discussions.

3. Creative Collaboration

One of the most obvious benefits of collaboration displays is that they help to enable more creative, immersive collaboration sessions. With interactive tools, teams can share screens and content, annotate documents, draw images, and more in real time.

Adding visual aids into the collaboration experience can make meetings more engaging and productive, promoting positive outcomes from every discussion. Unlike with traditional whiteboards, there’s no need for external employees to wait for information to be uploaded to the web and shared with them before they can deliver a response.

Adding AI to the meeting room environment can even further boost collaboration and productivity. AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot, or intelligent algorithms built into apps, can analyze notes and sessions instantly. They can translate content into different languages, detect potential action items to share with team members, and suggest changes during presentations.

4. Flexible Use Cases

Finally, one of the major benefits of collaboration displays is their flexibility. Depending on your chosen device, these screens can be used for various purposes. Beyond simply enhancing meeting and brainstorming sessions, the right displays can:

  • Transform training sessions: For internal training sessions hosted in meeting rooms, collaboration displays allow users to interact more effectively with lesson content. They can empower users to connect with subject matter experts (wherever they are) in real time, experiment with software, and receive instant feedback on their work.
  • Engaging presentations: Collaborative displays can also lead to more engaging presentations for employees and consumers. An interactive solution can allow multiple presenters to connect to a display simultaneously, making notes and sharing content. Even remote attendees can get involved in the presentation session.
  • Product development: Interactive and collaborative screens can be particularly valuable for product development workflows. They allow teams to work on wireframes, plans, and prototypes in real-time, allowing for a rapid creation process.

Exploring the Opportunities of Collaboration Displays

For companies and educators alike, collaboration displays can be a valuable addition to meeting rooms, training sessions, and team processes. They help connect distributed employees with a more immersive and interactive knowledge-sharing experience.

As these devices continue to grow more advanced, with the addition of artificial intelligence and more powerful hardware, they’re likely to impact the future of office design significantly.



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