For negotiations, presentations, meetings or symposiums a necessary attribute is a conference system that allows participants to focus on the issues at hand and exchange opinions in a comfortable environment. Any event which assumes both presentation of the speaker in front of audience and following discussion requires certain technical equipment which guarantees that everybody will be heard, so the times of shouting too loud speakers are a thing of the past.
Basic elements of equipment for a conference
Conference equipment is designed to carry out three important technical tasks:
- To provide comfortable presentation of the speaker, demonstration of audio and video materials;
- To give each participant of the conference an opportunity to speak and be heard;
- To provide the administrator or the head of the conference with tools to control the discussion and the speeches of the participants.
Hardware-software complex, providing execution of these tasks consists of conference system equipment and presentation equipment. Presentation equipment includes radio microphone, amplifier and acoustics placed in a room, powerful projector, which is connected to DVD-player or notebook with prepared presentation. It is necessary for displaying graphs, video slides, illustrating a report or a discussion subject, it is also possible to display the documents under discussion.
Conference systems include a variety of equipment, but the minimum configuration consists of three components:
- The central unit, which provides conference control, is used to regulate the work of other system components, control the work of discussion participants’ consoles, and interact with external equipment (for example, with a mixer, amplifier, and discussion logging equipment);
- Microphone unit of the chairman of the conference;
- Microphone unit of the delegate – participant of the conference.
In some cases, the chairman’s unit and the central unit can be combined, or universal units can be used that work in one of the two modes (chairman or delegate). If an international conference is being held and the participants speak in different languages, simultaneous interpretation equipment should be added to the minimum list of equipment.
The most numerous element of a conference system are delegate microphones which must provide an opportunity to apply for a speech, take part in voting, plug in headphones and choose a channel for simultaneous interpretation.
Thus, presentation equipment and conference-system are the two main components, which are necessary for business meetings or conferences. Taking into consideration that it is a complex complex, in many cases it is more convenient to use ready-to-use kit of conference system than to assemble all necessary components by yourself.