What are the display size metrics for 2022?
How do we apply the DISCAS standard to Teams Rooms and hybrid spaces?
There’s a lot to unpack from Microsoft’s vision for the future of meeting spaces, but one thing is clear. ‘Displays’ are no longer synonymous with ‘images’. It works when showing, say, a single Excel sheet. But it doesn’t fly on a Teams or Zoom screen when you have, for example, one window showing that Excel sheet, then all those remote participant thumbnail windows underneath (like The Usual Suspects).
Brave New World or not, we’re back in good old Picture in Picture territory.
Let’s do the maths.
The starting point using AVIXA’s DISCAS in meeting spaces is using the 3%ElementHeight metric. In plain English, this is the old 6 to 1 rule: image height to be no less than one sixth the distance to the farthest viewer.
If the main content window - namely the material those at the back need to see too - is, say 70% of the image height, then the 6:1 metric becomes 4.2:1 (6 x 0.7 = 4.2).
So as commented in a previous post we’re back to ‘digital canvas’ territory. We need to deploy display sizes a step change above the confines of flat panels.
Again, Brave New World or not, it amuses and excites me equally that these are effectively displays I’ve been designing and building for the best part of 20 years for simulation and immersive clients!
Conflict of interest disclosure: I led the group that wrote AVIXA’s DISCAS standard. These are very much my own personal views, but I’ll fight my corner!
If you haven’t seen and downloaded Microsoft’s vision piece, by the way, see this piece here - https://lnkd.in/gqP9GRZe. It’s compulsory reading: a substantial piece of work, setting the scene for doing these spaces properly in 2022.
I'm writing a webinar on using DISCAS and related standards in Teams Rooms. Message me if you want details please.
Posted: 12th January 2022