Refreshing the rules
Traditional rules and standards for selecting display sizes have changed for Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTRs) and all hybrid workspaces. Why?
In AVIXA, we’re giving the DISCAS standard a refresh. What Microsoft has done in general with Teams - and in particular with Front Row - has created the need to be more accurate with our language.
Once upon a time we could use ‘image’ and ‘display’ and ‘screen’ relatively interchangeably. No longer!
The Front Row layout, whether in 21:9 or its 16:9 version, speaks to the permanent sea change that hybrid has wrought.
Hybrid working means we need the facility to have multiple content windows - on the same display and at the same time. So if critical content is effectively a Picture in Picture (PiP) window within the overall display, then the DISCAS calculations have to apply to that window and the overall display size has to be scaled up accordingly.
The example below shows the workings for when the content window fills 60% of the overall height of the display.
For sure we’ll see evolution, development and user choice in layout design, but the simple fact is that all MTRs need a step change upwards in screen size - way beyond the 98” limit set by flat panel displays.
This is why Microsoft has moved to projection as the effective choice, pending the day when 0.9mm dvLED develops from a signage specification to the true hybrid user needs (and becomes affordable!).
In commercial practice, this means that ALR (ambient light rejecting) laser projection technology is the main choice for medium size spaces and upwards. This is not projecting on a white screen. This is using standards-based calculations to deliver AVIXA standards-compliant systems. The Visual Displays team helps users, consultants and integrators do this successfully on a daily basis!
This post comes from conversations at a recent AV User Group networking session following the afternoon’s sessions at Google. Hosted by my friend and mentor Owen Ellis, if you’re an end user this is a must-have (and free) part of your professional development - and simply great fun and networking. And for vendors, if you don’t sponsor your local group (it’s a global organisation), you don’t know what opportunities you are missing!
Posted: 23rd March 2023