Options available for displaying content in Video Conferencing along with video

This article tells about the various options available to display content (other than the video output from the camera(s)) – document camera output, DVD player output, Output from a PC monitor, Smart board output and the options of displaying them at the other end. These optional accessories and their applications are to compliment the face to face discussions. Of course, the main display is the video conference output and along with it, other content can be displayed.

Why is content display (along with video) exciting in a video conferencing session?

¤ While people are seeing each other and talking about various things, it always helps to have a reference (Like PPT presentation or Excel sheet) and display it along with the video to make a point better.
¤ Showing a PPT presentation while discussing with clients or management would help to communicate a point better to them.
¤ Like a PPT presentation (or computer monitor output), you can also display a document camera output, DVD player output, Smart board output etc. to enhance the discussion.

Display options:

If there are two monitors at each end of a video conferencing, the first monitor could be used for displaying the video at the other end and the second monitor could be used for displaying the contents. Most of the video conferencing vendors support this. Even if you have only one display, you can display the video on the monitor and display the content in a Picture-in-picture window at a corner of the screen. It could also be vice versa.

Displaying PC output along with Video:

Most of the video conferencing vendors support this. But it may cost extra to include this feature as an additional license or some have a separate hardware that is required to support this feature. But once it is enabled, the VGA cable which goes from the CPU to the PC monitor could be connected to the VGA in port of the Video conferencing system (or a separate hardware). When the user selects ‘PC’ button on the remote, he sees the contents of the PC monitor on the second display screen and so will the other end.

This is very useful to display any PC content (Like PPT presentations, Excel sheets, Word documents, pdf files etc.) to the other side while discussing with them on the video.

Displaying the DVD player output along with the Video:

You could connect the DVD player to the VC system (you may have to use S-Video or RGB cables to connect them) and the contents can be displayed to the other end of the video conference as mentioned earlier.

Displaying the Document Camera output along with the Video:

Sometimes, you may have a physical catalogue or a printed document to show to the users at the other end, while discussing with them. A document camera is a camera, which has a tilt-able head with a long flexible handle which helps the camera focus on the document and display the output in a monitor. So, you can even connect this to the VC system and display catalogues or documents to the other end, while discussing with them over the video.

Integration of Video Conferencing with Smart board:

A Smart board is a technology where,

¤ What ever you write on the smart board (using electronic pens), can be stored on your computer as an image file.
¤ A smart board also allows you to open a presentation from your PC (for example), display the PC output on the smart board, make some changes to it while explaining (on the smart board) and then save the updated PPT file to your PC back.

A smart board is essentially an alternative to white board. If you try to focus on the white board with a video conferencing camera, the quality of the output that can be seen on the other end will not be clear. So, some people integrate their video conference system with a smart board and what ever they do on the smart board could be visible at the display on the other side of the video conference.