Presentations made simple

Be it in a small classroom at a school or the briefing room at a military base, no one wants to waste time setting up a presentation

By ADAM GONN
Presentation Windows 8521 (photo credit: Courtesy Tecom)
Presentation Windows 8521
(photo credit: Courtesy Tecom)
Be it in a small classroom at a school or the briefing room at a military base, no one wants to waste time setting up a presentation, trying to find the right cable to plug into one’s laptop, or working out how to turn off the lights – time that could be used instead to teach or present new research results.
Now, Aviv Brosilovski, CEO of Tecom Electronics, tells The Jerusalem Report that his company’s TecPodium Interactive Lectern offers a turnkey solution for classrooms, auditoriums and training facilities by integrating a number of audio-video features into a single platform, or podium.
“We have all the audio-video preintegrated so actually no integration is required; the user interface is very easy, so any presenter can use the equipment without going through training,” Brosilovski says.
The TecPodium runs on Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system and through Microsoft Office; but, Brosilovski says, while the TecPodium is based on Windows, if a presenter wants to connect a device that runs on Apple’s iOS, the system can handle it.
The user operates the TecPodium via a single control panel for all the integrated audio-video equipment; and because the control panel is a touch screen, Brosilovski says, there isn’t much of a learning curve as most people are used to the standard touch-screen motions – swipe, tap, slide, scroll, zoom and more – from their mobile devices.
One of the features of the podium is the camera mounted over a small shelf on the right-hand side of the device.
While there are several rival companies, which also offer a lectern with a document camera, Brosilovski notes there are many manufacturers which provide document cameras, whereas Tecom has integrated an HD-resolution camera into the podium itself. The camera is fitted with just two buttons – zoom in and zoom out, with the electronics doing all the work for you. There’s no need to adjust the focus, or to turn the lights that are connected to the podium on or off.
The unit also contains a DVD.
The units are designed to be fixed in place in a particular classroom because they are connected to the infrastructure of the room; but there are portability options. For example, they can be fitted with wheels and shared among several rooms. Typically, however, a unit would be permanently installed in one room, be it a 30-seat classroom or an 1,100- seat lecture hall.
In addition to academic institutions in Israel and the United States, Tecom also lists the Israel Navy and Police Scotland among its customers. 