Just about anyone working in a team environment where group meetings are routine knows the ritual of capturing whiteboard notes with a smartphone camera. You don’t want to lose valuable ideas to the swipe of an eraser brush when the next meeting begins.
Also very familiar: rummaging through flipcharts or loose papers, looking for specific notes to share. Not to mention the time lost at the start of a meeting when participants struggle to get collaboration technology up and running. sharing and presenting
And then there’s the frustration that comes when a team meeting could benefit from a projector or other technology but the equipment they want to use is fixed in a space that’s already occupied — and the technology isn’t even being used!
It’s all very unproductive. But it doesn’t have to be.
Collaborate with the Interactive Pro
Interactive technology developed by Samsung was designed and delivered as a solution to all of these problems. The Samsung Interactive Pro takes all the advantages of an easel-based paper flipchart, whiteboard and projector and combines them into one system.
There are now four sizes and styles of the Interactive Pro, from a 55-inch easel-style version all the way up to an 85-inch wall-mounted interactive whiteboard.
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Traditional flipcharts are impractical, requiring you to turn sheets to create space for new notes, then tearing off finished pages and sticking them on available walls or typing up the handwritten notes for sharing and archiving. It creates extra work and limits the ability for everyone to participate. With a whiteboard, similar problems emerge, and then there’s the issue of capturing photos of the board before erasing to create a blank canvas.
On the Interactive Pro, by comparison, collaboration all happens digitally. Notes, drawings and even full-color illustrations can be added with a stylus — and as many as 50 devices can wirelessly connect to the interactive display simultaneously. Any content on the screen, such as a document or image, can be annotated by up to 20 people at once. And when the meeting’s finished, all the work can be shared instantly over email, network connection or printer, or ported to a USB drive.
A big attraction of the 55″ Interactive Pros is portability. The easel-style version is small and light enough that it can easily be wheeled between meeting rooms or huddle spaces, unlike a fixed whiteboard or projection system that can’t be moved.
And the user experience is intuitive too, so initial training takes mere minutes and meeting setup is minimal. Most users can walk up to the Interactive Pro for the first time and immediately get to work.
A digital workspace
The Interactive Pro is changing the way digital collaboration happens in the workplace. Here are seven ways they’re being put to use by organizations of all sizes:
- Brainstorming: A meeting leader or note taker can field a steady stream of ideas and record them as text and illustrations. Simple tools allow users to switch colors and input types — from a thin pen to a thick brush — and erase with a simple swipe of their finger or palm. Old notes from past meetings can easily be retrieved for review or for editing.
- Presenting: Though its blank white canvas makes the Interactive Pro look like a whiteboard, it’s a fully functioning digital display. Compatible with external inputs, the Interactive Pro can run through a presentation deck, image galleries or drawings, and it can play video in up to 4K resolution. After presenting in landscape mode, a freestanding Interactive Pro can easily be shifted into portrait mode for note taking and gathering real-time feedback, making it a great replacement for a projector system.
- Sharing: Meeting participants can share files from other devices, connected to the Interactive Pro via USB-C, HDMI, an OPS slot or near-field communication (NFC). Built-in AirPlay and SmartView+ support wireless screen mirroring across all devices. Instead of huddling around a small smartphone screen, you can simply push the content to the Interactive Pro display, so everyone can see more comfortably. Samsung Workspace allows users to remotely connect a PC to the Interactive Pro, meaning a networked PC can stay at the desk while being used for a meeting. You can also seamlessly connect the Interactive Pro to third-party apps like Office 365.
- Illustrating: Up to 20 people can write, draw and even paint simultaneously, using any writing utensil as a stylus. The surface has a smooth, familiar feel and industry-leading latency at just 26 milliseconds, creating a writing experience that feels like pen on paper. The Interactive Pro lets you write in multiple pen colors, styles and widths, and has a brush tool for watercolor and oil painting modes.
- Editing and appending: Edit and annotate anything — from layouts and proposals to images and schematics. Original and updated content is captured and stored in a central database, and the files are all searchable for when they need to be revisited.
- Locating: Wheeled AV carts allow flat-panel displays to be moved around an office, but they can be expensive, heavy and unwieldy. The Interactive Pro’s wheel-based stand is part of an integrated design, so users can easily start a collaborative meeting anywhere, anytime.
- Saving, storing and distributing: Critical content such as conversations and illustrations can be saved on the Interactive Pro’s central storage, where it’s easy to find and share with colleagues digitally. Thanks to Workspace secured by Knox, users can access network drives and third-party applications like Office 365 directly from the device.
Workplace versatility
Using paper copies and dry-erase boards is cumbersome and limiting, and using e-boards or projectors requires longer setup and training, as well as all the right connectors. The Interactive Pro makes workplace collaboration easier and more versatile. Meetings that start as simple discussions become more interactive, lively and productive — just by someone standing up, walking over to the Interactive Pro and getting to work.
Walk through the market drivers, societal shifts and technologies of the reimagined office in this free guide. And discover all the options you have to choose from for a Samsung Interactive Pro whiteboard, with features that take you far beyond paper and markers.
