I have been noticing a trend lately when I go to see clients. Everyone seems to think that a flat panel display is the better tool for the job in conference or meeting rooms. I'm not sure if this is unique to the Tampa-St.Pete area or if it's nationwide. 

While in some cases a flat panel display may be the better choice, in many cases it is not. In a very small meeting room, say 6-8 people I think you could get away with a flat panel comfortably. Even then, I wouldn't consider anything less than 50 inches but preferably 52"-60". This also depends what the display is going to be used for. For example, a Power Point presentation with large graphics could get away with a smaller display than a meeting where you might be looking at Excel spreadsheets.

While in some cases a flat panel display may be the better choice, in many cases it is not. In a very small meeting room, say 6-8 people I think you could get away with a flat panel comfortably. Even then, I wouldn't consider anything less than 50 inches but preferably 52"-60". This also depends what the display is going to be used for. For example, a Power Point presentation with large graphics could get away with a smaller display than a meeting where you might be looking at Excel spreadsheets.

If you have a doing a boardroom installation, especially one with a very long table you will not be satisfied unless you use at least a 70" screen. Even then, at the end of a 20 plus person table the display is going to be very difficult to read. Our most popular screen size in a board room installation would be either 94" or 109". If you Google a 100" Panasonic screen the cost on that is $65,000 MSRP.

I think there are several reasons why clients may have these negative beliefs towards LCD Projectors. For one, clients may judge the performance of their existing outdated LCD Projector against a new flat panel display. That's not a very fair comparison. They may not realize, the flat panel display they see at an electronics retailer has the brightness turned up well beyond what is good for the display. They do this in order to make it stand out. Also the lumens on LCD projectors go up every year while the cost comes down.

In some cases a client may have had a poor experience too often changing bulbs on an LCD projector. The good news is that at least they have that option. Most flat panel display repairs are not worth the price. We notice that many times clients don't shut the projector down and just walk away from the system when done with meetings. Obviously this shortens bulb life. This can be avoided with the use of a control system such as Crestron, but that's another blog.

When it comes to meeting room installations where you need a large display, an LCD projector and a quality projection screen is still a much better value. The "average" business customer typically used 2,000 lumen projectors just a few years ago. Now that same price point (around $2,500) would put them at about 4,000 lumens. 

It just so happens I was at a conference this week. The hotel conference room had a 50-55" LCD display mounted on the wall for presenters to use when they come in. I was near the far end of the table. All I was able to see on the Power Point slide was the title. I could not see sub-titles or any of the bullet points under that. In this case if there was even a small projection screen I would have been able to see.

Stay Tuned for more on this topic!