Top 5 Tablets for a Conference Room Schedule Display
Placing tablets outside of your meeting rooms instantly makes it easier to spot available rooms, book impromptu meetings, and ward off conference room thieves. With visual cues like red, green, and yellow, room displays instantly make it obvious when a room is available from afar, eliminating the need to circle the office to find an open space.
With so many hardware options out there, though, how do you choose the best conference room display for your company’s meeting culture and budget? Here at Robin, we happen to have a ton of experience shopping for and installing room displays. So we thought we’d share our favorite tablets and what use cases they’re best fit for. First, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of using a conference room scheduling display tablet.
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The Benefits of a Conference Room Scheduling Display Tablet
Having a conference room scheduling display tablet in the office comes with some awesome benefits that make meeting management easier for everyone. First off, it takes the headache out of booking and managing conference rooms. You just look at the tablet outside a room and see if it's available or not. No more guesswork or wasting time. It's all real-time, so you can schedule meetings without any fuss and avoid conflicts with other teams. Plus, you can make sure the rooms are being used to their fullest potential.
What's even better is that these tablets make the whole office run more smoothly. They prevent double-booking disasters and show you real-time info on room availability and what meetings are coming up so you can grab a room on the spot if you need it. On the admin side of things, meeting room displays can be synced up to help support the conference room booking policy you have in place.
For example, to avoid abandoned meeting rooms, displays will automatically set themselves to available if no one checks into the space within a predetermined time. That means no more wasted spaces due to no-show meetings. With this system in place, you can manage your time better, get more done, and keep the office humming along like a well-oiled machine.
Having a tablet for your conference room displays is a game-changer. It simplifies booking, improves communication, boosts efficiency, and ensures rooms are used effectively. So, if you want a more organized and collaborative workplace where things get done smoothly and teams can easily find the right meeting room for their needs, room displays are the way to go.
Now, let’s figure out which tablet makes the most sense for your office.
The Best Tablets for a Meeting Room Schedule Display
1. Crestron
If you have the budget, are part of a large company, and want something commercial-grade, Crestron’s TSS-770 and TSS-1070 devices are a great option for room display tablets. We see customers -- often financial or legal firms -- invest in Crestron’s products when they’re looking for super sleek, enterprise-ready hardware and their budget matches the higher price point of Crestron tablets. The company also offers mounting options for their display tablets.
Powered by PoE, Crestron runs Robin meeting room software to make sure the end-user experience is premium across both the software and hardware solutions. One distinct benefit of Crestron tablets is that you won’t have to worry about battery swelling or buying a separate mount.
Crestron also sells separate room availability indicators -- one that lives on the tablet itself and a few others that live further up on the wall so you can see whether a room is booked or not from across the office.
2. Logitech
Coming in at a similar price point to Crestron, Logitech's Tap Schedulers are a great investment for offices looking for a reliable, well-built scheduling display tablet.
Tap Scheduler enables teams to easily see meeting details, locate an available room and reserve a space for ad hoc or future meetings. Perhaps the biggest benefit of Logitech's hardware is that it is easy to set up and deploy. The Tap Scheduler also features colored LED lights that show availability at a distance.
Logitech also sells a variety of mounting options, including table mounts, wall mounts, or PC mounts.
3. iPad or iPad Mini
Regular or mini, the iPad is fast, has a high screen resolution, and is more affordable compared to enterprise hardware solutions. iPads can also be repurposed in a number of different ways. Want to take it off the outside of a conference room? Place it at your front desk and use it for visitor management. Give it to the marketing team to use for upcoming events. Award a high performer with one as a gift.
And if you encounter any issues with an iPad, Apple’s support and commitment to quality is top-notch. iOs is easy to troubleshoot on your own and in the worst case scenario, you can simply bring it to the Apple store. Look out for battery swells, though, as iPads aren’t intended to stay on and plugged in. One way to avoid this is to use a smart plug like this one from Wemo that’s programmed to shut off for an hour overnight.
Another pro tip is to have power-over-ethernet injector (PoE) powering the iPad to make the internet connection more reliable, unless you somehow have flawless WiFi (which, if you do, can you shoot us an email on your provider!?). In order to get a PoE injector that can be switched off to protect from battery swell, you’ll also want a PoE switch.
There are also a ton of great mount products out there for iPads today. We’re big fans of Powerbx, Heckler, and iPort, to name a few. Powerbx even has an LED light mount so people in your office will not only see availability via the color of the screen, but also the LED lights on the side of the mount.
4. Amazon Fire Tablets
Don’t have a massive budget? No problem. Amazon’s Fire tablets are a great option for someone looking to improve meeting room schedule displays without a ton of money in their pocket. The Amazon Fire 10 comes in at $89.99 for Prime members, but you will need to connect to WiFi and may have a slightly slower experience than the other three tablets above.
If you want a mount for these, there are a range of options online to get you started. Interested in a larger touchscreen monitor for your conference rooms? Check out our guide.
5. Neat
The Neat Pad is a sleek, user-friendly tablet designed specifically for conference rooms. Its intuitive interface displays the room's schedule, availability and allows for on-demand reservations. Its touchscreen and modern design fit perfectly into any workspace, and can easily run room display software like Robin's. The tablet can be purchased in full for $820, or rented (with upgrades every 24 months) for $444/year.
Additional Things To Consider for Display Tablets
Choosing the right tablet for your meeting room booking display is a multi-faceted decision. The ideal tablet should streamline scheduling, promote collaboration, and increase workplace efficiency. The questions below are key considerations to help you make an informed choice for your office.
Can the tablet be integrated with our current meeting scheduling software?
Before purchasing a conference room tablet, ensure it is compatible with your existing room scheduling software. The tablet should be able to pull data from this system effortlessly, syncing with meeting room schedules and pulling from your existing calendar system. Look for tablets that offer wide-ranging integrations or that operate on platforms like Android or iOS, which typically have broader software compatibility.
Can I customize the display on the tablet?
A customizable display enhances user experience and helps showcase your brand throughout the office with a branded background image. Tablets with customizable interfaces or that support third-party apps for meeting room displays will be the most versatile. Digital signage can showcase room resources and be customized with background images to reflect the rest of your office design.
How does the tablet handle booking changes and cancellations?
Meeting adjustments are common, so you’ll need to know how to optimize meeting room bookings on your tablet and ensure it has the flexibility required to make scheduling adjustments quickly on the fly. Choose a real-time tablet that updates the scheduling display when changes or cancellations occur. It should have reliable connectivity and seamless integration with your scheduling software to ensure it's always up-to-date with accurate meeting room availability.
Can the tablet sync with personal calendars?
If you want the most efficient scheduling process, opt for a tablet that synchronizes with employees' calendars. This feature can help reduce double-bookings and improve overall meeting planning, which is one of the huge benefits of meeting room calendars featured on conference room tablets. Additionally, check if the tablet can sync with common calendar platforms like Google Calendar or Outlook.
Does the tablet support multiple languages?
Consider a tablet that supports multiple languages if your company is multilingual or international. This will facilitate ease of use for all employees, regardless of their native language. Most leading tablets offer multi-language support, but it’s worth confirming.
Can the tablet handle recurring meetings?
Recurring meetings are common in business settings. Therefore, the tablet should be capable of scheduling recurring meetings with ease. This could either be achieved through native capabilities or via integration with your meeting scheduling software.
Can the tablet be integrated with other smart solutions?
A tablet that can be integrated with other smart solutions, such as smart locks, smart lights, or AI assistants, is valuable in a smart office environment. This enhances workplace automation and creates a more efficient and modern conference room environment. Consider tablets that support IoT technologies or have strong third-party integration capabilities.
Final Thoughts on Tablet Conference Room Schedule Displays
With this information under your belt, hopefully, you’ll feel confident about which tablet will best suit your meeting room display needs. But if you still have questions, our team can be a resource for you.
No matter what tablet you choose, you’re moving in the right direction to improve your workplace experience just by thinking about conference room schedule displays! Looking to learn more about how to improve your office? From space utilization to employee check in to overall workplace management, we've got you covered.
