Conference room tablet scheduler

[Syringer]

We have 4 conference rooms at our office and want to have tablets outside that will display it:

http://siliconslopes.com/2013/05/eventboard-wants-to-solve-your-conference-room-scheduling-problems/

http://www.steelcase.com/en/product...collaborative/room-wizard/pages/overview.aspx

These are probably fancier than what we need, we want a minimal tablet where battery will last a while and just has the ability to display a Google calendar. Any recs?

 

[vi edit]

Just seems like complexity for the sake of complexity. Sometimes it's hard to beat a good old piece of paper.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

E-Ink Tablets connected to a Wifi network?

Edit: Looks like the Amazon App Store has apps that sync with Google calender.

Get a few E-Ink Kindles with the calender app, have them sync once a day, and they'll basically last forever

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I15SB16/ref=kods_xs_dp_oos

Or maybe even the cheaper Nooks with the backlight if that's needed.

 

[Ravynmagi]

We have about 20 RoomWizards.

Oh my freaking god I hate these damn things so much. First off, these things have extremely slow processors in them, I'm not sure how Steelcases justifies $1000+ for each unit.

But the real problem is I have 3 dead RoomWizards on my desk right now. I usually have one die a month or two. Most of the time they die after a reboot or power outage. Steelcase originally said it was an issue with the firmware, they've release several firmware updates. But the issue still continues. So I don't find the problem resolved.

And it takes Steelcase over a month, sometimes almost two months to turn around an RMA. I've had to buy extra units just because the RMA process is too slow.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Just seems like complexity for the sake of complexity. Sometimes it's hard to beat a good old piece of paper.

+1

To me, the company in the op just wants to spend money. The goal should be more interaction with with the person(s) who reserve rooms not, less. There are too many details for automation especially on a small tablet.

 

[Syringer]

+1

To me, the company in the op just wants to spend money. The goal should be more interaction with with the person(s) who reserve rooms not, less. There are too many details for automation especially on a small tablet.

A tablet solution would save the step of a) Adding to Google calendar, b) marking the piece of paper by the conference room.

We only have 3 conference rooms so a $50-$100 Android tablet should do the trick, just wanted to see if anyone has implemented it themselves.

The problem now is that people will want to meet real quick at say 1:50pm, don't go to their computers to check the Google Calendar, but someone's booked a room for 2pm. This would help alleviate conflicts and aleve any ambiguities as far as conference room conflicts go.

 

[Ravynmagi]

+1

To me, the company in the op just wants to spend money. The goal should be more interaction with with the person(s) who reserve rooms not, less. There are too many details for automation especially on a small tablet.

It can be kinda nice if you find a good solution that works. Our RoomWizards for example is a nice idea just poor hardware and customer support.

The conference room have calendars in Exchange 2010. The RoomWizard devices sync with Exchange. So a user reserves a room from Outlook and Exchange notifies the RoomWizard. The RoomWizard shows the schedule on it's display and has lights on the side that show the current availability of the room, so those trying to grab an open room for an impromptu meeting can easily locate that room.

 

[Belegost]

It can be kinda nice if you find a good solution that works. Our RoomWizards for example is a nice idea just poor hardware and customer support.

The conference room have calendars in Exchange 2010. The RoomWizard devices sync with Exchange. So a user reserves a room from Outlook and Exchange notifies the RoomWizard. The RoomWizard shows the schedule on it's display and has lights on the side that show the current availability of the room, so those trying to grab an open room for an impromptu meeting can easily locate that room.

Yea, we have a similar setup with Exchange, but our rooms have small thin client boxes used to run the projectors, and PC sound passthrough, those display the Exchange schedule.

Overall seems like using an inexpensive tablet to do it sounds like a nice idea. But I wonder how difficult it would be to have a charging cable for them so battery life is a non-issue.

 

[Thegonagle]

And it takes Steelcase over a month, sometimes almost two months to turn around an RMA. I've had to buy extra units just because the RMA process is too slow.

Steelcase? The office cubicle company? Who buys computer hardware from a furniture company?

 

[Kaido]

+1

To me, the company in the op just wants to spend money. The goal should be more interaction with with the person(s) who reserve rooms not, less. There are too many details for automation especially on a small tablet.

That's a very limited perspective; this is actually a really important business need. I work for a midsize company & I've been looking for a solution as well. We implemented meeting room scheduling in Exchange, but I haven't come across many quick & easy tablet-based ways to display that information. You can do stuff like use Outlook for calendaring on a tablet, but that's not a bulletproof solution like you'd want for the average user. OP, I've been looking at EventBoard as well:

https://eventboard.io/

PS - hold out your hand :awe: