Mobile Zoom Room?

[Jango Harrison]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some advice.  My boss is wanting to start this new project where we take some tablets with us on business meetings at our clients offices.  Instead of providing paper information for them, he wants to be able to hand them a tablet and control what they see while he presents.

The best solution I can think of is to essentially host a zoom meeting on the tablets and screen share.  That would give him full control over what they see.  However, this is an area where I really don't have much knowledge, so there may be a much better way to do this than to just screen share.  If you guys have any knowledge on better solutions, I'm all ears~

[Rauten]

Maybe I'm just dense, but I don't understand how the tablets came into the equation at all.

If your boss is going to do remote calls anyway, why not just create a Zoom/Teams/Whatever call that the customer can join from their own PCs/Tablets?

[Jango Harrison]

1 minute ago, Rauten said:

Maybe I'm just dense, but I don't understand how the tablets came into the equation at all.

If your boss is going to do remote calls anyway, why not just create a Zoom/Teams/Whatever call that the customer can join from their own PCs/Tablets?

They aren't remote calls.  We travel to their office and present in person.  That's why we can't invest in building out a Zoom room here in our own office.

[RAS_3885]

14 minutes ago, Jango Harrison said:

They aren't remote calls.  We travel to their office and present in person.  That's why we can't invest in building out a Zoom room here in our own office.

If the clients have their own devices (which today is a safe assumption) you can still host a Team/Zoom/whatever to screen share the meeting content, even if you and your boss are there live to present it. So, I think the solution is just a Team meeting where you're live in the same room. Bring an extra tablet or two in case someone doesn't have their own device.

 

Unless there are other constraints that require the hardware showing the content to be owned by your company...

 

It's the same as PowerPoint on a projector, but instead of projectors it's a screen share to their own devices. Or maybe a portable projected/screen would be better...

[Rauten]

You could bring one of those portable monitors instead; I think there are a few that support some form of wireless functionality?

Something like this, for example, but with better support for PCs? https://www.amazon.com/FANGOR-Wireless-Portable-Computer-Rechargeable/dp/B08S3SKKCR

 

That way you know for a fact that they can't control anything because it's literally just a monitor.

 

If the tablet is absolutely necessary (or your boss just REALLY wants that, and doesn't accept alternatives), I would look into remote control software, things like TeamViewer and VNC; the client could easily minimize the zoom meeting and tinker with the tablet.
With some remote control software, you can take away any and all control from the user (if you configure it that way), lessening the risk of the customer being a naughty boy/girl with your device.

[Jango Harrison]

5 minutes ago, Rauten said:

You could bring one of those portable monitors instead; I think there are a few that support some form of wireless functionality?

Something like this, for example, but with better support for PCs? https://www.amazon.com/FANGOR-Wireless-Portable-Computer-Rechargeable/dp/B08S3SKKCR

 

That way you know for a fact that they can't control anything because it's literally just a monitor.

 

If the tablet is absolutely necessary (or your boss just REALLY wants that, and doesn't accept alternatives), I would look into remote control software, things like TeamViewer and VNC; the client could easily minimize the zoom meeting and tinker with the tablet.
With some remote control software, you can take away any and all control from the user (if you configure it that way), lessening the risk of the customer being a naughty boy/girl with your device.

That's a really interesting idea.  I'll definitely bring it up with him, but I think he's pretty set on tablets.  I'm mainly worried about ease of use because no one here is tech savvy, so tablets have seemed like a safe bet to me.

[Jango Harrison]

15 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

If the clients have their own devices (which today is a safe assumption) you can still host a Team/Zoom/whatever to screen share the meeting content, even if you and your boss are there live to present it. So, I think the solution is just a Team meeting where you're live in the same room. Bring an extra tablet or two in case someone doesn't have their own device.

 

Unless there are other constraints that require the hardware showing the content to be owned by your company...

 

It's the same as PowerPoint on a projector, but instead of projectors it's a screen share to their own devices. Or maybe a portable projected/screen would be better...

From how he's explained it to me, I think this is mainly to affect his impression on whatever group he's meeting with.  Instead of bringing our standard printed marketing material, he's wanting to make everything digital.  That's why he's wanting to just carry six or seven tablets to the meetings for the clients to use.

[wasab]

you are correct, tell your boss to learn zoom. He can control the mouse on the other side as well, i have actually seen people do it.