Originally published by Sean Carroll, Connected Mag

Room booking and scheduling solutions are a must-have in education and corporate settings. Sean Carroll explores what’s going on in this side of the market.

While I might be showing my age a bit here, I remember being in university (don’t get old kids!) and the pains of having to find a study space. There were times when I’d need to find a spare room to complete a (sometimes last-minute) group project, and we’d be scrambling to find an available space.

The best place to study was the library. Unfortunately, you always needed to do the awkward dance of walking past each booth or room, having a peek inside, making uncomfortable eye contact with whoever was using it and then continuing on walking.

You could end up doing an entire lap of the library before finding a room to use. It’s great for the step counter, but stressful when all you want is somewhere to work (and cram in a project before the deadline).

Room booking and scheduling solutions have become commonplace in universities, schools and corporate settings. While they have many benefits, one of the biggest is removing the awkward eye-contact tango that many of us used to endure.

Several of these solutions on the market are flat-panel touch screens that sit just outside the meeting space, clearly show who, when and why a room is booked (or not booked) and let users reserve a space.

Distributed by Jands in Australia and New Zealand, Concierge Displays is a Melbourne-born manufacturer of room booking display solutions. The company’s primary product is the Concierge Room Booking Panel, a customisable touch display mounted outside meeting rooms that integrates with leading calendar platforms.

Jands applications engineer, Cristian Fuentes, says that the manufacturer sets itself apart from its competitors with its range of software partnerships: “We don’t just connect to Microsoft and Google calendars, we also connect with timetabling software like Syllabus Plus, Celcat and Time Edit.

“Concierge Displays isn’t trying to be the biggest, just the most dependable, flexible and integrator-friendly solution in the room booking space. We work closely with our partners and clients to adapt to evolving needs without overcomplicating the user experience.”

The range of room booking solutions from Concierge Displays includes 10-15” panels and a 10” NFC/RFID booking display (ACMG1000). Each of these products show the events taking place in the room, upcoming bookings and are backlit, making it easy to understand for users.

Logitech is another manufacturer that has a presence in this space with its room booking solutions. Logitech category manager, video collaboration ANZ, Joe Touma, says the company has been in this space for just over three years and is seeing plenty of success with its solutions.

“We have a mix of hardware and software solutions available. Starting with our 10” tap scheduler, which is mounted outside a teaching or meeting space. It’s an Android-based device that runs the native CollabOS and works with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Spaces and four other compatible platforms,” he says.

“From an installation point of view, we’ve designed it to be as straightforward as possible. It’s a PoE device, not PoE+, so everything is included in the box, which includes the mounts. For integrators, it’s one SKU order regardless of the type of installation they’re going for.”

Biamp has its Biamp Evoko suite of software and hardware for room and desk booking solutions that the company says is there to transform how organisations manage and use their workspaces.

“With our solutions, workers can effectively minimise double bookings and meeting interruptions by better handling the flow of people on premises, from small offices to larger enterprise headquarters, saving time and improving workflow productivity,” Biamp senior product manager, scheduling solutions, Daniel Salmonsson explains.

Biamp also provides its Workplace Software, a software solution that gives administrators analytics and management tools on the cloud. Through a centralised dashboard, end users (at the management level) can monitor how a room is used, observe patterns, identify unused spaces, track no-show rates and generate detailed reports to inform future space planning decisions.

“This data-driven approach enables organisations to optimise their real estate investments by understanding how their meeting spaces are being used versus how they are intended to be used,” Daniel says.

“On the other side, users can find the right space for their needs by filtering available rooms with customisable filters like room size and AV equipment, another way businesses can optimise their space.”

Joe says that Logitech has a similar solution and used the phrase “ghost meetings” to describe the meeting rooms that are booked but never used.

“Part of our software includes auto-book and auto-release functions. Essentially, if you walk into a meeting room and there’s a Logitech Rally Bar or Rally Bar Mini installed in that space, there are built-in occupancy sensors that determine whether or not you walked into that room,” he outlines.

“The software will acknowledge that you walked into a room and understand that the booking has been met and that it’s underway. Conversely, if nobody turns up at the meeting space or if people leave the meeting early, it releases the room and it’s now available to be re-booked.”

Joe says one corporate partner that uses Logitech solutions recently moved office and downsized from an office with 45 meeting rooms to 20, but is just as efficient with its meetings, thanks to this software.

Concierge Displays offers a similar solution with its Companion support software, giving end users and integrators cloud-based support, reporting and analytics. Companion is provided free of charge for the first 12 months.

Cristian says what sets Concierge Displays apart from its competitors in this space is the customisation and local support: “With the software offering, end users and integrators can monitor the health of all devices, configure consistency checks and host custom graphics, among other features.”

For end users who want to manage all room booking solutions, the company released a 4K Summary Player that lets users view everything in a centralised control room-type setting. Users can display the entire calendar information booking across the whole business and receive meeting room analytics.

Logitech’s room booking products are integrated into the Logitech Sync platform, alongside the suite of Logitech products, including its meeting room solutions, webcams, headsets and docks.

For each of these manufacturers, a key development is cloud management. While the room booking solutions solve my archaic problem of walking past all the study booths in the library, modern solutions are heavily automated.

An employee can book a meeting with a client, select a meeting room (or even be auto-assigned) and walk in at the time without worrying about finding a space that suits. Administrators can see how these spaces are being used, discover any inefficiencies and address them.

For integrators working in commercial and education, room booking solutions are a key addition to any installation, meaning it’s just about finding the right product.