 |
|
Call us now (877) 266-7725
|
Interactive and Collaborative Tech ToolsJune 10th, 2010In every phase of your business now – from marketing and prospecting to R&D, from attending trade shows to exhibiting and making presentations at them, as well – you can avail yourself of today’s potent interactive and collaborative technologies. With wireless mobility and real-time connectivity come faster product development and better feedback from clients and prospects, which is good no matter what industry you’re in. CRE can help you leverage this technology to great benefit, no matter where you are or what you are doing. Apple’s iPad has been getting a ridiculous amount of press, but precious little has been said about serious, productive uses (even in our own first look). Its size, about midway between a smart phone and a netbook, means it has enough screen real estate to do real browsing, writing (with a nice on-screen keyboard or a Bluetooth wireless one), reading and document handling (PDFs, photos, video, etc.). With WiFi-only and WiFi-plus-3G connectivity, you can stay in touch with one, two or 200 colleagues, customers, clients and/or coworkers, wherever you are, to accomplish pretty much whatever you need to do. When the “excitement of the new” wears off, the iPad should be standing tall, regardless, as it really can be a great tool for you, as Adobe proved this week with its release of iPad-specific publishing tools. Tablet PCs running Windows have been around forever, it seems, and have been refined over the years. It can be argued that the humble tablet PC was a precursor to the iPad, as it combined Wi-Fi, handwriting recognition, a good bit of audio-video capability and ease of use in a mobile (if not pocket-sized) form factor.With CRE’s tablet PC rentals, conference teams or salespeople can run PowerPoint presentations, maintain contact with headquarters, stay abreast of breaking news or take handwritten notes. On site or on the go, a tablet or pad can be a true collaborative tool. Although Windows tablet PC’s typically run a special version of Microsoft Windows XP, CRE can configure your tablet PC with the ever-popular Microsoft Office, or even the Ubuntu version of Linux. CRE features award-winning tablets from Motion Computing, which can also run Windows 7 if you’re a Top Geek, like the fellow in this YouTube video.
Despite CRE carrying a number of interactive, collaborative devices, our When it comes to helping you meet the challenges of today’s marketplace, whether it’s with a number of iMac rentals for post-production or some audio-visual rentals for that conference or presentation, CRE Rentals is ready to help. Send an e-mail or make a call to our experienced Account Executives, or fill out our Quick Rental Quote form, and we will get you “interactivated” and “collaborational” in no time. Advances in Audience Response SystemsMay 25th, 2010When you need feedback from a marketing focus group, a room full of shareholders or a few score people attending your conference breakout session, that’s where CRE’s Audience Response System rentals (ARS) It is not difficult to get going with the presentation once you have the plug-in installed. It provides a new toolbar that lets you edit professionally-designed templates to your needs. You can change graphics, colors and styles in a few mouse clicks, use the special toolbar to create content fields and choose your settings, quickly and easily. Save your slide, move on to the next one and repeat as needed. Load your finished presentation onto a laptop or desktop computer, then plug into a projector rental, set up your screen and start getting that audience feedback you need. How does interactive polling work? Audience Response Systems offer small response card keypads that are wireless and use both IR (InfraRed) and RF (Radio Frequency) technology depending on the model. With the keypads, the audience can answer multiple choice, multiple response, short answer, essay and alphanumeric questions throughout the presentation. Need to poll the audience from different (even distant) locations in real-time? Now there is remote polling technology that allows a presenter to address and question audiences, either using a web-based polling application (through their iPhone or Blackberry smartphone) or a hand-held keypad. This gives the presenter the capability of combining the remote results with those of the local group. Real-time feedback allows the presenter to keep remote participants attentive and focused by displaying results of their ongoing input. Expanded uses, expanded capabilities Audience Response Systems have proven their tremendous value in a wide variety of settings. No longer do seminars, product demos, breakout session presentations or other corporate meetings have to be one-way streets – someone talks, you take notes – now that true real-time connectivity is easily achieved. The old salesman’s saying, that the best salesmen listen more than they talk, is a powerful insight, and an ARS gives you the ability to listen to hundreds of people at the same time, responding with information that your organization really needs to know. An Audience Response System, being fully plugged into the MS Office applications, makes it easy to tally, analyze and display the gathered information. Ready to interact with your audience at your next meeting? Simply fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, give us a call or send an e-mail and we will take care of you right away. Whether you need audience response, kiosks (another great interactive tool!) or plasma rentals, our objective is to equip you with the best tools available so you can finish on time with excellent results, whatever the task. iPad vs. Competitive-like Pad, Tablet PCApril 15th, 2010Apple did it again, apparently. On the first day of availability, the company sold over 300,000 iPads. The “dud” warnings were not all based on insignificant details, however, and the iPad does deserve some smacks for obvious weaknesses – such as having no webcam, doing no multitasking and being, in essence, a big iPhone. Of all these shortcomings, the notion that one has to quit browsing to look up a phone number or send a quick e-mail is perhaps the most distressing, which is why multitasking was the first of the upgrade announcements that got the Apple fan community chatting (even before the first sale). Where’s the iPad competition? One reason the competition has been a bit quiet (or, at least, dispersed) is that both the public and the gadget makers call the iPad a lot of different things. This means a range of competitive strategies and no “critical mass” of focused opposition. Is the Kindle book-reader a competitor? Well, for e-book readers, perhaps. Is the Neofonie WePad overpriced, with too few Android offerings? What are the big boys – Dell, HP, Asus, Acer – doing in this product niche? HP, for its part, sees the iPad’s screen resolution, Wi-Fi capability, long battery life and mid-range cost as strengths that its long-awaited Slate cannot match. On the other hand, its core hardware specs – CPU, hard drive, USB port, SD card slot, front- and rear-facing cameras, a screen that supports digitizer-based input – are clearly to the Slate’s advantage. Of course, it is the seamless, near-magical “Apple user experience” that is the joker in this high-tech deck of cards. Spec comparison: iPad vs. competitor-like “Pad”
In fact, Apple has already announced plans for a smaller, 5- to 7-inch screen unit, to be focused more on output (music, Web, e-books) than input (typing especially). HP’s Slate has a smaller screen and a netbook standard resolution of 1024×600. Surprisingly for an on-the-go device, HP is coming up 50 percent short in battery life compared to the iPad. The Joojoo and WePad have decent battery life, but when Acer, Asus and some other heavyweights (Nokia? Samsung?) weigh in with their iPad-killers, they had better have more juice than the Slate if they want a good share of this new market. How do you see the iPad integrating into the corporate environment? Do you plan on using one this year? We’d love to hear from you on this. In the meantime, when you are faced with crunch time, like a new project with no available workstations, we are here to keep you moving forward. For everything from Mac Pro rentals to tablet pc rentals, and everything you need to attend or exhibit at a convention or conference, call or send an e-mail to our expert Account Executives today. If you know what you need, complete our Quick Rental Quote form now. Kiosks in Conventions: Today and BeyondApril 1st, 2010The standalone kiosk has become a mainstay of conventions and typically consists of a computer and touchscreen monitor, housed in a (usually) vertical cabinet. In some models, the kiosk will also contain credit card readers and printers. They can be deployed to deliver or capture information on various products and services. Outside of convention and corporate use, kiosks have literally hundreds of uses, and can be found in airports, malls, retail stores, hotel lobbies and corporate foyers. Kiosk rentals in the convention space CRE’s interactive kiosk rentals are used by companies in many ways, particularly as a way of deploying additional “virtual employees” at conventions and events. Some of the obvious uses at conventions include:
The newest kiosks include Web connectivity so that a marketing team with their tablet PC rentals can actually update the kiosk contents, download captured data and otherwise manage the device’s various tasks. In fact, quite soon many kiosks will be more akin to what IT people call “thin clients,” meaning there will be limited computing horsepower and storage in the physical unit, and it will take its orders and get its presentation material over the Internet. Kiosk (rentals) in the future With continuing advances in multimedia processing, new generations of ever-more advanced tools will further reduce development costs of kiosks while increasing their capabilities. A range of other new technologies – like signature cards, smart cards, 3G/4G cell phone connectivity, etc. – will lead to kiosk solutions yet to be imagined. While this is happening with the standalone kiosk rental model, there are other interesting “kiosk-ish” things happening as a result of touchscreen technology coming to PCs. For one example, CRE has touchscreen LCD monitor rentals and the all-in-one desktop computer rental (Sony’s VAIO L model) that can be used in kiosk-type ways. By installing some special software, you can create your own kiosk and station it at your exhibit booth’s entrance or on a second table. Your “virtual partner” will help you capture more information from more people, perhaps twice as much, since you would be able to assist more than one person at the same time. There are other creative ways to employ kiosk technology that we will address in a future blogs (so check back). CRE’s Account Executives are up to speed on all the technologies you need for success on an trade show exhibit floor or convention. Call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form and we will help you find the solutions you need to the challenges you face. With CRE, you are never in it alone. Catching a New Wave with GoogleFebruary 25th, 2010
Wave has the potential to be a great tool for conferences and events by offering a collaborative environment. The “waves” — discussions, pictures, drawings, audio notes — can be “threaded” separately and can help event organizers, booth staff and conference attendees manage meetings, develop agendas, share content, capture data, record audio and video, and interact with one another in both planned and improvised ways. Using the Wave with technology rentals Google Wave is, of course, a computer tool and users will need good internet access and the right hardware, like CRE’s tablet PC rentals, to make the most of it. With the ability to capture handwritten notes, audio and even video with a small, USB Flip camera, tablets are perfect for staying plugged-in while strolling about a convention or meeting facility. In a seated seminar, laptop rentals would integrate perfectly with your “mobile tablet team,” and your booth in the exhibit hall can be “command central” with a computer rental. As Wave matures, it is likely that mobile applications will emerge to make “waving” (perhaps there’s a better verb available) possible on cell phones, PDAs and iPads (here is our take on the iPad). During this process, Google will also have to address the various criticisms of Wave, which are to be expected in any new software product. There is a fairly stiff learning curve, although there are a lot of online tutorials from Google and third parties. With the plethora of options and tools, Wave can be a bit daunting at first glance, and there is no way to master it without jumping right in and devoting the time needed. When you have questions about new technology – especially tools that can help you work more cost-effectively – give our Account Executives a call or send an e-mail. They stay abreast of all new products and services that can help you get your jobs done better. If you know what you need, use our Quick Rental Quote form. It may take time for everyone to catch this Wave, but it looks like it promises to be quite a ride. Sony’s Touchscreen iMac? Rent a VAIO L ComputerFebruary 18th, 2010
“Put your world at your fingertips,” say the ads for Sony’s VAIO L Series all-in-one touchscreen PC (now available from CRE Rentals!). A stylish computer with a crisp 24-inch multi-touch display, the L is being marketed as “the ultimate multimedia machine”. Its 2.7GHz Pentium E5400 processor is dual core, and is considered by “techsperts” to be a very good low-wattage processor, one of the reasons the VAIO L is “certified green.” Potent computing experience with all-in-one computer rental Its graphics processor (GPU) is an NVIDIA GeForce G210M with 512MB of dedicated RAM, letting the CPU with its 4GB of RAM work with the 7200rpm, 320GB hard drive to bring forth a potent computing experience. The CPU is plenty fast enough for cruising the internet, playing the latest games, watching movies and more – all with various taps, swipes and one- and two-handed “multitouch” moves with your fingers. The VAIO L All-In-One computer rental also includes a built-in webcam and microphone, and has a Blu-ray compatible optical drive for playing movies in stunning HD resolution (no Blu-ray recording, however). Finally, its Bluetooth wireless is the latest stereo version, so you can stream CD-quality sound to Bluetooth speakers, as well as connect to cell phones, cameras and other devices (like its keyboard and mouse, for starters). Add the right kind of outboard audio and video equipment rentals, and you’ve got a powerful center for controlling sights, sounds, lights and most everything else at your conference, seminar or shareholder meeting. Superduper display Like the standalone LCD monitor rentals from CRE, the 24-inch widescreen display uses LCD technology, and has “full HD specs” of 1920 x 1080 to create what the ad copywriters call “dazzling” colors and clarity – and, this time at least, they’re not exaggerating. The display is dramatic, and reviewers have admitted that the combination of its look and the feel of the touch commands is downright addictive. Many “creatives” will want to rent this PC computer with its CPU that can handle high-end media work (video editing, audio recording, post production, etc.). The VAIO L could be used for presentations and “info capture”. With simple software, the VAIO L can be loaded up with presentations, product FAQ sheets, questionnaires and other push-button materials. This is a handy interactive tool when you’re exhibiting at a trade show or conference. Talk to a CRE Account Executive for expert advice on how you can put this new VAIO all-in-one computer rental to work for you. Call or send an e-mail and we’ll be back to you swiftly, or take advantage of our Quick Rental Quote form. Whatever you do – whatever you need – we are ready to deliver the latest solutions. Basic to Best Breakout Room Equipment – Conferences & MeetingsFebruary 11th, 2010The breakout session is a mainstay of the modern conference. It is a chance for exhibitors, sponsors and invited speakers to bring good, usable information to attendees, who can range from special guests and industry colleagues to possible collaborators and potential customers. Media events, presentations, panel discussions and such audience participation activities as Q & A sessions and polling involve various (and numerous) pieces of equipment, all of which need to be in place and ready to go. For smooth sailing, you need a basic breakout room package that will fill the bill.
In the process of familiarizing yourself with some pretty nice audiovisual equipment and computers, never forget that the most important thing is the content. In many cases it will be a PowerPoint presentation and/or some Flash animation. One of CRE’s laptop rentals with the Microsoft Office installed will be plugged into the 3K projector, set on a cart/stand with a power strip and locking wheels. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a backup laptop running the presentation simultaneously on its own screen. If the presenting PC crashes, the other will be in sync to continue. With all the included cables and power cords properly attached, you’re ready to roll. On a 6-ft. tripod screen (with skirt) you can showcase your product or service with a presentation including video clips, bullet points that follow your script and/or a slideshow, all controlled by a cordless presenter. If your message is as high-quality as the presentation system, you have the ingredients for a great session. Stepping it up a notch If you anticipate a large crowd, you may need to consider some supplemental equipment, for starters a cordless microphone and powered speakers, and other kinds of audiovisual rentals. Depending on the room, you may need some lighting equipment, too, and for archival and/or training purposes you could also bring in some video recording gear. CRE’s digital recorder rentals can be used to hold digital media for use in your presentation, record the session or capture attendee contact information. If you’re going to have a table in the room for registration, collecting business cards, getting contact information or providing sell sheets or brochures, CRE’s office equipment rentals could be a big help. Some of the best help you can get in a breakout session, of course, is from your audience. With one of CRE’s Audience Response System rentals, you can interact with attendees and poll them during and after the presentation – or base the presentation around an audience Q & A session in the first place. Whatever your breakout room plan, our experienced Account Executives are ready with the ways, means and expertise to bring it to fruition. Call, send an e-mail or fill out a Quick Rental Quote form and we’ll break out, bring over and set up whatever you need, whenever you need it. Apple’s iPad: New Boom or Big Bust?February 4th, 2010The rumors met reality on January 27th as Apple unveiled its iPad tablet. As opposed to the iPhone launch, however, this one was not met with 100% support from the Apple/Mac fan community. In fact, some folks were downright displeased, predicting failure with a capital “F.” Of course, only time will tell, but right now we know all the specs and can at least tell you the pluses and minuses of the device.
Ups and downs The first thing you need to know is that the iPad is not a small MacBook in tablet form. It’s a big iPhone, except that the only kind of calling you can do is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) with WiFi and a tool like Skype. Lacking a webcam, of course, means voice only, no cool video chats. The unit will run all the iPhone Apps, although it will have its own Apple store. It’s not a Kindle-killer, either. Amazon’s one-trick pony is perfect for the one trick it does – let you read, even in direct sunlight, with its e-ink technology. When Amazon did its research, it discovered that having color, WiFi, a browser and lots of other doohickeys interrupted people’s concentration on reading. Plus, the iPad has perhaps 8-10 hours of battery time, whereas the Kindle and the Sony e-book readers go 150-200 hours on a charge. The specs The specifications are at least as interesting for what is missing as what is there. Powered by a special, Apple-designed, 1GHz A4 chip built by PA Semiconductor, the iPad comes with 16, 32 or 64GB of solid state flash storage, but there is no separate graphics chip, so no multitasking – you can do one thing at a time. The color screen is 9.7 inches, but it won’t display most of the video on the Web (except YouTube) because there is no Flash support. With all the Flash on the Internet, this is a total head-scratcher. Neither is there a USB port, just the single Dock Connector, which accommodate special (and, ahem, separately priced) adapters for a USB connection or an SD card reader. What it does have is: WiFi in the latest 802.11b/g/n variety; Bluetooth, so you can use a wireless keyboard, at least if you’re at a table, instead of the on-screen iPhone-y keyboard; and a 3G version coming out a month after the base model. There’s also a microphone, speaker, headphone jack, digital compass, a few sensors (light, accelerometer, proximity) and A-GPS, “Assisted GPS.” Bottom line Just a tad smaller than a regular magazine and weighing 1.5 pounds, the iPad is hardly a shirtpocket take-along. It needs a case so you won’t scratch it, and a data plan with AT&T so you can use the WiFi or 3G. What remains to be seen is, Who will buy this thing? Apple fans with iPhones already shell out to AT&T, so it’s hard to believe they’ll double their monthly bill for a larger iPhone with little added functionality. MacBook Pro rentals at CRE won’t be threatened, since the iPad doesn’t run any Mac software. People who are PC-centric and don’t like Apple in the first place are hardly going to rush out to buy this device, either. The iPad appears to a number of observers to be the first pure entertainment play from Apple since the iPod. It is not a productivity enhancer, not easy to use as a phone or book reader, has a closed platform that may hinder third-party development and costs from $500 to over $800 in a somewhat bizarre pricing structure. It just may be that Apple has made an expensive toy for jetsetters and tech collectors, but if you see the “Steve Jobs magic” at work again, post a comment and let us know! In the meantime, for true Apple productivity, CRE has the Mac Pro rentals and laptops, along with convention technology and everything else you need from Apple, H-P and other companies. From office equipment to Audience Response System rentals, our Account Executives have the expertise and the equipment to help you get the job done. Call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form and we’ll get right on it for you. CRE Rentals Gives You Plenty of Options for TrainingOctober 28th, 2009Do you want your company to stay ahead in today’s high-tech business environment? Then, you need computer- and Internet-savvy people—and you need to make sure they stay up-to-date. How? By offering in-house training that teaches employees new business applications or software programs. Allocating your company resources is tricky when new, special, short-term projects start stacking up. If just a few employees need training, why not rent Logistics of Online Training Today’s office applications, including the reigning champ Microsoft Office, usually have built-in tutorials, some of which are animated and include graded testing. There are also free online training packages, ranging from computer applications to marketing. Naturally, you must evaluate the source of online training since not all programs are created equal. If a company employee has sufficient technical expertise, it may be a good idea to combine that expertise with some additional low- or no-cost online materials. If the presentation is to a group, you can easily connect a PC or laptop to a CRE projector rental and test their knowledge during the training with an audience response system rental. A few high-tech gadgets will help you train a room full of employees. Low Cost Training Alternatives If you don’t have a qualified employee up to the task of training, consider talking to your high-tech vendors in IT services or telecommunications. You may find a software geek or an IT service tech that can come in to train your people at a great rate. You might also benefit with the recent news about Utah’s abandonment of its OpenCourseWare Project, which folded because of the economy. Download what you need before it goes to cyberheaven for good. Consider finding a training course on DVD in the bargain bin at the electronics store (or online). You can create an in-house, cost-effective course by hooking up a DVD player to a projector and projecting onto a screen rental that will handle any size audience. If you don’t ask around and do some online digging, you will never find these inexpensive training opportunities. You really do have lots of options. Whatever you need, CRE’s Account Executives are ready with expert guidance, so give us a call, send an e-mail or get a Quick Rental Quote in a snap. As always, we’re here to help. 8 Tips for Successful Audience Response SessionsSeptember 24th, 2009Researchers question the effectiveness of a ‘lecture-style’ business presentation. In fact, some have demonstrated that audiences in a “passive” role acquire and retain less. Other findings indicate that an audience member’s attention falls precipitously after 20-30 minutes, and the average participant’s knowledge retention is quite low. Interactivity is the key to better knowledge retention. In fact, effective “active learning” encompasses multimedia components, discussion groups and teaching activities, all of which result from the use of a very powerful tool, an Audience Response System (ARS) from CRE.
#1: Check the session location at least a day before the event. Not only do you need to get “the lay of the land,” you need to investigate possible logistical problems. Is the room the right size? Will you need extension cords for the base station power, your projection rental equipment, laptop, etc. #2: Set up your ARS equipment at least an hour before start time (even the day before, if you have access to the location). Make sure everything is working right, and well before your audience begins arriving. Have our phone number handy in case you need more keypads or have a last-minute question or concern. It may make sense to get a laptop rental from CRE to have a backup of your presentation files. #3: An ARS is fairly simple to operate but you may need some practice to familiarize yourself with how it works. You will also need to coordinate your timing for a glitch-free presentation, so practice your presentation beforehand, as many times as you can. A MicroTrack digital recorder rental is a great way to practice speeches and presentations. Hearing yourself speak is a powerful aid in refining your delivery. #4: Give the audience members clear, concise directions. Tell them what is expected, and advise them that registering their response at the right time will ensure that it is properly recorded. Concise directions, both spoken and printed, should be given before the session to maximize the number of registered responses. #5: Keep your questions short and sweet. This is important for several reasons, the first of which is screen legibility—the questions need to be read quickly and easily, even when you are also reading them aloud. If you make the questions too long or unnecessarily complex, your response rate will suffer and the pace of the presentation will be out of your control. #6: Limit your answer options to four, if possible. When five or more options are displayed and/or read aloud, they can be difficult to read or remember, respectively. Be succinct. This is particularly important if you are making a small-group presentation on a table-mounted LCD or plasma screen rental. #7: Don’t present your audience with too many questions, or too many in a row. Build some “relief” (comic or otherwise) into your presentation with non-text screen images, occasional pauses and discussion time (see #8, below). If the session becomes tedious you can expect your audience’s interest to wane. #8: Among the biggest benefits of ARS sessions is the frank discussion that results from them. As the presentation proceeds, audience members get progressively more involved (that’s your goal, at any rate) and the discussion that ensues from the questions and answers gets progressively evolved. Always factor discussion time into your presentation plan. Following this simple advice, as well as learning as much as you can about ARS technology in advance, will help you achieve the best results from your interactive presentation. There is no reason that large group polling sessions have to be dull, dry, lecture-hall experiences. Fill out a Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need, or use our Contact Page to ask us whatever you need to know. Our friendly, expert Account Executives will gladly help you turn your next marketing test, training class or presentation into a truly interactive (even fun) experience for you and your audience. |
As of 10pm Thursday, April 8, the total was approaching 600,000, and between 3.5 and 4 million apps had been downloaded for the device. This has left some tech bloggers and perennially pouting anti-Apple pundits perplexed, as many had 
Like the 
The easiest way to explain 
desktop computers
Whether you are training company employees, making a conference presentation or testing product ideas with a focus group, an ARS will create an interactive, collaborative environment in which the “teacher” arguably learns as much as the “students”—and learns even more when all the responses are later tallied and analyzed. In fact, the “teacher role” is merged into each participant, which maximizes audience input and feedback. If you are going to be using an Audience Response System (ARS), these tips will help you make the most of it.
