Video conferencing has been on the ascendancy for almost two decades, but it was Covid-19 that supercharged adoption and made Zoom a household name.
Offices are open again and flexible working is the norm for many, so businesses embrace video conferencing to keep their teams connected. A video conferencing room, or ‘Zoom Room’, is no longer a luxury reserved for big corporates, it is now essential for all.
At the center of every video conferencing room is a Meeting Room Controller managing the screen, camera, and microphone. Bouncepad products like the Flip and Lounge can be found in meeting rooms, but this use-case required a fit-for-purpose solution.
We reached out to our network of commercial AV resellers to establish the must-have features of a tablet-based meeting room controller, as well as the pain points with existing products. On a high-level, we noted that our product needed to be solid, sleek, and unobtrusive. Functionally, we heard a lot about the importance of integrating Power over Ethernet (PoE), which allows data and power to pass through an ethernet cable.
Initially, we developed a distinctive, clean form with card and foam models that is easy to interact with, but blends into the background on a meeting table.
Building on the card models, we developed the design through iterative sketching, fleshing out the visual details and functional aspects of the product, until we had a concept that looked great and ticked all the boxes on the feature list.
With a concept in hand, we developed a CAD model that is used to fine tune the design. We 3D printed various parts to validate the functional aspects of our design, such as the power and volume buttons, the tablet support system, and the cable clamp.
With a fine-tuned design, we machined a “Looks Like, Works Like, Feels Like” prototype that took up residence in our own meeting room to test the day-to-day resilience of materials and finishes.
After some final tweaks, the design was ready for mass manufacture. During tool fabrication we de-bugged the design, perfecting the die-cast aluminium shell, optimising the assembly process, and realising the three signature colourways.
Here it is. Bouncepad Link, a stunning meeting room controller, designed to work with the Zoom Meeting Room Controller App; with a continuous power supply, neat cable management, security features and commercial-grade construction. Couple with a PoE Adaptor if you prefer a cabled connection instead of Wi-Fi.
