David,

Sounds like you have the makings of an interesting
room.  

One approach we use and like, copied from Argonne's
Library, is the use of multiple walls.  The front or
main wall is used for remote participants and whatever
is the main focus of the current session.  The side
walls, or in your case the SmartBoard, would have
supporting material such as presentations, chat or
local room participants video images.  This breaks up
the room logically and seems to improve the focus of a
meeting by creating a central point for the
participants.  

Having a continuous screen does not seem to be
critical as long as there is a large enough main area
to support the sessions you will be conducting.  In
one of our installs we have two projectors covering a
18'x5' area and a third projector shooting on a
adjacent wall 9'x5'.  This has worked out very well

Good luck.

Gary Refka
inSORS Engineer
---- "David E. Bernholdt"
<bernhold@jumby.csm.ornl.gov> wrote:
> In the conference room we're building, we don't have
a huge amount of
> space.  In total it is about 14' (front/back wall) x
22' (side walls).
> The room was originally two, and in the middle there
are vestiges of
> the original wall in the form of a 20" projection
from the side walls
> (think of a ~10' wide dorrway or portal in the
middle of the room).
> 
> I'd like to have a 3-projector tiled display for the
AG _and_ a
> SmartBoard (interactive whiteboard) that could be
used with AG or
> separately.  The "portal" in the middle of the room
makes it hard to
> position a whiteboard on a side wall so as to be
uniformly visible.
> 
> So I was thinking of a couple of options, and I'd
appreciate comments
> on the relative merits of each from those with more
experience...
> 
> I could put the SmartBoard and the AG display on the
same wall
> (four-across) only if the AG video is pretty small
(~ 3' x 2.25'
> each). Advantage: the AG display would be
uninterrupted.
> Disadvantage: it would be pretty small.
> 
> If I made the SmartBoard _part_ of the AG screen, it
could be 4'x3'
> per image.  The disadvantages I see are (1) since
the SmartBoard has a
> small bezel around it, there is no way to avoid a
small break in the
> continuity of the screen, and (2) I don't know how
closely I can match
> the optical properties of the SmartBoard in the rest
of the screen.  I
> think I can partially counter the first problem by
arranging for the
> screen edge to overlap the SmartBoard bezel, but
there will still be a
> small visual "glitch".  The wall is not completely
flat, so we're
> going to have to engineer a screen surface anyway
(can't just paste on
> WallTalkers stuff).
> 
> I thought about other approaches, like trying to
build/buy a large
> screen that would hang just in front of the
SmartBoard, but that would
> (1) prevent use of the SmartBoard with the AG, and
(2) give two
> different focal plans for the projector associated
with the
> SmartBoard.  The latter problem would require an
additional projector
> or refocusing to switch back and forth.  It seems
like zoom functions
> are usually available on projector remotes, but not
focus, so this
> would quickly become tedious for ceiling-mounted
projectors.
> 
> I don't know how important display size and
continuity are to AG
> users, or how to balance one against the other.
Feedback and
> suggestions welcome. Thanks!
> --
> David E. Bernholdt                   |   Email:
bernholdtde@ornl.gov 
> Oak Ridge National Laboratory        |   Phone: +1
(865) 574 3147    
> http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/   |   Fax:   +1
(865) 574 0680    
> 
>