Barco

Sometimes, when we’re at a tradeshow demonstrating ClickShare, we get some unexpected questions (“You say that 64 Buttons can be connected simultaneously to the Base Unit. Could we connect more?”). Which we answer with the equally unexpected reply (“Actually, we have tested it with more than 100 Buttons, and it worked fine.”). But some time ago, there was this question that really stuck with me, and deserved its own blog post. A gentleman said: “I really love your product, but why did you make that Button so big?”. Wow, I really didn’t see that one coming. “You know”, he continued, “it’s just an on/off switch. You could save a lot of space when you made it smaller”.

That left me quite puzzled. Because, you see, the Button is NOT just an on/off switch. It is the system that actually transmits the information from the laptop to the Base Unit. It is the WiFi device. It is… well, it is ClickShare! The man was a bit confused. “But there is perfectly good WiFi available on your laptop. Why don’t you use that?”. A perfectly good assumption. Because, let’s face it, that’s what our competitors do. And exactly this makes ClickShare so unique. There are a number of good reasons why we have embraced the Button, so let’s name the most important ones.

First of all, it makes things easy. Really easy. There is no need to download, install and configure a software client (which is for many people a threshold too high to take). The ClickShare Button knows which Base Unit it is paired to, so the whole configuration process is unnecessary. Just connect, click, and share. New users sometimes need to manually start the Button’s launcher, but this is basically because on most company computers executables are no longer automatically started when a USB device is inserted. Most of our customers solve this by installing the launcher on every computer – something that takes only a minute.

Another great advantage is that it doesn’t interfere with the internet connection. If the laptop’s WiFi would be connected to the Base Unit, it would no longer be possible to consult or use anything requiring an internet connection. A disaster in this cloud-driven era. Agreed, there are solutions to bypass this problem, but none of them work as smoothly as having two different connections.

And regarding the size of the Button: this has never actually been an issue. In fact, we’re really proud that the device is so small, regarding all the processing power that is inside. Furthermore, when designing ClickShare, there were a number of prototypes made – both for the Button and for the Base Unit. Some very conservative, some really avant-garde. These prototypes were then presented to potential customers for feedback. And almost unanimously the Button as it is now was chosen. Surprisingly, the few comments we got regarding the size, were actually 'The bigger, the better' - this to prevent that people walk out of the meeting room and forget to unplug the Button.

The man perfectly got my reasoning, and said he would look at the Button differently from then on. And I hope you will do the same. Remember, ClickShare is all about the experience, not so much the design. But personally, I think the design works wonderfully well!