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Newsletter - 2019

Key Features
All roads led to Amsterdam for this spring issue, as ISE 2019, the world’s largest AV trade show counted Door Tablet among its exhibitors for the first time. The event proved to be an invigorating experience.
The timing worked well so far as our software development schedule is concerned, too, and this issue features news of our latest Version upgrade, the evolution of our software for the workspace tablet, and the successful completion of our integration with Intel Unite’s fabulous new software for enabling powerful, immersive meetings.
And we have another round-up of some of the highlights of our Twitter feed which, as ever, focuses on key features in the inexorable development of Smart Buildings.
  1. Door Tablet completes integration with Intel Unite
  2. Going solo for the first time at ISE 2019
  3. Are Smart Buildings “feeling” smarter?
  4. Door Tablet V9 sets the stage for further integration
  5. New Door Tablet CIR brings smart design to market
  6. Follow us on social media
  7. New win for our hardware family: Door Tablet WIN
  8. Door Tablet … at a Glance
Door Tablet completes integration with Intel Unite
Two of the world’s leading suppliers of technology solutions for the modern meeting room are now working together. The successful integration of Door Tablet digital signage with the Intel Unite collaboration platform for managing the meetings themselves means that, from now on, meetings can be inspiring as well as productive. What has been too often a necessary evil of business life can now be effective and fun.

Intel Unite is a content-sharing software application that provides a fast, simple, and cost-efficient way to deliver a more secure and more manageable collaboration experience.  

Anyone interested in seeing a demonstration of the Intel Unite collaboration platform is encouraged to go along to UC Expo at London Excel on 15-16 May.



We set out our global stall at ISE 2019: thank you Amsterdam
Integrated Systems Europe, a trade show that describes itself as “the European destination for the global AV industry” wowed the world once again in Amsterdam in February and, this year, Door Tablet was there as an exhibitor.  

After two years as co-exhibitors with one of our hardware suppliers, we took our own stand and welcomed aspiring clients and prospective resellers, as well as potential associates and partners from all over the world.  “With over 1,000 exhibitors and 80,000 attendees, this show would always be a big draw for a product team such as ours,” marketing director Tam McDonald comments. “For Door Tablet especially, and at this particular time, ISE was where we had to be.”

Click here for our news release about ISE


Smart Buildings event stresses move to human-centred design
There is a shift in the world of Smart Buildings, and it was reflected in the annual Smart Building Conference that kicked off ISE 2019 in February. In brief, the focus is moving beyond the tracking of operational data that exists independently of whatever the users are experiencing, and aiming more at the user experience itself, tracking down in some cases to the level of the individual user. Tam McDonald, marketing director for Door Tablet, was in the conference hall.

Taking place on the Monday of ISE week, the Smart Building conference on 4 February presented something of a shift beyond the focus of previous years. There is more of a feel of creativity about what is happening in buildings in both the commercial and residential spheres. It is as if the old focus on measuring and managing facilities processes is being superseded by more empathetic anticipation of how building users will experience life in the building.

The emerging questions seem to be: how can the built environment make the experience of being in them more comfortable and inspiring? Can work and living spaces make people happier, as well as more productive?

There is still some work to be done in defining and realising what is meant by “smart”, and more careful thinking needed given the continuing mistake of using “smart” and “intelligent” as if they mean the same thing – they certainly do not. But it is refreshing to witness the infusion of greater creativity in defining living spaces with more concern for the experience of the people inhabiting them, beyond the older, more technocratic regard for simply making buildings work as efficiently as possible.


Version 9 sees focus shifting to APIs and software integration
The six months since our last newsletter have seen considerable enhancements to the Door Tablet software, at both the back end and for the end user. The headline news is reflected in our lead story, above, but there is much more in terms of server enhancement and the sheer range of devices on which Door Tablet is continuing its inexorable march to the top of the world of robust and scalable meeting rooms and workplace signage.


While the recently completed integration of Door Tablet with Intel Unite 4.0 is one of the more exciting enhancements of our software solution for workspace management, it is a long way from being the only news since the publication of our autumn newsletter. In that time Door Tablet has proceeded from Version 8.6 to Version 9.0.12, demonstrating along the way the vital importance of renewing annual software maintenance contracts.

The most recent upgrade was driven largely by market appetite for more effective API interfaces and by the need to adapt the Door Tablet software for use with our new hardware, such as the Door Tablet CIR and the Door Tablet WIN range. Otherwise, the main features of our upgrades over the last six months include:
  1. Several enhancements to the Door Tablet server including greater speed and faster dialogue with the scheduling server
  2. Zero defect achieved with Resource Scheduler integration
  3. Additional enhancements for controlling email messages
  4. Remote client re-allocation when bringing new servers onstream
  5. A new, non-touch tablet has been added to what was the “All-in-One” product - Door Tablet NTC.  This provides a lower cost alternative to the Door Tablet AIO when touch is not required
  6. Two other devices have been added to the Door Tablet stable as a result of our work on Intel-based devices.  These devices are Door Tablet WIN-WM and Door Tablet WIN-MM and both will be available for purchase in the next few weeks
  7. Another device we added to the collection is the Door Table WBX, a Windows/Intel-based device which completes the Door Tablet WIN family to provide interactive wayfinding displays
  8. We updated the Hardened Android OS and it now includes all the features we made available in the standard edition, to include, amongst other things, weekend sleep features
  9. We completed the integration of Door Tablet with Intel Unite 3 and more recently integration with Intel Unite 4. 
New Door Tablet CIR offers two new products to the workspace market
Previewed in the last issue of our newsletter, the Door Tablet CIR (as in circular device) has proved to be a real hit following its launch. It boasts specific applications for the growing market for non-bookable spaces – primarily hot-desks, huddle rooms, workplace phone booths, and cosy corners – as well as serving the existing market for bookable rooms. Whether for small groups or individuals, finding a workspace is easy: the LED lights guide you to an available spot; then just check in with a RFID/HiD card for a time that suits you.

Sleek, award-winning design offers much of the functionality of the Door Tablet AIO

See the Door Tablet CIR brochure

Follow us on Social Media
It is officially Spring in London and it isn’t just the birds that are excitedly tweeting. Door Tablet’s Twitter account has been busy highlighting useful information throughout the winter – not just about developments at Door Tablet, but also regarding the latest news in our industry and in the world of enterprise meeting management.

A favourite subject has been the Smart Building industry and the future of the smart city environment. Will there be a standard landscape for cosmopolitan cities of the near future? Check out this March article in which Bruce Duyshart explains why smart buildings will actually become even smarter and more sustainable.

In the previous month, we published a couple of tweets inspired by events in The Netherlands. In this article, we saw encouraging signs that the definition of smart is evolving. It discusses Amsterdam's iconic smart building called "The Edge" which enables real-time interactions by users via their smart phones, so it can largely personalise user experiences to individual users. The second tweet was inspired by our successful presence at the Integrated Systems Europe 2019 event and can be read about here.

   


Door Tablet WIN - our Intel integration inspires greater hardware choice
Our successful integration with Intel Unite 4 has led to an expansion of the hardware choices being promoted with the sale of the Door Tablet signage solution, driven by Intel's focus on the Windows operating systems. Here are some images of the newest additions to the Door Tablet portfolio of tablets, all driven by Intel CPUs and Windows 10 OS.

End-point hardware, the Door Tablet WIN-MM.  Slick and elegant with white(ish) frame.  Front LED lights, with sides front profile.  PoE and RFID built-in.



End-point hardware, the Door Tablet WIN-WM.  Symetric and rugged.  LED lights, on both sides with front profile. PoE built-in, RFID optional.

Wayfinding player hardware, the Door Tablet WBX.  


Door Tablet . . . at a Glance!
A common line of enquiry for the team at Door Tablet, especially from people totally new to the product and the website is: “There is so much to absorb. The software is developing so quickly; the integration potential is so vast; the software may be easy to deploy and reliable to run, but there is so much to read to get our heads around the detail, the benefits, the scale of thinking that has gone into the conception of the product. Arghh!”

We hear this cry, and feel the pain. What is needed is a Door Tablet primer, a Ladybird Book of Door Tablet. For the impatient, the time-poor, and the facilities manager dashing to a procurement meeting, we offer Door Tablet at a Glance.

Welcome to the one-stop-shop, all-in-one, FAQ turnkey answer to all the questions you may have about Door Tablet. For a brief review of the features, click here. For ditto on the benefits: here.

Door Tablet School features a growing library of videos about a host of features of the product and how different people can use it. A handy place to start is with this one: “Using the Demo Server” shows how to get started with little fuss and no cost, and to get a feel for how the solution works.

For more information on deployment, this graphic is essential for clarifying the process. And for anyone interested in older print technology, we have a small library of brochures, for which the cornerstone among our PDFs is this general brochure to serve as a useful primer.

Finally, and if there is anything to be gained from the validation of Door Tablet by the vast and growing community of happy clients around the world, this is a pretty cool link too.