Choosing the right lectern for your space can be a difficult decision to make and there are several factors that you should consider. Things like the size of your space, how many people you are presenting to, the style of lectures, lessons and other activities being undertaken and the amount of AV you need to integrate should all be taken into account in order to better inform your decision.
What is the size of your space?
Let’s start with the most obvious question first, as often this will decide the general size range of the lectern you choose. If you’re looking to fit out a small room that can accommodate smaller groups, you probably won’t need a full rack lectern to present from. In these instances, you could consider utilising wall mounted solutions such as our Juno & SALC range. These lecterns move away from traditional floor mounted designs used to present from in order to free up valuable floor space and focus on housing the AV required for the room.
Seminar rooms can accommodate a variety of lectern sizes and often require a traditional style lectern, which your lecturers will present from to groups of up to 30 people. In general, you’ll be looking at lecterns in a range up to 1500mm wide. You have several options here and your decision can be influenced by the lectern’s mobility, height adjustability and the amount of workspace you require. Each of our ranges offer one or a combination of these features to help make your decision.
Lecture theatres come in a range of sizes, but the common theme is that they demand presence. Providing a suitable stage from which your lectures will present from and maintain the attention of numerous attendees is of utmost importance. In general, you will be looking at Lecterns no smaller than 1400mm wide and depending on the size of your lecture theatre we offer lecterns up to 3000mm.
What activities will the space be used for?
One factor that often gets forgotten, is how will your lectern support the activities taking place in the space? First let’s go back a step as often the size of the space will determine the activities taking place within it.
Let’s say your room is relatively small at 3x3m now the activities you undertake in here will cater to no more than a few people at a time perhaps it is even a small office space in which you conduct one-on-one tutorials or give feedback. Such a space may not require a full lectern but could benefit from some of the connectivity and integration of a small wall mounted unit which could allow individuals to connect devices to a screen for presenting work to be critiqued.
Larger teaching spaces may be set up for collaborative learning and group work with multiple tables and displays to cater for a larger number of people. Such spaces would benefit greatly from lecterns that are easily manoeuvred into differing positions for presenting en-masse or to separate groups. These lecterns may also require a decent amount of integration allowing the tutor to control each aspect of the room from a primary position with control over each individual group table.
If your space is going to be used as a lecture theatre you need to consider a multitude of activities as not every lecture will have the same requirements. Will your theatre allow lecturers to connect using their own devices or will you utilise an on-board PC solution? How about audio-visual outputs or the ability to split multiple resources between differing display solutions? Will you allow for the presentation of digital media including video and audio? What about wireless connectivity? Perhaps, you will allow students to interact from their own devices. This leads us to the next vital question and ultimately determines the size of the lecterns you will end up choosing from.
How much AV do you need to use?
How much equipment do you need to integrate for the activities you intend to undertake? Say you have a smaller room in which you only need to utilise a small amount of AV equipment or output to a single resource (i.e. a screen). A slim wall mounted solution that houses the minimal amount of equipment required to control and output to essential AV resources will save valuable space.
If you have more than a few AV resources, which need to be controlled or output to, you’re going to need at least an intermediate rack solution. The smallest full width rack we offer can be found in our Messenger lecterns which are ideal for small to medium sized spaces where functionality such as mobility and height adjustability is key. If however you require a full-size rack with similar mobility our Explorer range offers 16U of full width rack space allowing it to accommodate AV integration for medium to large seminar rooms.
Larger seminar rooms and lecture theatres inherently require a larger array of AV and IT integration. This can range from control panels for lighting and other environmental aspects, visualisers/projectors, monitors, microphones and other audio-visual equipment. Usually one rack will accommodate all your essential equipment, but should you need additional rack space the Duet or Duplex variants in our ranges denote a second rack for even more space. On certain ranges this means you can have up to 32U of full width rack space.
So, what’s next?
We would love to hear from you to discuss your latest projects and lectern requirements.
To take advantage of TOP-TEC’s manufacturing and technology integration expertise drop us a line on +44 (0)121 783 3838 or alternatively e-mail us at sales@top-tec.co.uk.
