I'm designing a commercial system, conference room and I want to use an hdmi HDBaseT matrix (several sources and monitors) probably an Atlona since this is going to be an Elan G system for control.

There will be a conference table (very large table) with 3 pop up plates for a variety of connections.

1. Since the matrix will be hdmi HDBT (to all monitors), should I provide hdmi ports at the conference table? Or should I provide VGA and then use a VGA to hdmi converters?

2. One of the sources on the matrix will be an AppleTV. I'm hoping that anyone that brings a MAC laptop to the conference will simply "Airplay" whatever presentation they have to the ATV. Is there any flaw in this thinking?

Call me.

most, if not all laptops purchased in the past 3 years will have HDMI. I brought the idea up for a vga plate to several customers and they all shot it down saying, "the presenters should get better laptops". apple TV is a great add on, for ipad presentations. There is also a program called "air parrot" that allows you to air play using a pc or older mac.

I insist on installing both in all pop ups.  I don't want to get the phone call and/or the subsequent blame because a person can't connect to the conference room on the most improtant presentation of his career.  

I always try to think of the presenter.  He could be an employee, he could be an outside salesguy, he could be a dork from accounting who's career literally hinges on that meeting.  

That being said, it's gott be easy, it's gotta be fast, and we can't make assumptions.  

1. You can't assume they'll have HDMI
2. You can't assume they'll have VGA
3. You can't assume they're an employee.
4. You can't assume that even if they have a Mac, they know how to use Airplay.

IMO, in these installations, redundancy is key.  You have to give them all possible connections, not a this or that scenario.

We just did a job (Crestron) and initially spec'd and installed only HDMI with 1 VGA (there are 3 locations in the table, and we were cutting back costs as per request of the company). The company then hired an IT guy and after the job was completed we had to retro in 2 VGA as their IT guy was mad that we didn't provide VGA to the other locations. Although a lot of newer computers are using HDMI, I would still provide the ability to connect VGA. You don't know who is coming in and what corporate deals the company has with purchasing laptops.

For the cables we had to retro we used VGA to HDMI adaptors and they are working great. Connected to an 8x1 then to a DM-TX back to an 8x8 for distribution throughout the building should they wish to do so.

+1 for providing HDMI. Sources that don't have HDMI ports these days are almost considered legacy. Plus, I wouldn't mess with converting signals if you don't have to....it just adds another possible level of failure into the system.

We are doing the same setup right now, just got done with the prewire and was asking myself the same question (HDMI\VGA or BOTH)

We are just going to put in both, so we cover our ass. Also have an AppleTV as source on the matrix to ipad\mac guests.

We have 2 local cats going from the table to the conf. rm TV, BUT I cant find any VGA with 3.5mm Balun? Anyone know of any?

FP - What pop up plates are you using?

I do a number of meeting rooms and have found the following...
NONE of the sales or medical reps have laptops new enough to support HDMI.
Some even still have DVI and of course there is mini DVI, Display Port and mini Display Port.
Also do not forget portable devices (ipods, ipads, andriods etc.).
Plan also for Video conf.

What the Senator from Florida said.

Assume nothing.

I'm unsure of what type of pop up plates will be used. I know they have already picked the table and I'll bet the table provider already has specific pop up plates (the last few conference room jobs I did already had the plates specified and I just specified the connections on the plates). I hope to clarify this within the next few days.

The phone contractor is providing the video conference solution, although if I knew more about V.C. I could try to provide that. But since I've no knowledge of V.C. I feel inadequate trying to muscle in on that. How many of you guys also provide V.S. solutions in most of your conference rooms?

I haven't provided DVI (in a long time) or display port (ever) in a conference room and it has never been an issue. An AppleTV with Airplay seems like an easy substitute for a display port connection. If they can't figure out how to use Airplay on their Mac Book, then they can Google how to do it and be up and presenting in a matter of minutes.

I'm leaning on just doing VGA (converted to hdmi) and straight hdmi on the conference table.

My issue now is I don't want to chew up too many inputs on my matrix (audio will be an Elan S86 or 1616) and video will be Atlona HDBT matrix. Plus there will be other source choices on the matrices: Vid Conf, cable Box, audio streamer, AppleTV, White noise generator (maybe), etc...

I'd like to limit the matrix to 8 sources, but I also have another conference table in another smaller room with one pop up (which is yet another source)

I think I'll need to provide some sort of switch under the conference table to switch between the 3 pop up plates, since they will not be used at the same time (according to the president of the company). Other wise 2 ports on each plate (x 3 plates) will chew up too many sources on my matrix.

Any ideas on how to handle this?

Problem here is that only the newest Mac Book Pros support the Airplay function.
My experience has been that most travellers have older machines.

AND VGA


I would Provide both. 

The fact is that they will probably only really need VGA now, but will definitely need HDMI down the road (if not now as well). 

I would also provide a Display Port to HDMI adapter, Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter and at least talk to them about an Ipad-to-HDMI adapter. 

Definitely provide both options. For multiple connections at the tables, I've been putting in 4x1 switchers for both cables and home running the output into my matrix. Much cleaner and doesn't eat up all your inputs. Just make sure to pull the control wire for the switchers though.

What brand of hdmi switcher? What brand of VGA switcher?