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Electronic Voting Systems and Audience Response Systems, About:
Buying Tips
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Electronic Voting Systems and Audience Response Systems, About:
Buying Tips
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| If you have decided to purchase
an electronic voting system, you'll find that choosing the
right system, software, and vendor is no easy task.
Each person's need can be drastically different.
And, the solutions are many. |
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| Step 1: Do a needs
analysis |
| Take fifteen minutes and
think about what you might need from an audience response system over the next three years.
How many different people will use the system, and what will they use it
for? Is it likely that multi-digit entry (the ability to choose
more than one answer or to enter a number higher than 10) will be a
necessity, or will single-digit entry do? What is the maximum size
audience you might have at anytime, over the next three years. Put
these answers on paper, and add your own requirements. |
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| Step 2: Decide on a
hardware platform, then on a brand |
| If your audience will be no
more than 30 or 40 people, and if your budget is very limited then an
infrared technology system is a good choice. Because
infrared is limited in terms of room size
and because there are fewer software choices, this technology is best for
small classrooms, and small focus groups. |
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| If your audience will be
anywhere from about 50 to 10,000 people "radio" audience response
keypads are a necessity.
You then have to choose between single-digit and multi-digit. In North
America, there is really only one major manufacturer,
Fleetwood
Electronics. Their single-digit system is called Standard Reply®,
and their multi-digit is Reply IQ®.
They do not sell direct to end-users. However their dealer network
is vast, and most Audience Response companies resell Fleetwood's
entire wireless keypad product
line. |
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| In Europe, the two largest
manufacturers are IML
and Braehler.
However, Fleetwood
Electronics has now become a major force in the EU as well, and
should be included in your review of hardware platforms. With a
completed review, decide on hardware. |
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| Step 3: Choose
software titles that are compatible with the selected hardware. |
| The first point here is that
you should not box yourself in trying to find one software application
that will do everything that you want it to. These days there are lots
of choices for each major hardware platform and there is no reason why
you can't own two or three different programs for different types of
meetings. |
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| Assuming you will purchase just
one software application initially, you'll need to decide on a major
'class' of software. That is, do you want a PowerPoint®
plug-in, or
a standalone program. Plug-ins provide the benefit of quick
learning and ease of use because PowerPoint®
itself provides the
presentation means. A standalone product needs to have its own
authoring and presentation modules, which most often is very different
from PowerPoint®. So, the learning curve can be steep.
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| The advantage to standalone
software is enhanced stability and feature richness. If it is written well,
you'll experience no difficulties whatsoever during a presentation,
which is the system's most vulnerable time. Standalones use
dedicated blocks of Windows memory, and therefore, experience fewer
memory conflicts. These conflicts can bring a computer to its
knees. Plug-ins must be written exceptionally well because they
run in PowerPoint's space. The only plug-in we know of that
exhibits standalone stability is TurningPoint®
from Turning Technologies, which is also the plug-in of choice for
professionals. Professional standalone products to consider are MeetingNet, and ComTec XP Pro. |
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| Step 4: Research the many
resellers and place the order |
| Once you've decided on a
hardware platform and a software package, shop for a fair price.
We would not do business with any Audience Response company that
wont sell software unless we buy their hardware, too.
Neither should you. |
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| Lastly, the company you buy from should
be one that actually uses the software. For this reason we
like purchasing from rental companies. And of
course, we hope that you will consider
purchasing from us. |
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Audience Response Rentals, LLC
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