The dongle may seem innocent enough. The word itself is atrocious, but as a device, there’s nobility in a life spent helping bridge the gap between major infrastructure overhauls. But a person can only connect so many different cables end to end before they have to stand up for what is right. Enough is enough. The days of being ruled by the dongle demon have to go. Wireless connection is here to stay.

Lifesize Share reduces meeting room dongle clutter and gives everyone in the meeting room the ability to wirelessly share their screen and media.

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One of the places you’re most likely to run in to a dongle debacle is in the conference room. There are a few different ways companies have deployed media presentation practices, but unless you luck in to syncing your computer update cycle with IT’s meeting room connection cycle, you’re dongle destined. Here’s a quick look at the different meeting room presentation connection systems.

The Direct Connect

Typically a VGA (gross) or HDMI cable cord extending from the back of the meeting room display down the wall and precariously taped across the floor before emerging back through a hole cut out of the meeting room table. Add your favorite dongle and plug in for a direct connection to the display.

Dongle-assisted Wireless

The cord stretching from display to table is replaced with a wireless transmitter on the table and a wireless receiver at the display. The catch—you still have to plug in to the wireless transmitter which means you still have to carry around an array of USB to [insert latest and greatest connection port here].

Proprietary Wireless Display Solutions

There are a variety of competing standards for wirelessly streaming content and mirroring a device’s screen. Because of this, you can only share to and from specific devices, and some technologies can require a bigger learning curve for end users in the conference room. With proprietary solutions, everyone who wants to wirelessly share their presentation must download a proprietary software app — which if you think about it, is kind of like a software dongle.

True Wireless Media Sharing

Connect the wireless receiver to the internet and you open up the ability to pair your laptop directly to the receiver without the assistance of a dedicated transmitter. This helps provide a more consistent experience for companies embracing BYOD policies by enabling team members in the room to open up their browser and start wirelessly screen sharing their media in real time.

Lifesize Share reduces meeting room dongle clutter and gives everyone in the meeting room the ability to wirelessly share their screen and media.

We live in a world where grown adults have to carry around dongle pouches full of input accessories just to stay connected. And for that, I’m very excited about the future of wireless media sharing with Lifesize Share™.