In this digital age work has been revolutionized by mobile telephones, laptops and the Internet. Working while travelling, in a hotel, at home and in a café has become a perfectly natural part of daily routine. And we can hardly imagine an office desk without a personal computer. But so much for links to the digital world when people meet to gather information, to discuss projects, find agreement and take decisions. Documents, which are today generally created digitally, are printed out for desk use, or as plans or images - and primarily handwritten comments, modifications, records and actions plans are then added using the computer. This takes time, slows down processes, involves sources of error and raises paper consumption.
This is the background to the new generation of Wilkhahn conference furniture: the integration of digital working aids into the world of conference and teamwork environments.

Intelligent conference interiors with a mix of furniture and computers: WilkhahnRoomware®

Wilkhahn Roomware® integrates modern information and communication technology in an interior for the support of conferences and teamwork. This has very little to do with the traditional vision of a computer world: large-format displays are mounted on the wall or integrated in tables or mobile wall structures. Operation is intuitive using fingers and pens, the computer as a device "disappears" and only presentation and work surfaces on which documents are shown remain visible.
The design concept, which was developed by the wiege design office in collaboration with Wilkhahn and Fraunhofer-IPSI, is aimed at integrating technology into familiar forms in a way that is as self-explanatory as possible. The key idea: the more familiar the "reference furniture units", the simpler the access to new technologies. Chairs, table configurations, mobile catering servers, sideboards and Roomware® all exhibit a coherent design language in which technology no longer appears as a foreign body.

Roomware Components represent solutions for typical team processes in a conference room: presenting, commenting on, discussing, deciding:

• At the CommBoard® (design: Wilkhahn, wiege) several people can carry out interactive presentations, make annotations and prepare tasks. Up to three touch-sensitive 50" plasma displays with a silver-colour frame and storage console can be linked in order to present and work on even different data sets in parallel. For example, a presentation can be shown in one field, in a second field Internet research can be carried out and comments can be entered in a third field.
  
  
• The InteracTable® (design: Wilkhahn, Fraunhofer-IPSI, Andreas Störiko), as a high table, also with an integral 50" touch-sensitive display, is more suited to informal discussion and decisive-making processes in small groups. The large display is set in a wide frame which allows participants to confer while standing around the InteracTable. The result is that those involved participate much more actively in such a confidential atmosphere, and "standing" sessions are generally more efficient than sitting. Andrea Störiko is responsible for the design. With its typical frame design and the integral impact-resilient profile edging the InteracTable blends perfectly with Wilkhahn Logon and Timetable table families and the Confair folding table.
  
  
• The mobile InterWall® (design: Wilkhahn, Fraunhofer-IPSI, wiege) is designed for application in small groups as - optionally touch-sensitive - an interactive, electronic flipchart and as a mobile presentation display. Data can be projected onto the 67", holographic glass surface using a retractable rear projector. It is therefore possible to work directly on the panel without any silhouette shadows. The retractable projection arm allows the InterWall to be moved easily through doorways and narrow corridors and allocated to particular groups - its intensity of light means it can be used almost independently of available light. When it is not is use it can be stored compactly at the side of a room. It then "disappears" optically due to the transparency of the glass panel. The slender frame, with its anodized profile structure and foot sections in polished cast aluminium, goes perfectly with the conference tools from the Confair range and Wilkhahn chairs and table families.

Faster, better, more efficiently - suitable for all IT software

This new conference furniture offers a range of advantages for conferences and teamwork :

• Preparation of conference and project work areas for visual presentations now only takes a "mouse click".
• All participants can see the digital surfaces simultaneously and work on the same.
•  Results are immediately available and may be sent, worked on and filed by Intranet, Internet, etc. - allowing coherent process design in one medium.
• Almost any computer can be connected to these Roomware® Components, which means that no modifications to existing IT equipment are required.
• This opens up further, new dimensions in the field of video conferencing. Teams at various locations can not only see and hear one another, but also work synchronously on one shared, "virtual" work surface.

ETH Zürich with an exemplary reference project

Just over a year ago the internationally acclaimed Swiss university in the centre of Zürich initiated an exemplary project with the development of "ETH World" for the purpose of adding a virtual campus to the real university. This involved linking a "virtual information room" with the "real environment" of the University. In context with this, the ETH is opening a completely new study room furnished with Roomware®": in the "Vireal Laboratory" at the Institut für pharmazeutische Wissenschaften (Institute for Pharmaceutical Science), the library, seminar room and the virtual computer world are merged to form an interactive environment for research, learning and teaching.

Roomware®: the highlight of Cebit 2002

The Deutsche Messe AG Hannover will not
only equip its official press meeting area at Cebit 2002 with Roomware®, but will also exhibit the concept together with Wilkhahn at a special stand for the entire duration of the fair: Hall 17, Stand A 52.

The Roomware® Components InteracTable and CommBoard can be ordered as from today. The InterWall will be available as a serial product as from 3/2002. Delivery times will be eight to ten weeks.

Please refer to www.wilkhahn.de, Wilkhahn Image Database, for further images, under page two of the search word "fod".
All images are available free of charge and may be selected in the print resolution required by using the shopping basket function.

Bad Münder, January 2002

Wilkhahn
Wilkening + Hahne GmbH
Communications + Corporate Development
Fritz-Hahne-Straße 8
31848 Bad Münder
Germany
burkhard.remmers@wilkhahn.de

In case of technical queries regarding Roomware®, please contact: frank.sonder@wilkhahn.de