To maintain a working environment whether it be the office or the productivity in a warehouse, small businesses often invest in must-have technologies and quality office equipment. Both small businesses and big businesses can benefit from implementing technology in many of their departments. Here are some ideas for tech that won’t break the bank and can help any small business onwards succeed.
The Chromecast
Chromecast is a $35 ish HDMI dongle that looks similar to a USB flash drive. It weighs hardly anything and can allow its user to stream nearly anything from a laptop or mobile devices to a TV or a projector. It’s sold as a way to make your smart TV, even smarter. Once you have the Google Cast extension installed in Chrome on your Mac, PC, Chromebook and Android etc, you can then stream these devices straight on to your TV.
Setting your Chromecast is relatively easy for the moderate to intermediate ‘techi’ but if you are unsure, not to worry, there is plenty of handy information that can take you to step by step through the installation and set-up. This Link – ‘https://setapp.com/how-to/set-up-and-optimize-chromecast-for-mac’ is a great walkthrough of how to install Chromecast onto a Mac.
Leave Cables Behind
The Chromecast is a nearly perfect alternative for conference room layouts that can often cost thousands. You’ll get fantastic good video quality and the benefits of going wireless and for the price of just being able to connect a MacBook to your TV or projector. If you’re organizing a meeting, the only thing you’ll need your presenters to do is to install the Google Cast extension and “cast” their current tab, and if you’re the public speaker; that would otherwise need a cable, wouldn’t and would be giving the speech wirelessly. Not to mention you’ll have audio support automatically, something that can be rather a hit or miss with HDMI cables.
There is one cable you’ll still need to take, though, being the Chromecast USB power cable. You can leave behind the charger, though, as most newer TVs will have some USB ports that can be there to power the Chromecast.
Make Better Presentations
The Chromecast works well when you’re streaming from a browser tab but can also stream the contents of your devices screen using the mirror mode. So if you need to change the way you make presentations and if you’re using Keynote or PowerPoint, then you can just play it from your laptop or smartphone and mirror it to the big screen for everyone to see. Alternatively, if you would like to stream through the browser, you can switch and use their web apps at iCloud.com and Office.com, respectively, to push the presentations to the Chromecast.
Or, if you’re already using Google Docs to make presentations, you’re in luck as it’s not only already in your browser, but it already lets you stream your presentations from any mobile device. Better yet, Google Documents natively supports Chromecast in the web application. So you don’t have to stream your tab, instead, Google App will stream the presentation directly to your TV, letting you keep your presentation notes visible on your pc or laptop.
There’s another option; PowerPoint and Keynote both let you export presentations as a PDF, as does the new Markdown-powered presentations app ‘Deckset’. To do this, just export your presentation as a PDF, then drag it into a new Chrome tab and click the ‘Fill Screen’ button on the controls that float over the PDF on the bottom. Tap the left and right arrows to switch between your slides. There are no transition animations, the important thing about your presentation is the content and team understanding.
Let Everyone Join In
Many small businesses are using Chromecast to show off projects completed during their company retreat. Group discussions are a great way to let colleagues share their ideas, sometimes ideas include more than just words. If you wanted to share the screen during a typical presentation, you’ll have to disconnect the presenter’s laptop, then connect your laptop, and hope everything is set dynamic to support everything and hope that it works.
The Chromecast, however, frees you to let anyone present. If someone wants to put something on the big screen after someone else, all they have to do is click the Cast button in Chrome and the TV will almost instantly switch to their tab. This feature to be the best reason to use a Chromecast in an educational setting, and so it can equally be useful at your team’s next meeting.
Take Advantage Of An Extra Screen
TV screens are perhaps the best way to passively display information to a collective, and there’s no reason the TV in your meeting room can’t be used that way, too. With the use of a Chromecast, you can let your TV show your team’s work dashboard just by casting a tab. If you’re using the Telemetry option, you can then use their special Chromecast integration to make your Chromecasts view become customized for your TV.
Have Fun
The odds are, that you’re not taking your vinyl stereo with you on your team retreat, and you probably won’t want to sit around and watch whatever’s broadcasted on TV at night. The Chromecast’s most popular reason to buy is the feature of making your TV smart, this will still come in handy, that when the presentations are done, it’s time to relax. Anyone can send their music, radio or youtube stream to the TV for background music during the day. If it’s getting dark, you can unwind around a Netflix or Google Play movie or let everyone share their favourite viral YouTube video on the big screen at night. That’s when you’ll remember that if the Chromecast is just a toy, it’s a pretty technical toy.
Have you ever used a Chromecast for your business? What ways did you utilize the flexible features Google offers with Google+? Let us know in the comments below!