Conference room chaos isn't usually a software problem. It's a visibility problem.
You've got the booking software handling reservations just fine, but people still walk up to occupied rooms, double-book spaces, or waste time checking their phones to see if Conference Room B is free. The scheduling works. Communication doesn't.
Meeting room displays solve this by sitting outside each space, showing real-time availability, current bookings, and upcoming schedules. Pair them with your reservation platform, and you've got something that actually prevents the "sorry, I thought this room was empty" situations that derail everyone's day.
If you think a booking platform alone solves conference room problems, you're missing half the solution. Reservation software handles scheduling, but it doesn't help someone standing in a hallway trying to figure out which space is free right now.
Instant Visibility: Someone glances at a screen outside Conference Room C and knows immediately if it's available. No app-checking, no guessing, no walking into active meetings.
Eliminates Double Bookings: Visual confirmation that a space is occupied prevents the "I didn't see the calendar invite" excuses. The screen shows the current meeting with time remaining, making it obvious.
Saves Time: Instead of pulling out a phone, opening a calendar app, finding the right resource, and scrolling through bookings, people look at the monitor. Two seconds versus thirty seconds adds up fast across an entire office.
Reduces Interruptions: When screens show meeting titles, organizers, and end times, people stop knocking on doors asking how much longer the current meeting will run.
We judged booking systems and display combinations on four criteria:
Ease of Setup: Can your IT team get this running without custom development? Does it work with your existing infrastructure?
Real-Time Sync: Do calendar changes appear on screens immediately, or is there a lag that makes the information unreliable?
Integration Flexibility: Does it play well with the calendar platform you already use (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365)?
Display Options: Can you use existing screens, or are you locked into proprietary hardware?
Here's what actually works for offices, schools, universities, and corporate environments.
Best For: Organizations already using Google Workspace who need reliable visual displays without adding another booking platform.
Overview: Google Calendar handles room bookings as calendar resources. People reserve spaces the same way they schedule any meeting. Rise Vision pulls that calendar data and displays it on monitors outside each conference area, showing real-time availability, current meetings, and upcoming schedules.
This combination makes sense if you're already paying for Google Workspace. You're not learning new software or managing separate login credentials. The calendar integration is built-in, and Rise Vision handles the visibility piece that Google Calendar alone can't solve.
"Rise Vision's Google integration makes updating calendars and announcements easy. The ability to send different content to different TVs/zones is a huge benefit," says Ryan VanKampen from a school using the platform.
Rise Vision syncs with Google Calendar in real-time. Someone books Conference Room A at 2:00 PM, the screen outside that room updates within seconds to show it's occupied. Meeting wraps up early, status changes back to available automatically.
The platform works with whatever hardware you've got. Mount a basic commercial monitor outside each space, connect a media player running Chrome, and you're showing live schedule information. Templates specifically designed for meeting room displays mean you're not building screens from scratch.
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Cons:
Pricing: Google Workspace subscription (typically $6-18 per user monthly, which you likely already pay) + Rise Vision display licensing + hardware costs for monitors and media players.
Best For: Organizations running Microsoft infrastructure who need visual displays that sync with Outlook calendars.
Overview: Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) lets you create bookable room resources in Outlook. Employees reserve conference spaces through their regular calendar interface, and Rise Vision pulls that schedule data to display on monitors outside each area.
If your organization uses Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem, this setup keeps everything in one platform. People book spaces the way they already book meetings, and Rise Vision adds the visual component that makes those bookings visible to anyone walking past.
"Risevision is excellent for keeping our campus informed. The Google Calendar integration is great, and customer service is helpful," says Ethan Partridge from a college campus. The platform handles Microsoft calendars the same way it manages Google ones.
Outlook calendars sync to Rise Vision displays in real-time. A last-minute booking shows up on the screen immediately. Recurring meetings appear automatically based on your Outlook schedule. Cancel a meeting, and the screen updates to show the space is available.
Greg Ashe from a university notes that Rise Vision "is cost-effective and integrates well with Google Workspace." The same applies to Microsoft environments. You're using calendar infrastructure you already pay for and adding displays that work with your existing setup.
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Pricing: Microsoft 365 subscription ($6-22 per user monthly, typically already in place) + Rise Vision display licensing + screen hardware.
Best For: Organizations wanting purpose-built room booking systems with built-in analytics and specialized features.
Overview: Platforms like Robin, Joan, and Envoy exist specifically for meeting space management. They handle bookings, include their own tablet screens for outside each room, track usage analytics, and often add features like hot-desking, visitor management, or workspace planning.
These tools solve edge cases that general calendar platforms don't address well. They can automatically release rooms if nobody checks in within 10 minutes, provide detailed analytics on space utilization, and handle complex scheduling scenarios like equipment reservations or catering coordination.
The tradeoff is you're adding another platform to your tech stack. People need to learn a separate booking interface (though many integrate with Google or Microsoft calendars), IT needs to support another tool, and you're paying per room or per user on top of your existing workspace subscriptions.
Some organizations need these features. A corporate office managing hot-desking across multiple floors, tracking which departments use which spaces, and coordinating catering for large meetings might find dedicated platforms worth the added complexity.
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Pricing: Varies by platform. Some charge per user (Envoy starts at $3 per active user monthly), others per device (Joan starts around €6 per device monthly), and Robin uses custom pricing. Hardware (tablets, screens) may be included or charged separately.
Best For: Organizations wanting to mix and match booking software with specialized display hardware.
Overview: This approach pairs your existing calendar platform (Google, Microsoft, or dedicated booking software) with display systems specifically designed for meeting room screens. Companies like Meeting Room 365 or similar providers offer tablets or monitors that sync with your calendars and mount outside conference areas.
These systems focus on the display component. They pull calendar data from whatever booking platform you use and show it on screens with layouts built for quick readability. Some include touch-screen functionality for on-the-spot bookings or meeting extensions.
The benefit is specialization. These tools do one thing (show room schedules on screens) and do it well. The downside is you're paying for both your calendar platform and the display system separately, and integration can sometimes lag if your calendar provider changes their API.
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Pricing: Varies by provider. Meeting Room 365 charges $9 per display monthly. Other platforms range from $10-30 per display monthly, plus hardware costs for tablets or screens.
Best For: Organizations with unusual requirements that commercial platforms don't address.
Overview: Some organizations build custom room booking and display systems. Maybe you've got legacy infrastructure that needs integration, compliance requirements that standard platforms can't meet, or unique workflows that commercial tools don't support.
Custom development gives you exactly what you need. The conference room booking system integrates with your existing databases, displays show precisely the information you want formatted exactly how you want it, and features match your specific use cases instead of trying to fit into what's commercially available.
This route costs more upfront and requires ongoing maintenance. You need developers who understand both the booking logic and the display components, and updates or changes require dev work instead of adjusting settings in a commercial platform.
Most organizations don't need this. Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 handle room bookings fine, and Rise Vision provides flexible display options without custom development. But if you're in a regulated industry with specific data residency requirements, managing an unusual facility type, or integrating with proprietary systems, custom might be your only real option.
Pros:
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Pricing: Highly variable. Development costs can be substantial, often requiring significant upfront investment plus ongoing maintenance and support.
Different environments use meeting spaces differently.
Universities manage conference rooms, study areas, and faculty spaces across multiple buildings. Students need to find available study rooms quickly. Faculty book meeting spaces for office hours or department meetings. Administrators need to see utilization across all locations to plan renovations or additions.
"Rise Vision allows us to post content on individual monitors and has useful features like local weather and a clock," says Jeremy Morgan from a university. The platform handles building-specific scheduling while giving central IT control over the entire system.
Corporate Offices prioritize clean aesthetics and professional appearance. Meeting room displays need to match office design, show information clearly without clutter, and handle the mix of recurring team meetings, client calls, and all-hands sessions that fill conference calendars.
Tracy M from a corporate environment says, "Rise Vision has been a great tool for digital signage across multiple screens in our office." The professional templates and customizable layouts fit corporate environments without looking like generic software.
K-12 Schools share spaces between classes, meetings, parent conferences, and after-school activities. A space that's a classroom until 3 PM becomes available for parent-teacher conferences after that. Displays need to show what's happening now and what's coming next without confusing students, teachers, and visitors who all use the same areas differently.
Andrew Click from a K-12 school district notes, "Rise Vision has transformed how we communicate with students, staff, and visitors. It's user-friendly, and the customization options allow each school to tailor content."
Manufacturing Facilities use meeting spaces for quick team huddles throughout the day, shift handoffs at specific times, and safety briefings that require larger spaces. Booking platforms need to handle these patterns, and screens need to show information that makes sense for a facility environment where people might be checking availability while wearing PPE or coming straight from the production floor.
Getting screens running outside your conference spaces doesn't require much.
You need monitors (commercial screens, repurposed displays, or tablets), a way to mount them outside each door, something to play the content (media players, existing smart screens, or computers you've already got), and a platform that pulls your calendar data and pushes it to the monitors.
Rise Vision works with whatever hardware you've got or want to buy. Mount a monitor outside each conference area, connect a media player running Chrome or an Amazon Fire Stick, point it at Rise Vision, and you're showing live calendar information.
The platform includes templates specifically for meeting space schedules. Pick a template, connect it to your Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 account, assign it to the right room resource, and the screen handles itself. You're not building displays from scratch or hiring designers to create layouts.
Initial setup takes maybe 30 minutes per space if you're mounting new monitors and running cables. Less if you're using existing screens or wireless connections. Someone books a space in their calendar app, and the screen updates automatically. Meeting ends early, status changes to available. A new booking gets scheduled at the last minute, and it appears on the monitor.
"Rise Vision is incredibly easy to use, reliable with no bugs, and great for school communication," says C Camacho from a school using the platform. The same reliability applies to meeting room displays. Set them up once, and they maintain themselves.
Double bookings still happen. Usually because someone grabbed a space without booking it, then someone else shows up with a legitimate reservation. Screens help by making it obvious that the area is booked, but you still need organizational buy-in that people should respect the schedule.
Screens show outdated information. This happens when the connection between your booking platform and the screen software drops. Rise Vision updates meeting space screens in real-time, but if your network connection is spotty or your calendar platform is slow to sync changes, you'll see delays. Fix the underlying connectivity issue, not the screen platform.
People book spaces "just in case" and don't show up. This is a policy problem, not a technology problem. Some organizations use auto-release features that free up spaces if nobody checks in within 10 minutes. Booking platforms and screens can support these policies, but they can't create them.
Room capacity doesn't match actual usage. A six-person conference area that constantly gets booked for two-person calls is either too large for most meetings or all your smaller spaces are always full. Screens can show capacity information to nudge people toward appropriately sized areas, and booking platforms can track usage patterns to help you figure out if you need more small spaces or fewer large ones.
Rise Vision isn't a replacement for your calendar platform. It functions as a digital calendar wall that makes your existing bookings useful for people standing in hallways looking for available spaces.
Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 handle reservations fine. People know how to use them, IT already manages them, and they integrate with the rest of your workspace tools. Rise Vision pulls that calendar data and shows it on screens where people actually need to see it: outside each conference room.
The platform handles Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 calendars the same way. Connect your calendar account, pick which room resources to display, assign screens to the right locations, and everything syncs automatically. Changes to the calendar appear on displays in real-time without manual updates.
"Rise Vision is the best digital signage platform we've ever used. It's intuitive, has a vast library of professional templates, and is easy to maintain," says Rick Gangwer from a school district. The meeting room templates are part of that library, designed specifically for showing schedules outside conference areas.
You're not locked into specific hardware either. Rise Vision works with commercial displays, consumer TVs, existing monitors, tablets, or whatever screens make sense for your environment and budget. Connect them to media players running Chrome (Apple TV, Android boxes, Amazon Fire Sticks, dedicated media players), and they'll show your meeting room schedules.
Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 room booking come with your existing workspace subscription. You're already paying for it. The only cost is time setting up resources, which is negligible.
Dedicated booking platforms typically charge $10-50 per space monthly or per user monthly, depending on features, hardware included, and support levels. Some include tablet screens for mounting outside spaces; others charge separately for hardware.
Screen platforms like Rise Vision charge based on how many monitors you're running. Meeting space screens count as individual displays, so the cost scales with how many areas you're equipping.
Hardware (monitors, mounts, media players) is separate and depends entirely on what you buy and where you buy it. You can spend $200 per area using budget screens and basic media players, or $1000+ per area with commercial-grade equipment and professional mounting.
Most organizations find that pairing their existing calendar platform (Google or Microsoft) with Rise Vision displays gives them everything they need without adding another booking system to learn and maintain. If budget's tight or you just want to test the setup before committing, Rise Vision offers free digital signage for one display.
What's the difference between a booking system and a meeting room display?
Booking software handles reservations. People use it to schedule meetings, see availability, and manage their calendars. Screens show the schedule information on a monitor outside each space so people know the status without checking an app. Most organizations use both: Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 for bookings, and screens for visibility.
Can Rise Vision replace my meeting room booking software?
No, and it's not designed to. Rise Vision pulls calendar data from Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and shows it on monitors. You still need booking software (your existing calendar platform works fine) to handle the actual reservations. Rise Vision shows that information where people need to see it.
Do I need special displays for meeting rooms?
Any screen works. Most organizations use basic commercial monitors, repurposed displays, or tablets mounted outside each area. As long as it can connect to a media player or run a web browser, it'll show your meeting space schedule.
How do displays update when someone books a room?
They sync with your calendar platform in real-time. Someone reserves Conference Room A in Google Calendar, and the screen outside that area updates within seconds to show it's occupied. Meeting ends or gets cancelled, status changes back to available automatically.
What happens if my internet connection drops?
Screens show the last synced schedule until the connection comes back. If someone books a space while your network is down, that reservation won't appear on the screen until connectivity returns and the platform syncs again. Your booking software still works fine (calendar platforms cache data locally), but the visual screens need a connection to pull updates.
Can I customize what information appears on room displays?
Yes. Most screen platforms let you choose what to show: current meeting title and organizer, time remaining, next meeting, capacity, available equipment, or just a simple available/occupied status. Rise Vision includes templates for meeting space schedules that you can modify to match your needs.
Do meeting room displays work with recurring meetings?
They show whatever's in your calendar, including recurring events. A weekly team meeting that runs every Tuesday at 10 AM appears on the screen every Tuesday at 10 AM. Cancel one instance of that recurring meeting, and just that date won't appear. Screen platforms don't care whether a booking is recurring or one-time; they just show what the calendar says.
How many displays can I manage from one account?
That depends on your platform. Rise Vision lets you manage multiple screens from a single dashboard, whether you've got three meeting areas or 300. You assign content to specific monitors, group them by location or building if needed, and update schedules across all of them at once or individually.
What if I don't use Google or Microsoft for email?
You'll need a booking platform that can export calendar data or provide API access for screens to pull schedule information. Most organizations use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, which makes integration straightforward, but other calendar platforms can work if they support standard calendar protocols like CalDAV or iCal.
Can displays show room equipment or capacity information?
Yes. You can include static information (space holds 8 people, has a projector and a whiteboard) alongside the live schedule data. This helps people book appropriately sized areas and know what's available before they walk in.