Audience Response Systems can use one of several different technologies. Some are based simply on the technology of the moment, whilst others are based on functional necessity. What are they and what should you be aware of?

Cabled

The original voting systems pre-dated a lot of modern technology that we all think has been around for ages. Long before Microsoft Windows or even portable computers that were basically glorified typewriters, audience response was out there.

Our first interactive voting systems connected the base computers to the voting handsets via hundreds of cables. The biggest problem here was for us, the poor technicians that spent hours and hours on our knees painstakingly installing and making safe all those cables! We were known for being the first guys on site before an event and the last ones to leave afterwards.

We were also known as the Atari guys, as our systems used the highly underrated Atari ST computers. They could control thousands of handsets, with 1MB of memory and no hard drive at all!

Technology moved inexorably forward and clients (and technicians too!) began to want the flexibility of a wireless system. Wireless systems are normally based on one of two technologies, namely Infrared and Radio. However, there are also systems that require the audience to bring the handsets with them and we’ll deal with those first.

Before we move on, I should say that there are still wired systems out there, often used in fixed installations and television gameshows. However, they can't offer the flexibility our clients normally require and our cabled system is now a museum piece in our offices!

SMS

These don’t rely on any propietary handsets at all. Instead they rely on the mobile phones of the audience to send their votes via text message to a special number that is then relayed to a control computer at the venue.

Whilst these are obviously cheap to install we feel there are several problems when using them in an event.

Firstly, the sending of text messages is not instant. Some take seconds, some might take minutes to arrive at their destination. Secondly, at most of the events we go to the first slide reminds the audience to turn their mobiles off! Thirdly there is most likely a cost implication to the user, and at an international event, this could be turn out to be quite expensive!

Infrared

This is what your TV remote control uses. It is a relatively cheap technology, but for voting systems has its limitations. It requires ‘line of sight’, is quite slow to process, and does not handle large amounts of handsets very well. In other words, we’ve never found it to be reliable enough to use in a meeting environment. We actually developed a prototype system, but ditched it for the above reasons in favour of developing a wireless voting system using radio.

Radio

Audience response systems using radio can operate on one of several different frequencies, each with their own particular advantages and disadvantages.

In comparison with Infrared systems, radio audience voting systems offer far better reliability in the transmission of data, are a lot faster in sending and receiving information and can bring a whole range of extra features and functionality such as quizzes and texting to the electronic voting system they are part of.

All of the major manufacturers of interactive voting keypads now use radio as the method of transmission of votes and other information. That is indication enough for us that radio is the technology to use (at least for the moment!) for audience response voting systems.

So that’s that then, you might think. Unfortunately there are different ‘flavours’ of radio audience response systems. Different systems might use polling or event-based technologies, 433 MHz or 2.4GHz, normal batteries or rechargeable ones. I won’t go into the details here, but suffice it to say that of course the manufacturers of each system will tell you theirs is the best!

As for Group Dynamics, the only technology we don’t have experience with is the one using rechargeable batteries in the handsets. And to be honest, most users don’t need to know the differences, as long as their voting requirements are met.

And as for the technicians, wireless means we’re now often the last to arrive and the first to depart  - so quick are they to install and remove after an event!