August 23rd, 2007 - ILS acquires ownership SpeakersCorner Lectern

ILS has completed its negotiations with Swiss owners of the rights to the SpeakersCorner Lectern in order to be able to bring the product and new derivative designs to the global market. All rights transfer to ILS. The product has been developed 2002 - 2004 at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) and since undergone several design alterations by the Swiss firm Tribecraft and Mr. Frank Schefter in cooperation with the manufacturer BFE in Germany, to make it the most stylish and functional design the market can find for a compact electronic lectern housing.

ETHZ designed the product to satisfy its internal needs and that of many universities for a robust but compact alternative to the large tables and cabinets often in the way of good teaching. In its current form it is manufactured by BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH. The default system allows integration of PC, LAN and audio amplification and mounts the SMART technologies Sympodium ID series for interactivity. It is also pre-wired for other devices and features a straightforward large KVM switch to guide output of such devices to the projection screen.
Avid users include next to the ETH Zürich, Swiss universities of Winterthur, Bern, Lausanne, and Karlsruhe and Bonn in Germany. Several major corporations are also using (owning and renting) the equipment. ILS added clients to this recently in other countries as it distributed the product under the name ILS16P.

After featuring the product during the Integrated Systems Europe Show and the Infocomm 2007 show in Los Angeles Henk de Groot, owner of ILS, commented: ”We are very glad with the ownership. Not only is the ILS16P SpeakersCorner a great product in our portfolio, it is also an essential support piece in our product development strategy. Owning the design and manufacturing rights allows us to create a 19” rack wide version and a more cost efficient modular approach to support other touch display options, such as our own future lectern modules, ELOtouch monitors and the SMART’s Sympodium Dual Touch line.