Selecting the right
meeting room booking display for your office means balancing functionality, reliability, and fit for purpose. Whether you deploy
interactive touch‑capable panels or
non‑interactive schedule signs, your choice will affect how teams locate, book, and manage meeting spaces.
In this guide, we’ll compare
interactive vs. non‑interactive displays, explore use cases across room types from small huddle spaces to boardrooms and coworking environments, highlight hardware examples our platform supports, and offer closing considerations to help your IT team make an informed decision.
What Defines Interactive and Non‑Interactive Door Tablet Hardware?
Interactive and non-interactive door tablet hardware both feature full-colour, customisable displays and connect seamlessly to the scheduling platform, but they differ in how people use them. Interactive Door tablet hardware often includes enterprise room‑panel devices (e.g. Door Tablet or Crestron TSS‑series) or consumer tablets (iPad, Android) mounted in custom enclosures. They let users view schedules, check in, book or release rooms, and even request support, right at the door. Most interactive professional panels also feature LED status indicators, visible from across a hallway.
Non‑interactive door tablet hardware, by contrast, is designed to display information only. These can be e‑ink (electronic paper) signs, interactive panels running in read‑only mode, or static LED strip indicators. They show room name, current meeting or status, and upcoming events, but do not accept touch input or enable booking on site. Some include colour LED bars or lights to convey availability at a glance.
Pros and Cons of Interactive Displays
Benefits of Interactive Hardware
- On‑device booking and check‑in: Users can reserve rooms, extend meetings, and check in directly on the panel, no phone or web access needed. This responsiveness is ideal for impromptu meetings or fast‑changing schedules. Many interactive panels also support automatic room release if no check‑in occurs within a defined window. That helps prevent ghost‑bookings and reclaims unused rooms.
- Live status indicators: Door Tablet’s purpose-built devices, such as the Door Tablet SL and Door Tablet NXT, feature integrated LED status bars that glow green when a room is free and red when it’s booked. These visual cues provide clear availability signals from a distance, making it easy to see whether a meeting space is in use before you reach the door.
- Rich, branded interface: Touch panels can show room details (name, capacity, amenities), custom backgrounds, logos, and multilingual prompts. Interface designs can support accessibility, and high‑contrast screens enhance readability. You can also run a slideshow during longer meetings, turning the display into a space for company updates, announcements, or branded messages, making the panel useful even when the room is occupied.
Considerations for Interactive Hardware
- Device management: Touch‑capable tablets and panels run operating systems (Android, iOS, proprietary firmware) and apps. They require regular updating, remote monitoring, and occasional troubleshooting at scale.
- Installation requirements: Interactive panels often need Power over Ethernet (PoE) and wall-mounted network cabling. Mounting hardware may be more complex, especially if a flush‑mount style is desired.
- Touch hygiene and usage policy: In high-traffic shared areas, you may decide to restrict or disable on-device booking, or set policies to limit access to administrators. Alternatively, implement sanitisation protocols or optional stylus use.
Pros and Cons of Non‑Interactive Displays
Benefits of Non‑Interactive Hardware
- Simplicity and robustness: E‑ink signs are highly reliable and require minimal maintenance. With no touch interface, there’s no risk of accidental booking, tampering, or misclicks.
- Wireless flexibility and low power: Battery‑powered e‑ink door signs update via Bluetooth or Wi‑Fi and can operate for long periods on a single charge, making them ideal for hard‑to‑wire doors or temporary setups.
- High-contrast readability, even in bright light: E‑ink displays resist glare and remain readable under direct sunlight or low‑light conditions. They’re well‑suited for glass‑fronted rooms or corridors.
- Reliable information display: Even if the local network or power connection falters, e‑ink displays retain the last updated schedule on screen until refreshed, with less risk of “blank screen” scenarios.
- Sustainability: With ultra-low power consumption and no need for constant connectivity, they use less energy and produce less electronic waste over their lifetime. Combined with their low operational footprint, this makes them a more environmentally friendly option. They’re also more cost-effective to deploy and own over time, especially at scale. This is ideal for companies looking to outfit multiple rooms or locations without ongoing overhead.
Considerations for Non‑Interactive Hardware
- No on-site booking or check‑in: If someone walks up to the door, they can’t use the display to reserve or release the room. Booking must happen via a mobile device or desktop, which may slow ad‑hoc use.
- Limited functionality: Non-interactive hardware can't support add-on features like issue reporting or linked room overviews. It’s purely a signage tool—powerful for display, but not for engagement.
- Update frequency constraints: Some e‑ink or static displays refresh only periodically (e.g. every few minutes) to conserve battery, which can introduce slight lag in schedule updates.
Tip: For flexibility, fully interactive devices can also be configured in read-only mode, reducing room licence costs while still displaying key scheduling information and keeping the door open for an upgrade to full interactivity later, if needed.
Use Cases: Hardware Fit by Room Type
Let’s match hardware types to common room profiles in modern offices:
Small Huddle Rooms (2–4 people)
These rooms tend to host spontaneous meetings, so fast access is critical.
- Interactive tablets like Door Tablet IDA-S are well-aligned to grab-and-go booking. A user sees a free room and taps “Reserve” within seconds; the schedule reflects that. They can also check in or end early.
- Non‑interactive e‑paper devices might suffice if your workplace largely pre-plans meeting use. They serve as confirmation signs but rely on off-site booking. Great for spaces where impromptu use is less frequent.
- In offices where individuals are assigned rooms for focused work over a set period—think of a lawyer, consultant, or visiting executive. E‑paper displays can be used as personal signs, showing the occupant’s name or status outside the room without the need for touch functionality.
Boardrooms & Large Conference Rooms
These are premium rooms with scheduled use, often administered.
- Interactive displays like Door Tablet SL or Door Tablet NXT
- You may configure those panels in view-only mode if you wish to restrict door-based booking, making them functionally similar to a non‑interactive display, but preserving upgrade flexibility.
- A non‑interactive E-paper tablet could be placed to simply display the day's agenda, but often, interactive hardware is preferred to reduce ghost bookings and enhance utilisation.
Shared Workspaces and Collaboration Zones
Often used by multiple teams or guests, these require visibility and flexibility.
- For enclosed shared rooms or pods, interactive tablets let teams make same-day reservations easily at the door.
- For open collaboration areas, a central non-interactive kiosk screen showing the status of multiple nearby rooms helps users orient themselves. Individual pods can sport e‑ink signs or LED indicators to convey occupancy.
- For hot-desking, smaller e‑paper displays also work well on desks, especially in hot-desking environments where you want to display a user’s name or reservation status discreetly without wiring or ongoing management.
Coworking Spaces
Coworking models often combine flexible access with control over memberships.
- Non‑interactive e‑paper door signs are well-suited: they are wireless, moveable, rugged, and confirm room status clearly without enabling walk‑up booking by unauthorised users. This helps maintain control and aesthetic consistency.
- Where member-driven, ad-hoc booking is encouraged, deploying interactive panels with login or PIN access empowers members to self-serve, while still controlling access. LED lighting and branded UIs also contribute to a modern, polished impression.
Considerations to Guide Hardware Choice
When choosing hardware, consider the following factors:
User Behaviour and Workflow:
- Do people arrive spontaneously and book rooms on the spot, or is everything planned?
- Is on-site meeting confirmation (check-in) important for utilisation tracking?
- How do employees prefer to interact—via phone, desktop, or at the door?
Visibility Requirements:
- Are signal lights visible from hallways or distant views important? Interactive panels with LED bars help with that.
- Are the room doors glass-fronted or located in areas with bright ambient light? E-ink displays may be better.
Infrastructure and Deployment Flexibility:
- Are there wiring constraints? Battery-powered e-ink signs eliminate the need for power or data cabling.
- Is PoE or wired Ethernet available at each room doorway? That supports interactive panel installation.
Maintenance and Support Overhead:
- Interactive hardware requires device or OS management, software updates, and occasionally physical cleaning.
- E-ink and static displays need minimal upkeep—no touch calibration, fewer software dependencies.
Features and Future Needs:
- If you may need check-in validation, support requests, or multi-room booking from the panel, interactive hardware is the only path.
- If your needs are limited to schedule display and passive confirmation, passive signs may suffice.
- Interactive devices also lend themselves to future expansion—e.g. integration with wayfinding kiosks or team directories. Interactive displays also support advanced capabilities like NFC and HID integration, enabling users to check in using their access badges. They’re also fully brandable, allowing organisations to customise layouts, logos, and messages to reflect their identity or reinforce workplace culture.
Objective Outlook on Interactive vs. Non‑Interactive Displays
Interactive displays deliver maximum functionality: booking, check-in, status indication, branding, and future extensibility. It aligns well with environments that value self-service, agility, and on-site interaction.
On the other hand, non-interactive displays provide a resilient, low-touch method for communicating room status. E-ink displays offer a clean display, broad visibility, and independence from battery or network requirements. They excel in environments where simplicity, reliability, or minimalist user interaction is preferred - such as coworking spaces or lightly scheduled rooms.
Neither option is inherently better; they simply serve different operational needs. The strongest deployments often use a mixed hardware strategy, placing interactive panels in high-use or premium rooms (e.g. boardrooms, huddle areas with high turnover), and deploying passive displays in stable, pre‑booked, or administratively controlled spaces.