Having the right equipment is something that’s taken seriously at Baxter Healthcare in Waukegan, Illinois. Baxter’s Waukegan office is the U.S. marketing headquarters for kidney dialysis equipment, a field where Baxter has been a leader since designing the first disposable dialysizer back in 1956. So when Baxter’s Emilie Rogers set out to find the office two portable LCD projectors, she was a little more particular than the average buyer.

A typical day at Baxter can be non-stop meetings, says Rogers, whether internal employee gatherings, off-site training sessions, or customer presentations. Until last year, staff most often used overhead projectors at these gatherings, but Rogers says they were getting very tired of spending $1.00 each for up to 50 transparencies for every meeting, then throwing them away when the meeting was over. Though they owned two older LCD projectors, they were just too confusing and time consuming to set up. It was time for a change.

"We were looking for something very easy to use, something we didn’t have to change our computer settings for every time," says Rogers. They also wanted something that would fit their budget—and with a good warranty that would hold down service costs. United Visual’s Dale Bottcher brought out several samples, and they settled on two Sony portables, which have been in constant use ever since. The Sonys are bright enough to be used with the lights on or off, with a screen or just a blank wall, and Bottcher provided a simple instruction sheet that acquaints new users with their setup procedures. Rogers says there are days when the projectors go from meeting to meeting to meeting, with a different operator every time. "We’ve rarely had a problem," she says, "but when we do, we need it fixed right away. One time, when we didn’t have the right cables for an important meeting, Dale actually brought them over personally, rather than sending them. He’s been great."

Rogers says the staff appreciates how easy the projectors have been to use—and their new ability to make changes in presentations right up to the last minute. That’s not something they had when they were making transparencies. The Sony projectors have proven to be the right equipment for an office that knows just how important the right equipment can be.