Unleash your new technology by cutting the cord

Many advisers have added a big-screen TV to their conference room for interactive client meetings. If you have added this feature, do you find yourself tethered to your TV with a bundle of cables that get in the way? Conference tables started adding cable management years ago to keep things looking relatively neat, but many offices still have those messy cables strewn across the floor. Getting current with technology will do more than eliminate the video cable, power cord and, if you still use them, the network cable. Wireless connectivity with your TV allows you more conference room options, including eliminating the conference room table if you like, and device options. At one end of the spectrum, a radio-frequency wireless system will eliminate all the cables and devices, but can be costly and requires professional installation. My choice is Apple TV. For $100, the very, very small black box connects to your TV and Wi-Fi network, instantly allowing you to share anything on your iPad, MacBook or iMac through AirPlay. Apple TV can be set up in about five minutes and AirPlay is intuitive once you learn where to find how to turn it in from your device. Briefly, from an iPad, swipe a finger from the bottom of your screen upward, displaying a grey control bar. Click on the AirPlay button in the middle of the bar, then select your Apple TV. What you see on your iPad now displays on the TV screen, too. For MacBooks and iMacs, the process is similar if you click on the displays icon on your menu bar or in Settings. This feature has done more than eliminate the tangle of cables in our conference room, it's given us the ability to have meetings feel more relaxed. Getting technology out of the way helps everyone focus on what's most important to the client. Dave O'Brien is a NAPFA-registered financial adviser and owner of O'Brien Financial Planning Inc. in Richmond, Va.