Video Conference Room Design: What to Decide Before Building

Most video-call problems are built into the room

When video calls go badly, the usual response is to buy a better camera or a better speaker bar. Sometimes that helps. More often the problems are built into the room: a long, narrow shape that makes the far end of the table unreadable on camera, a glass box that echoes into every microphone, a window behind the chairs that turns every face into a silhouette, and a screen placed where the only power and data happened to be.

None of these can be bought away after construction. They are decided when the room's dimensions, finishes, lighting and services are drawn, which is why the AV decisions belong in the fit-out design rather than in a purchase order at the end. Getting it wrong costs twice: rooms people avoid for important calls, and then rework through finished ceilings, joinery and floors to fix them.

Room shape and seating set the camera

A camera sees the room from one point. Everything else should be arranged around that.

• Proportion. Long, narrow rooms put the far-end participants far from the camera and the display. Wider, shallower rooms bring everyone closer to both.
• Table shape. A table that narrows toward the display keeps everyone's face in view. Square-ended boardroom tables put people at the far end side-on.
• Camera at the display. Participants look at the screen, so the camera should be with it, close to seated eye level, facing people rather than looking down from a corner.
• Background. A door, a busy corridor or a window behind the seating shows on every call. Glass behind participants usually needs frosting or a blind.
• Display wall. It needs space for the display, camera, speakers and any whiteboard without one blocking another, and solid backing in the partition.

The wider question of how many meeting rooms an office needs, and in what sizes, is covered under meeting room design and sizing.

Acoustics matter more for the far end

People in a room adjust to its acoustics without noticing. Microphones do not. A room with glass on two sides, a whiteboard wall, a hard ceiling and a tiled floor reflects speech back into the microphones, and the remote participants hear a hollow, distant voice. Echo cancellation in the equipment can only do so much with a room that rings.

The measure is reverberation time, the time sound takes to die away, explained under reverberation time. It can be measured in the finished room using the method in ISO 3382-2, and the target for a video room is set by the acoustic designer. The usual treatments are an absorptive ceiling, absorptive panels on at least one of each pair of parallel walls, and soft flooring.

Two further sources of noise are often missed:

• Building services. Diffusers, fan coil units and ductwork above the ceiling are heard by microphones, especially ceiling microphones placed near them. Their positions need coordinating.
• Neighbouring rooms. Sound travels over partitions through the ceiling void and along services. This is acoustic flanking, and it affects confidentiality as well as call quality.

Video rooms are also often closed and glazed, with several people inside for an hour. Outdoor air has to be supplied for that occupancy; ventilation design is commonly referenced to ASHRAE 62.1, and the MEP engineer must make sure the supply is adequate and quiet.

Display size and lighting for cameras

Display size follows from distance. The farthest seat, and what will be shown on screen, set how large the image needs to be. AV design guidance relates image size to viewing distance, and the AV designer applies it to the actual room. The display height should suit seated viewing without neck strain, and a second display may be needed where content and far-end faces are shown together.

Light the faces, not just the table. Cameras need light falling on faces from the front. Downlights directly over seats light the tops of heads and cast shadows under eyes; a room lit only for the table looks gloomy on screen. Lighting should also avoid reflections on the display and glare into the camera. Interior illumination practice is set out in IS 3646 (Part 1), and a dimmable scene for video calls, with blinds on any windows, makes the room usable through the day.

Infrastructure to decide before ceilings close

Cabling pathways and spaces are addressed in TIA-569, and they apply as much to the conduit under a meeting table as to the riser. The network side is part of networking and structured cabling.

Who designs the AV

AV is usually designed by an AV consultant or integrator. The fit-out builds the room it goes into. Between them sit the interior designer, the electrical engineer, the IT team and the acoustic designer, and every interface on the table above belongs to more than one of them.

The practical safeguard is a responsibility matrix: for each item, who designs it, who supplies it, who installs it and who tests it. AV is often procured with the other systems covered under low voltage and ELV, and it needs the same coordination with the ceiling and containment. A design-and-build contractor should ask for the AV requirements before the layout is frozen, not after the ceiling is closed.

Common mistakes

• Buying equipment before the room is designed. The kit is chosen for a room that does not suit it.
• Glass on every side. Good for visibility, poor for echo and camera backgrounds unless treated.
• No floor box, or the wrong position. Cables run across the floor to a wall outlet for the life of the room.
• No backing in the display wall. Mounting a display on plain board needs the partition opened up.
• Downlights only. Faces are shadowed on every call.
• Equipment in a sealed cupboard. It overheats and fails intermittently.
• AV left out of the ceiling coordination. Microphones end up next to diffusers.

What to ask your designer or contractor

• Who is designing the AV, and when will they be involved?
• Where will the camera and display be, and does every seat face them?
• What reverberation target is set for this room, and will it be measured?
• Where are the floor box, containment, backing, power and data shown?
• Where does the equipment live, and how is it ventilated and reached?
• How will lighting work on camera, and is there a video-call scene?
• Who tests the finished room with a real call before handover?

Standards referenced

Measurement of reverberation time in ISO 3382-2; interior illumination practice in IS 3646 (Part 1); telecommunications pathways and spaces in TIA-569; ventilation commonly referenced to ASHRAE 62.1. Acoustic targets, lighting levels, ventilation rates and AV performance for a specific room must be set by the project's acoustic, lighting, MEP and AV designers.