Setting Up a Conference Room for Video Conferencing [What to Know]

Businesses are returning to their offices if they retained them through the pandemic. For those that elected to join other businesses by jettisoning their permanent, fixed office space, many are finding that some time for in-person collaboration and meetings is needed. Yet, calling every worker back into the office on a permanent basis is impossible—or even desired in many instances. Some workers relocated and plan to work remote even after the pandemic completely subsides, and many businesses have embraced remote work models for some of their workforce. At the same time, hybrid work arrangements have become the norm for many businesses. 

Hybrid and Remote Work Change the Dynamics of Conference Room Meetings

These changes impact a wide range of business functions: how we communicate, manage projects, and monitor and measure individual performance. This includes the logistics behind meetings as well. During the pandemic, video conferencing brought together workforces from around the world. Stock prices for some of the primary video conferencing providers skyrocketed and their ability to scale to support the number of users on their platforms were stretched to the limit—and broke in some cases.

Video conferencing will remain a critical component of work environments far beyond the pandemic. Video conferencing enables facial expression with the immediate communication that is only possible when meeting in person, and 98% of professionals indicate video conferencing helps them engage and communicate with their peers and customers. Video conferencing is used across industry segments. 

A study conducted by Dialpad shows that marketing and advertising industries were heavy users of video conferencing before the pandemic and continue to be today. Health, media and telecommunications, and technology companies began using video conferencing more heavily during the pandemic and adapted their processes to rely on video conferencing beyond the pandemic. Energy and professional services companies went in the oppositive direction; adoption actually is down from before the pandemic.

But with some workers attending meetings in person and others doing so virtually, organizations are discovering that their conference rooms are set up for hybrid meetings where some attendees are in person and others are virtual. Returning to VoIP, audio-only calls where those who are remote are heard but not seen isn’t acceptable after the vast adoption of video conferencing over the past couple years. 

Checklist for Setting Up Your Conference Room for Video Conferencing

Organizations need to seek ways to optimize their conference rooms for video conferencing. Following are some of the main things organizations need to remember when doing so:

Power Everything with the Right Computer

Most video conferencing requires a computer to power the different equipment. There are Mac options such as an Apple Mac Mini or PC options like an Intel NUC or different HP mini PCs. 

Select the Right Monitor Display Size and Type

Having the right display screen in a conference room is a basic starting point. The size of a monitor is important. For rooms seating 10 or more people, a monitor of 96 inches is recommended. For smaller huddle rooms, a screen of 60 inches is sufficient. 

There are two basic monitor types that can be used in conference rooms for video conferencing. LCD screens are thin and light and have a long lifespan. Picture quality is great and they come in all different sizes. LED displays are more power efficient and come with higher Energy Star ratings than LCD monitors. Color contrast for LCD monitors is sharper than LED monitors. 

Mount the Video Conferencing Display

Mounting height needs to be at eye level. Being in a conference room with video conferencing where the screen is higher up on the wall or too low and blocked by others in the room can become an ergonomic issue and distraction. 

Get the Right Audio for Video Conferencing

Speakers and microphones are important for any video conferencing setup. Microphones need to be strategically positioned around the table so that all of the participants can be heard easily. Speakers also need to be in a location where everyone can hear those speaking via video conferencing. Having wireless microphones and speakers creates less setup complexity, though one must ensure that the wireless connections are reliable in terms of availability and sound quality.

Put the Right Cameras in Place

Meeting attendees who are connected virtually through video conferencing need to two-one video interaction with attendees in the physical meeting room. Multiple video cameras must be positioned in the conference room to capture everyone when they speak and interact. This is why it is important to put high-quality HD conference web cameras into place; many of these come with all-in-one capabilities—a 360-degree camera, microphone, and speaker.

Ensure Reliable Internet Speeds and Scale

Video conferencing capabilities are only as good as the internet used to power them. You need to ensure that your meeting room has high-speed internet with redundancy and security built into its wide area network. Having the right internet backbone in place ensures that video conferencing quality is never degraded and no downtime is incurred. 

Provide Employees with Video Backgrounds

For meetings involving third parties such as partners and customers, organizations should provide their employees with branded company backgrounds. These convey professionalism and create great first impressions for organizations (compared to backgrounds of employees working in cluttered home offices, unmade bedrooms, or worse).

On-demand Meeting Rooms with Video Conferencing

Growing numbers of entrepreneurs and businesses were embracing rented meeting rooms before the pandemic, and adoption rates will likely accelerate in coming years. You no longer need to worry about setting up a conference room and the video conferencing technologies within it. On-demand rented meeting rooms from providers like Davinci Meeting Rooms come configured with state-of-the-art technologies, including video conferencing, as well as amenities, such as food and beverage catering, administrative support, a lobby greeter, and faxing and photocopying, to ensure that your meetings are highly collaborative and productive for in-person and virtual attendees.

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence. LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn Website: www.tirocommunications.com