Large meeting rooms have always presented a number of challenges. From ensuring everyone can be seen and heard to finding devices that will display clearly to those sitting furthest away. The larger the room, the more complex the requirements and considerations. In today’s ever evolving work environment, incorporating hybrid and remote workers so they can enjoy an equally collaborative experience presents an additional challenge. Despite these constraints, large meeting spaces remain ideal for meetings, presentations and training sessions, so the key to getting the most from these spaces is to optimise them for the best video conferencing experience.
With the right video conferencing equipment and room design that prioritises user experience, large meeting spaces can provide the ultimate setting for successful collaboration. Let’s take a look at 5 key factors to consider when optimising your large meeting rooms.
#1 Camera and video quality
With larger spaces it’s essential that the camera can capture everyone in the room, not just those in front of it. This includes attendees at the back or sides of the room, who may be out of view when using a camera with limited scope. For total room coverage, the camera needs a wide angle lens and dynamic zoom capabilities. It should also be able to track and follow people in the room, to focus on speakers as well as those not participating at the time, to ensure that remote attendees don’t miss anything.
#2 Audio quality
One of the key challenges of larger collaboration spaces is that meetings tend to be long; there are many participants and a lot to be discussed, which can result in attendees losing concentration, particularly if the audio is poor quality. When participants struggle to follow the conversation, they are less likely to provide any input, resulting in an unproductive meeting.
High quality microphones are vital in large meeting rooms to pick up all voices effectively, filter out background noise and minimise distractions from crosstalk. Powerful speakers will also be required to ensure that remote participants can be clearly heard by everyone in the room, with multiple speakers sometimes needed in larger spaces to distribute the sound evenly.
#3 Acoustics and room environment
The room itself can have a considerable impact on the meeting experience, particularly in larger meeting rooms which often suffer from issues such as echo and reverberation. If it’s not possible to choose a room with good acoustic properties, there are a few tips you can try to improve audio quality:
- Use acoustic panels, hung from ceilings, walls or doors, to reduce echo.
- Install carpet, or use soft furnishings such as cushions and curtains to absorb sound and reduce reverberation.
- Place multiple speakers strategically around the room to eliminate sound shadows and ensure consistent sound quality for all attendees.
Aside from acoustics, there are a number of other factors that can enhance the meeting room environment. This includes using evenly distributed indirect lighting with warm colour temperatures to soften the room, neutral wall colours to keep the focus on participants and avoiding hard, shiny surfaces which may reflect sound and reduce overall audio quality.
#4 IT considerations
Nothing ruins a meeting quite like technical issues. Delayed starts and IT issues can reduce the eventual meeting duration, resulting in missed agenda items or lower than usual participation levels. Though the IT considerations will vary from organisation to organisation, there are a few key factors to bear in mind for meeting success. These include ensuring a stable, high-speed internet connection, using wired Ethernet connections for larger rooms to remove the reliance on WiFi and having well considered cable management solutions to ensure cables are not a safety hazard or distraction during meetings.
#5 User experience
The meeting user experience in large rooms is often inferior, mostly due to poor audio and video quality or technology being too difficult to use. The control system interface should be easy enough for meeting room users to operate without extensive training, so they can easily switch from a smaller space to a larger space and be able to operate systems in the same way. Some vendors offer solutions that are tailored for larger spaces and designed to meet versatile requirements, so considering these solutions will ensure the technology is well suited for the space and its users.
Neat video conferencing devices for large meeting spaces
If you are looking to get the most out of your large meeting room spaces, you should consider Neat devices. These powerful, design lead, versatile devices might appear simple to operate but they pack a punch in terms of technology, quality and their ability to bring remote workers into the conversation as if they were in the same room.
Neat Bar Pro
This capable video collaboration device, which won a Red Dot Design Award, has been designed for larger spaces. Featuring a wide-angle telephoto lens and powerful image depth sensors delivering up to 16x zoom, the Neat Bar Pro delivers clear visuals even across large rooms. When paired with Neat Symmetry it can automatically frame, track and zoom in on participants to ensure remote attendees don’t miss out on vital information and non-verbal communication.
Neat Bar Pro boasts a powerful audio system featuring a subwoofer with vibration cancellation and three full-range speakers, which deliver direct stereo sound throughout large rooms. The 16x microphone array ensures crystal-clear vocal pickup, whilst minimising the background noise that can cause distraction in bigger rooms.
Neat Center
To further extend the audio and video capabilities in larger rooms, try Neat Center. This device can extend the camera range and microphone pick up by an additional 5 metres. Using a 360° 3x camera lens and 16x mic, Neat Center brings remote attendees fully into the conversation by allowing them to gain a more natural audio-visual perspective of their colleagues in the meeting room, even when they are talking amongst themselves. Neat Center is simple to set up and install, with a single cable for network and power. Thanks to its design the Neat Center can be positioned anywhere in the room to ensure everyone is always seen and heard.
Take audio experiences to the next level with Neat and Shure
Neat’s partnership with acoustic leaders Shure has extended the reach of audio even further taking your VIP meetings to the next level. You can seamlessly use Neat devices with multiple Shure Microflex systems making an entirely equitable audio experience for everyone. Shure’s Microflex Advance MXA902 Integrated Conferencing Ceiling Array and ANIUSB-MATRIX USB Audio Network interface provide reinforced speech even in echo-prone spaces whilst seamlessly integrating with Neat devices for easy operation.
How AVI-SPL can help
At AVI-SPL we believe that holding a meeting should be easy, no matter what the size of your space. This is why we globally partner with industry leaders such as Neat and Shure, to design, install and configure video conferencing solutions that inspire creativity, accelerate productivity and ensure inclusivity. Whether your meeting space is small, or vast, there is a solution to optimise the environment, you just need to speak with a team that understands the difference.
Get in touch with us today and let’s start a discussion about optimising your meeting space.
