Every office has that room. The meeting starts, and the first ten minutes go to fixing things. Someone hunts for a remote. The camera shows the ceiling. A remote teammate asks, "Can you hear us?" for the third time.
Nobody wants a starring role in the next "you're on mute" meme. A well-built room prevents it. Here is what that room needs.
Why Hybrid Meetings Fail
Failures in hybrid meetings tend to be more related to the facilities design than to software design.
Many rooms are designed to facilitate in-person meetings, with surfaces that obstruct audio and video. Rooms like these present huge challenges when trying to integrate remote participants.
Remote meeting attendees are often left confused as to who is speaking and sometimes totally ignored. It does not take long for meeting participants to naturally, and often unintentionally, create two classes of attendees; remote and in-person. The in-person participants tend to ignore and often forget the remote participants.
A simple test to determine if a meeting space is designed adequately to facilitate remote participation is to determine how often meetings are started late due to technology issues.
Remote participants tend to experience poor meeting audibility much more often than a bad video image.
Audio First
There are three components of good meeting room audio.
- Coverage: making sure all participants are within range of a meeting room microphone.
- Placement: making sure audio reaches all participants evenly.
- Echo control: a digital signal processor.
The architecture of the room itself plays a part in how meeting audio is perceived by remote participants. Sometimes small design changes to a meeting space can drastically improve how meeting participants hear remote participants.
Camera and Display Placement
Place the camera at eye level, near the center of the main display. When people look at the screen, they also look at the camera. Remote guests get the feeling of eye contact.
Avoid cameras mounted high in a corner. Nobody likes being filmed from above.
Larger rooms benefit from auto-framing or speaker-tracking cameras. These follow the active talker, so remote guests see faces, not a wide shot of a table.
Use two displays if you can. One shows remote participants. The other shows shared content. That keeps faces visible during a presentation.
Watch the lighting as well. A bright window behind the speakers turns them into silhouettes. Even front-facing light works best. As a rule of thumb, the farthest seat should sit within about six times the screen height.
Room Size and Layout
One setup does not fit every room. Match the gear to the space.
- Small huddle rooms (2 to 6 people): An all-in-one video bar is often enough.
- Mid-size rooms (6 to 12 people): Add ceiling microphones, a separate camera, and a second display.
- Large rooms (12 or more): Plan for multiple microphone zones, tracking cameras, and a processor to tie the audio together.
Table shape matters. A long, narrow table puts the far end too far from the camera. Boat-shaped or U-shaped tables bring everyone closer. Seat people so they face the display and the camera.
Plan power and inputs at the table too. A single guest input for HDMI or USB-C saves a lot of scrambling.
Network and Cabling Requirements
Equipment can be excellent, but if the network isn't up to par, it will fail you during a hybrid meeting. Running a show like this requires live audio and video. Delays ruin the meeting.
Start with a wired connection. Cameras and codecs should not be using Wi-Fi. A hard wired connection provides low delay and reliable speeds.
This is where the structured cabling gets its pay off. Each device should have its own labeled run back to the closet. Most AV teams ask for Cat6 for new runs. In a comparison of Cat5 and Cat6 cables, Cat6 wins, as it supports even faster speeds and has more headroom. Cat5 limits your link speed.
Look for signs that your ethernet cables need replacing. These may include links that negotiate to 100 Mbps, dropped packets, or visible damage at the end.
A few more things for your plan of network infrastructure services:
- Utilize power over ethernet (PoE) where supported for cameras and mics.
- Set quality of service (QoS) rules for priority for voice and video.
- Check upload bandwidth to see if it can support your meeting. Video meetings are not just receiving, they are sending as well.
- Always leave spare cable runs in the wall. Gear can be added later, the wall can't.
Simplicity for Users
Complexity in AV systems causes problems. The more elements there are to control in a system, the more that can go wrong, and ultimately, the less likely it will be used.
Simplicity should be the goal. The room should be able to 'read' the schedule and join the meeting with the touch of a single button. Keep the control elements simple. There should be a single, central control panel. Avoid creating a junk drawer of remotes. Label everything.
Consistency throughout a facility makes support easier. If every room is the same, a support person only has to learn it once.
Finally, test the equipment. A monthly test of the microphones, speakers and cameras can head off problems before they affect a client meeting.
The Future
The last few years have seen a lot of innovation in AV technology. Many systems can now alert a user if something is wrong without the user having to know or figure out what is wrong. Cameras can now 'frame' a speaker without having to be pointed in the correct direction. Improvements to networks will also aid in the overall operation of the equipment.
However, the basic elements of a well run conference will be the same. Clear, easy to understand audio and a camera view that feels natural will make the technology fade away.