Video-conference room design

A video-conference room has to be design using the basis of video and audio standard of provision. A room with good lighting provides a better video quality, and a wall with acoustic proofing provides a quality sound.

But what is a good video or audio, or how do make sure that we have a room suited for video-conference. The following item serves as guidelines for constructing a video-conferencing room.

·   Wall Finishes

Painted, papered or fabric walls can be acceptable wall finishes for video conferencing room. They offer a calm atmosphere for all the participants.

Painted walls are best in a flat or semi-flat finish. Avoid gloss or enamel finishes as they reflect light. If you decide to use a paper or fabric finish, avoid tight, intricate patterns, such as striping, checks or tight swirls. These patterns can cause the video image to appear distorted and flicker rapidly. Users participating in your video conference will find this effect unpleasant to their eyes. As with paint finishes, shiny wall coverings are also problematic because they reflect light. Paper or fabric wall finishes in a muted, pale color palette with no texture or minimal tone-on-tone texture are optimum.

·   Lighting

Specify for lightings that evenly lit the space to minimize shadowing. This lighting must not be directed to the camera lens. Diffused fluorescent fixtures work well, as do indirect candescent fixtures, which allow for a dimming feature.

Stark, direct lighting, such as indoor spotlights, which cause heavy shadowing, do not work well in a video conferencing environment. Often a combination of indirect candescent and diffused fluorescent will offer the most lighting flexibility.

·   Audio Equipment

Reverberation and echo distort audio signals. This is the main reason professional recording studios are designed with sound absorbing materials. Material such as carpet, draperies, fabric covered vertical blinds, and fabric wall coverings work best for video conference rooms. In addition, ceilings with sound-proofing tiles will lessen reverberation or acoustic echo effect.

Microphones specifically designed for video conferencing are highly sensitive. As long as the conference room microphones are centrally located, most microphones will capture sound within eight feet of the device.

Avoid moving the microphone while in the conference which may defeat echo cancellation. This will results to reverberation or squawking which is the source of distraction during a meeting.

A small video conference setup, microphones are typically placed in the center of the conference table. However, in a large room where they used the microphones not only for video-conferencing but also for meeting, presentation, and discussion, these require a complex discussion microphone solution (e.g. Danish Interpretation System) where several microphones are placed everywhere.

Bear in mind that microphones placed near the speakers will result in feedback. If this happens, place a feedback exterminator such as the FBX2000 of Sabine.