If you’ve ever felt that slowly rising feeling of embarrassment as you struggle to project your presentation on-screen during a big meeting, then you know why conference room audio visual (AV) equipment is so important.
Strategic conference room AV design and equipment are the difference between a small technological hiccup and attendees making the snap decision that a meeting wasn’t a valuable use of their time. Once your attendees make that decision, they disengage, and your meeting has missed the mark.
In this article, we’ll walk through how to design a room that is both engaging and easy to use and provide a curated equipment list that removes the need to wade through a variety of different options on the market.
Conference Room AV Design Tips
You probably already know the basics of conference room audio visual equipment. For example, some conference room equipment staples — display, camera and microphone — are no-brainers for a meeting space.
But depending on the size of your organization, how often you use the room, and the room’s overall size, you could be missing some important elements of your room’s design that negatively impact engagement during meetings or events.
The following tips will elevate your conference room’s design beyond the basics and help you prioritize the engagement and experience of those using it.
Install an easy-to-use control system.
Including a control system on your list of conference room audio visual requirements makes it a lot easier for people of all technological comfort levels to use the room.
Control systems allow people to move or point cameras in different directions, adjust speaker volume, display presentations or videos, and manage microphones, all in one place. They can also control elements like temperature and lighting.
Our full equipment list profiles more conference room systems, but Creston is our top recommendation. It works with all types of different equipment, including the variety of laptops and personal devices people may use in your conference room.
Crestron can be controlled from mobile devices, which means anyone in the room can control all of the conference room’s equipment from their phone or tablet. This capability is particularly useful for meeting spaces as businesses become more cognizant of their role in keeping employees safe from COVID-19 and other illnesses.
Consider a beamforming microphone to reduce background noise.
A lot of unexpected noise in a room can interfere with the transmission of sound throughout the space. These noises might include an air conditioning unit, a loud neighbor, construction outside your window, or many other possibilities.
A beamforming microphone will detect the location of the closest sound and automatically focus in on it. It’ll also ignore unwanted background noises, making it much easier to project audio throughout the room or to those attending virtually.
Shure’s award-winning drop tile ceiling microphones pick up audio in real-time and produce consistent sound regardless of the speaker’s location in the room.
Invest in the room’s acoustics, even if it means purchasing more cost effective equipment.
The best microphone out there won’t produce high-quality sound if you use it in a room with bad acoustics. In fact, acoustics are so important that we recommend making room in your budget for wall panels to dampen sound before purchasing more expensive speakers or microphones.
Conference rooms nowadays often include glass windows, concrete floors, and open ceilings, making it challenging to ensure microphones don’t echo or sound from speakers is distributed evenly.
If you’re working with such a space, consider Sennheiser’s TCC2 microphone system. It has the ability to focus the sound to only one area, excluding all other parts of the room to minimize feedback.
Determine how you’ll use the room most of the time.
Last, but not least, the room’s purpose matters. For small conference rooms where one person is connecting with a larger group virtually, a tabletop microphone makes more sense than a ceiling microphone. For a large conference room where dozens of people are congregating both in-person and virtually, you might consider larger displays to see presentations and attendees at the same time.
Other points to consider include whether you need to support a remote workforce with a wide range of device types, whether you’ll do much recording in the room, and the needs of the people who frequently use the room. For example, those who are hard of hearing will have different needs than others.
Conference Room AV Equipment List
Even with these basic tips for designing conference room systems as a foundation, the number of equipment options out there can be overwhelming, and wide price ranges can be confusing.
The following table includes a curated list of conference room AV equipment from the experienced and certified professionals at Aspen Custom Electronics. It includes top-of-the-line recommendations for both large and small conference rooms, or meeting spaces, that fit within a wide range of budgets.
Equipment Type | Link | Room Size |
Display | Small / Medium Large | |
Projector | Large | |
Microphone | Small / Medium Small / Medium Small / Medium Large | |
Camera | Small / Medium Small / Medium Small / Medium Large | |
Speaker | Small Small / Medium Large | |
Control Systems | Small / Medium / Large | |
Room Scheduling | Large Large | |
Video Presentation Devices | Large Large Medium / Large |
People are more important than flashy equipment; you want technology that aims to engage.
If you’ve got a roomy budget, you might be tempted to skip the strategizing and jump to purchase a top-of-the-line conference room AV system, thinking expensive high-quality equipment will solve all your problems.
Or, on the flip side, you might be tempted to purchase the most affordable option to fit within a tight budget. Neither of these approaches is wrong, but both might leave you with frustrated people that exit your conference room feeling disengaged and unimpressed.
Instead, you want to focus your budget on the equipment that matters most for your needs. If you’re looking for guidance on how to outfit your conference rooms with equipment that suits your custom needs, contact the experts at Aspen Custom Electronics for a consultation.
