Designing a Meeting Space Prepared to Engage All Participants

We all experienced the boom in virtual and hybrid meetings during the pandemic – but since then, we’ve seen a return to “normal” meetings that are 100% in-person.

 

However, the “hybrid genie” will not be put back in the bottle. Venues report that while meeting planners are not building hybrid components into their events, they expect venues to be able to accommodate last-minute requests to bring in a remote presenter or include a remote audience. A venue’s ability to efficiently deliver on this expectation may be critical to the success of the event.

Written by IACC Members Electro Media Design and Eric Bracht

So, what are the steps that a venue can take to ensure it can deliver on meeting planner expectations? Like most things, it starts with the basics. One of the focuses of the Meeting Room of the Future initiative has been on creating an environment that is conducive to adult learning. Good lighting means that there is ample light, spread evenly across the room, without hot spots or dark corners. Good acoustics means that it is easy to hear and to understand what is being said, without distracting echoes or having to block out the meeting next door.

Once the basics of the room are right, it becomes possible to add technology that works with the room rather than fighting against it. A good quality, built-in sound system that can be tuned to the room will provide much better coverage with much higher intelligibility (the ability to not just hear but to understand what is being said) than portable speakers aimed directly into the audience’s face.

But what do these elements have to do with being prepared to meet the expectation of quickly accommodating a request for hybrid meetings? Well, as it turns out – everything.

Good lighting is necessary for video. Without it, even high-definition cameras struggle to produce a quality image. If the meeting space already has good lighting, adding a camera or two to accommodate a need for remote participants to see the meeting becomes an easier task. Yes, given appropriate time and budget, adding some supplemental lighting can create an even better experience, but a properly lit room can achieve acceptable results.

As lighting is to video, acoustics is to audio. No sound system is going to work well in an echo chamber. And when it comes to hybrid, audio is the critical element. A remote audience can participate in a meeting; they can hear but not see, but no one can participate if they can’t hear or understand what is being said.

Fortunately, creating an environment that works with these technologies is the same as one that is most conducive to your in-person attendees. What we call a win-win.

What Does Hybrid-Ready Mean?

Back to the question of how to accommodate last-minute requests to support hybrid elements without a scramble to add a lot of extra labor and gear (translation – time and money).

Events like the IACC Knowledge Exchange might already be considered “hybrid-ready”. There is already a well-lit stage, cameras, and a high-quality sound system supported by a technical crew. Interfacing a computer running a collaboration platform such as Teams or Zoom is a straightforward request. However, these elements are brought into the room in advance and leave when the meeting concludes.

When we refer to a hybrid-ready meeting room, we are discussing a room where the infrastructure already exists to support a last-minute need for remote participation. A hybrid-ready meeting room will have already addressed the previously discussed lighting and acoustics elements. But to truly be ready will require some properly placed infrastructure.

A purpose-designed space utilizes both built-in systems and the ability to easily add portable equipment, with the flexibility to accommodate different types of meetings. For smaller rooms, this might mean that the sound bar beneath the wall-mounted display can be replaced with one that incorporates a camera and microphones, with an additional camera that can be added to the system to capture a tight shot of the presenter.

In larger spaces, this could mean equipping the room with an array of beam-forming ceiling microphones and an automatic camera system that is able to quickly focus on and switch to the active talker, allowing any remote participants an experience like those in the room. Or a secondary display on wheels and a mounted PTZ camera that can be easily added to the meeting room to show either a remote presenter or the remote audience while providing an additional camera for a view of the audience for the remote participants.

 

Elements of a Hybrid-Ready Meeting Room

As mentioned above, the ability to hear and understand all participants in a meeting is the most critical element of communication. Before adding any technology, we must first look at the room itself. Hard walls, ceilings, and floors create an echo chamber where you may be able to hear what is being said, but because sound from the presenter is competing with the sound bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and floor, it is very difficult to understand what they are saying. This is even worse for any remote attendees because the human ear is far better than a microphone at filtering out unwanted sound.

Designing meeting spaces with a mixture of reflective (hard) and absorbative (soft) surfaces will prevent the echo chamber effect. Options include acoustic ceiling tiles, wall treatments, curtains, and carpeting. This doesn’t mean that the modern aesthetic of glass walls, hard floors, and exposed ceilings must be completely abandoned, but all three in the same space without adding some types of treatment to mitigate the sound reflections will be required.

Once the room is correct, we then need to add in the technology and infrastructure that will support the in-person events while also providing the ability to accommodate the requirements of virtual attendees and/or presenters. Here are the major elements to consider:

Audio Considerations:

• How will the remote participants hear the in-person participants?
  • Passed around microphones, standing microphones in the aisles, delegate (push-to-talk) microphones on tables, ceiling-mounted, beam-forming arrays.
• How will the in-person participants hear the remote participants?
  • Portable speakers, wall-mounted soundbar, and ceiling speaker system.
• How will the in-person and remote participants hear the in-person presenter(s)?
  • Lectern microphone, lavalier or head-worn microphone through a built-in or portable speaker system
• How will the in-person and remote participants hear the remote presenter(s)?
  • The virtual presenter(s)’ microphone and the speed of the internet connection will impact audio quality

Camera Considerations:

• How will the in-person and virtual attendees see the in-person presenter(s)?
  • A camera in the front of the room for small, boardroom-style meetings, a portable or built-in video camera in the rear of the room for larger presentations
• How will the virtual attendees see the in-person attendees?
  • Sound bar with camera or a dedicated PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera in the front of the room
• How will the in-person and virtual attendees see the virtual presenter(s)?

While all of these considerations may not be necessary for every event, having a plan to accommodate them will shorten the reaction time. A camera placed in the front of the room, pointing to the back, will capture the audience and the presenter as well in boardroom-style meetings. For larger rooms. The addition of a camera in the back of the room can capture standing presenter(s) in the front of the room.

Video/Display Considerations:

• How will the in-person and virtual attendees see the virtual presenter(s), presentation content, and other virtual attendees?
  • Display or projected image. Combined screen for both presentation and video image, or separate screens for each. Note: Virtual presenter(s)’ camera and internet connection will impact the quality of the video received

 

 

Creating a hybrid-ready meeting space is not all that different from creating a space conducive to effective learning. We must consider what the desired outcome is and design accordingly. If the points discussed above are considered prior to an event, or even better, prior to construction or refurbishment, then meeting guest expectations becomes much simpler. This doesn’t mean that every room needs to be outfitted with expensive equipment. In fact, if the rooms already have the lighting and acoustics right, it will only take a small amount of effort and budget to add in the infrastructure and supplemental equipment needed to tell your customers – “Yes, we are hybrid-ready”