Conference rooms are the central hub of activity in many office buildings. The brilliant ideas and innovations that can come from one productive conversation between colleagues are remarkable. But as time progresses and technology continues to evolve, it’s your job as a business owner to ensure your workplace stays up to date with the latest state-of-the-art conference room technology and gadgets that can increase creativity and productivity in your office. All that starts with the proper equipment. At Illuminated Integration, we offer quality audio, visual and lighting solutions to all your conference area problems.
An excellent conference room is welcoming to everyone on the team. An impressively high-tech conference room can increase morale and productivity in the office, too. Whether you’re using meeting rooms for presentations or simple face-to-face get-togethers, the best conference room technology you rely on to conduct business should be available and easy to use for all your team members.
Nothing is worse than when you need to use a meeting room but find all of them are in use. Make conference room reservations headache-free by using technology that allows employees to book rooms in advance and start all meetings on time. To avoid accidental interruptions from co-workers who didn’t realize a room was busy, use wall-mounted displays next to a conference room’s door to indicate its availability.
Technology can be tricky, so choose to install presentation and technology controls with buttons that are easy to read and press. Presentations are stressful enough without having to fumble with a remote that’s complicated or confusing to use. To avoid this dilemma, invest in control panels or remotes with fewer or larger buttons. Those with visual impairments may find it harder to read tiny buttons, so larger buttons make your office technology friendlier for them to use.
If you have deaf or hard-of-hearing team members, consider updating your meeting rooms’ audio capabilities. You can install microphones and speakers to make presenters audible to everyone in the room. Also, mount touch points in lower areas so wheelchair users can reach them when they’re presenting or attending a meeting.
If you’re still unsure how to increase your conference room’s accessibility, ask your staff. They’ll know better than anyone else about what you can do to make your conference room more welcoming and available. Plus, everyone loves a manager who considers what others have to say.
Improve your large conference room’s layout to better reflect how you use the space. If you know you’ll be doing a lot of presentations, arrange tables and desks facing the front of the room in a “U” shape so everyone can see. If your conference room doesn’t have the space to do this, consider investing in multiple display monitors mounted around the room so your team members aren’t craning their necks to view presentations. Not only does this allow everyone to see what’s going on, but it also improves comfort. If you’re going to be conversing with colleagues more than presenting, a central table or “island layout” is the perfect option for your team.
In either situation, you want your team to have easy access to the technology they need to conduct their business. Design your conference rooms so your team can easily access power and USB ports for their laptops, tablets, phones, etc., wherever they’re sitting. You can purchase conference tables with built-in ports or choose floor-mounted ports, so you and your team members don’t have to have power cables running from the conference table to the walls.
Make Ethernet cables and links to your conference room’s displays and hardware easy to access by having multiple ports available throughout the room. Allowing your team members to tap into the room’s audio and visual systems from anywhere in the room increases accessibility and makes the entire space user-friendly.
Modern furniture can transform a bland conference room into a productive meeting space that inspires creativity and positive attitudes.
You can’t make your conference room into an inspirational space without comfortable furniture — no one likes fidgeting through a meeting trying to find an ergonomically satisfying position, rather than thinking about the topic at hand. Outfitting your conference rooms with ergonomic furniture that supports your employees can encourage more participation in group discussions. Instead of looking at the clock and wondering when they can escape, they’ll be looking forward to enthusiastically contributing to the conversation.
Consider updating the lighting system in your conference room, too. Harsher lighting in offices can give employees headaches and decrease productivity. Illuminated Integrations can install a more natural lighting system for your conference rooms or even your entire office. Mood lighting like smart light strips or lower-hanging bulbs can soften a room’s lighting and create a more calming environment.
When designing your smart conference room, make sure to choose tables that offer enough space for meeting attendees. When too many people are sitting at a table and there’s not enough room for everyone’s notebooks, tablets, laptops or drinks, it can be too distracting. With the proper sound and visual systems set up within your conference room, you can enjoy a larger, more spacious conference table without worrying about affecting attendees’ ability to see and hear presentations.
Flexible meeting spaces allow for continually adaptable conference rooms. Business is constantly moving and changing. Meetings take place for all sorts of reasons, whether it’s a simple brainstorming session, catch-up call or mission-critical conversation with executives. Integrating adaptive furniture lets you and your employees create a meeting space that fits your needs.
Adaptive furniture allows for an ever-changing conference space that keeps employees coming back. When they must spend countless meetings in the same surroundings, participants can get bored. With versatile meeting spaces, you can enrich your employees’ experiences at work. Adaptable furniture allows for changes of scenery that can boost productivity and, when designed correctly, increase collaboration.
You can get creative with your workspace by using adaptive furniture like:
Videoconferencing technology is quickly becoming an essential part of modern office conference rooms. With employees working in the office and remotely, videoconferencing allows you to stay connected with your team members even when you’re not physically together. Compared to traditional face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings can save your company time and money. By eliminating travel costs and time spent getting to a meeting location, you can increase your productivity while maintaining strong relationships with your employees and clients.
Videoconferencing allows you to view and share documents and presentations in real time, streamlining collaboration and efficiency. You can discuss documents immediately and avoid long, annoying email chains where messages might be open to misinterpretation. Overall, videoconferencing makes scheduling meetings easier, with clients and employees able to join anywhere. It allows for real-time discussion and collaboration without the hassle of traveling.
Virtual reality-based conferencing offers more involvement in meetings than traditional videoconferencing. VR-based conferencing tools can make meetings and training sessions more activity-oriented and get participants more involved. This increased activity and involvement are perfect for industries that deal with physical and 3D renderings, like architecture, construction, manufacturing and design.
VR also offers an increased sense of camaraderie during meetings. With VR conferencing capabilities, your company can offer more supportive training to remote employees, increased socialization and more effective communication during meetings that require increased involvement from participants. By augmenting the effects of hands-on learning, VR in conference rooms is an advanced option for streamlined collaboration and efficiency.
Illuminated Integration can install high-quality corporate audio devices to improve your conference room’s sound capabilities. For larger conference rooms that will see a lot of meetings with more significant numbers of people, we can install hidden speakers to ensure high-quality sounds reach everyone. Trust our technicians to install these discreet in your meeting room or even throughout your building so all employees can hear music or announcements with the utmost clarity.
For shared or flexible conference spaces that will serve multiple purposes, Illuminated Integration can install soundproofing materials that can balance noise control and reduce loud noises or echoes. Whatever your acoustic needs are, we can analyze your meeting space and give you an acoustic strategy that best suits your office’s needs.
LED video walls are incredibly convenient for conference rooms. When accompanied by high-quality acoustics, LED video walls and large LED video screens capture your audience’s attention during meetings and reduce eye strain. Traditional projector and computer displays are slightly blurry and can have an inaccurate color representation. When staring at a screen for too long during a meeting, your audience can begin to experience eye strain. High-resolution LED video walls and screens allow for sharper images and richer colors. Aside from giving you fantastic screen quality, the high resolution will help alleviate potential eye strain.
You don’t need much space to house an LED video wall or screen in your conference room, either. This state-of-the-art conference room technology is ideal for any size conference room. LED video walls don’t need darkened rooms for viewers to see the screen. Because of their vibrant color displays, you can use them even when your conference room’s blinds are up. Their convenience and sleek look make LED video walls a must-have for your upcoming conference room renovation.
Video bars are all-in-one devices that deliver high-quality video and audio to your virtual meetings. Much like soundbars for home entertainment centers, video bars for conferencing include a webcam and microphone that easily plugs into your display screen. Most video bars are best for small and medium rooms and can capture up to 10 people — perfect for group discussions! Wall-mounted video bars are ideal for conference rooms that usually stay in the same position. You can also get video bars you can set up anywhere to adapt to your flexible meeting spaces.
Video bars come in different models with varying capabilities, like:
When choosing the ideal video bar for your conference room, you need to consider how you plan to use your meeting rooms in the future. If your meetings are usually static and don’t involve many employees moving around or demonstrating during presentations, consider a wall-mounted bar that stays in place. If your meetings are more energetic and unpredictable, look into a more adaptable, movable video bar with advanced camera qualities.
Interactive whiteboards are excellent pieces of tech to add to your conference rooms because they improve meeting culture. With interactive whiteboards, you and your team can create engaging presentations that draw your audience toward the material rather than the presenter. Interactive whiteboards put the audience first, with interactive capabilities that allow people to simultaneously write or draw on documents and visuals.
Presenters and audience members can connect their devices to the smart whiteboard and cast presentations and documents from their devices, creating an environment where meetings are more like productive conversations rather than one-sided. These benefits even extend to when all meeting participants aren’t in the room. Interactive whiteboards also allow remote participants to share documents and contribute to the conversation as if they’re physically in the conference room.
Quickly set the scene for engaging meetings and presentations by using automatic window shades to darken or lighten your conference room with the simple touch of a button. With automated window shades, you can avoid annoying screen glares from windows during your meetings and presentations by having them automatically adjust throughout the day as the sun’s position changes.
You can even connect your automatic shades to your conference room’s lighting controls. With the push of a button, you can turn off the lights in your conference room and lower the window shades. At the end of the meeting, hit another button to flip the lights back on and raise the shades.
Illuminated Integration provides audio, visual and lighting solutions to various industries. From theme park lighting to acoustic design services for colleges and corporate environments to rigging for concert halls and theaters, our experienced creative leaders are up to any challenge.
Are you ready to take your conference room to the next level? Contact us today to get in touch with one of our experienced team members and see how Illuminated Integration can transform your meeting areas!
