Conference room design continues to evolve as new technology comes out every year. The key to staying on top of new trends is to future-proof your board rooms, meeting rooms, and corporate conference rooms with the upgradable infrastructure you can still use 10 and 20 years from now.
Discover some conference room technology trends we’re seeing in 2022.
Flexible Room Designs
Conference rooms are great for prospect meetings and client meetings, both in-person and remote.
However, they can be unwieldy when it comes to smaller team meetings or small group meetings with remote workers.
You can still have a gigantic video wall on one end of the room for when you need that functionality. Consider flexible seating arrangements and smaller tables that fit together rather than one huge table. A U-shaped or classroom-style configuration works well for this. Just make sure all of your attendees are comfortable and can easily discuss things with everyone involved in the meeting.
LED Video Walls
Once considered too expensive for conference rooms, LED video walls have come down in price since this technology is mainstream.
LEDs show vibrant colors with sharp images at any angle in the room, and their image quality doesn’t degrade over time. They are also energy-efficient and low-maintenance thanks to a control hub and dedicated processor that your tech team can access.
Think about an LED video wall for your next sales presentation, especially if you create a video that wows a high-profile prospect or if you’re upselling to a current client.
Remember, first impressions mean a lot. And you can make a great first impression with an impressive LED video wall with a crisp picture.
Interactive White Boards
Much like classroom technology, interactive whiteboards are mainstream in offices and conference rooms.
Interactive whiteboards allow a presenter to change what’s on the board by touching it, giving the presenter complete control while maintaining the attention of everyone in the room and remotely. You might be able to use the same hardware for LED video walls as you would for interactive whiteboards to save on costs.
For example, your presenter starts with a slide presentation before shifting to a video and then adding notes as the presenter continues. The presenter can then share the presentation and email it to the meeting attendees afterward.
Customized Conference Rooms
You have plenty of video conferencing tools at your disposal, from Slack and Zoom to Google Meets and Microsoft Teams. Optimize your video wall technology for these tools to enable screen sharing, chats, audio, and video. Have the right video equipment in place, whether you want a camera mounted over the video wall or a camera placed in the middle of the room that can change its focus to whoever is speaking.
Eschew white walls and add splashes of color, such as your company logo, tasteful artwork, and wall hangings. Gone are the days of sterile white walls that make things look harsh.
Improved Acoustics
You’d be surprised how sensitive digital microphones are. They can pick up sounds from the next room or a hallway if your conference room isn’t designed with acoustics in mind.
There are acoustic panels that will deaden the sound to prevent echoes in the room but also keep outside noises from intruding. In the past, those acoustic additions consisted of black or gray foam. Now, you can find decorative acoustic art panels that look like classic paintings, tableaus, or still life canvases. On the back side, the acoustic panels are made of some kind of sound-absorbing material. The frames can also be made of fiberglass that absorbs sound more readily.
Not interested in classic art? You can customize panels to have your company logo, photos of your staff, or whatever images you want on them.
Natural Elements
Being in nature lowers blood pressure and boosts creativity. Consider adding natural elements to a conference room, like stylish wood panels, a stone sculpture, or a live plant or two. A tasteful water element, like a bubbling fountain, can be a great addition to a conference room.
Lighting Control
When you’re showing a 15-minute video presentation on a video wall, you want everyone to focus on the beautiful images on the screen. Think about having some lighting control, where you can dim the lights like a movie theater to give off just enough ambient light for people to see without taking their focus away from the screen.
Ready to elevate your conference room technology?
American Sound, with offices in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Louisville, can take care of installing world-class conference room technology at your facility, corporate headquarters, or office spaces.
Call us at (859) 261-9024 for more information on what our professional team can do for you.