The new meeting room has a large screen and a good camera, yet every meeting still starts with 'Can you hear us? Move closer to the microphone.' Remote participants hear the people in the room with echo and from far away, half the conversation is lost, and eventually everyone opens their own laptop. That is the typical result when a room is planned around the screen rather than the sound.
A remote participant easily forgives mediocre video, but not unintelligible audio. So meeting room planning should follow this order: first the room and its acoustics, then microphones and loudspeakers, and only then the display, camera and platform.
Why audio fails
There are usually three causes. First, room acoustics: glass walls, hard ceilings and bare floors reflect sound and create reverberation, making speech muddy. Second, distance to the microphone: each doubling of distance drops the direct sound level by about 6 dB, while room noise and reflections stay the same. Third, background noise: ventilation, air conditioning, a projector fan or the corridor. Acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) algorithms do a lot, but they cannot fix a bad room.
Start with the room
Acoustic treatment is often the most effective and relatively inexpensive investment. Acoustic ceiling tiles, carpet, wall panels and curtains over glass significantly reduce reflections. Check the noise sources too: where the ventilation grilles are and how loud the equipment above the ceiling is. A simple test: clap loudly in the empty room. If the sound 'rings' and takes a long time to die away, the room needs acoustic treatment.
Microphones and loudspeakers by room size
The key rule: every participant must be within the microphone's pickup zone. Manufacturers state a pickup radius, but that figure assumes a room with good acoustics — in a real room it is smaller.
- Small room (2–4 people): an all-in-one video bar at the display — camera, microphones and speakers in one device
- Medium room (6–10 people): a video bar plus extension table microphones so the far end of the table is covered
- Large room and boardroom: ceiling or table microphone arrays, an audio processor (DSP) and speakers distributed evenly around the room
- Divisible and training rooms: a custom design with combine modes and centralized control
Display and camera
For display size, use a simple rule: for general content, the farthest viewer should sit no more than about six times the image height away; for detailed content such as spreadsheets and drawings, the distance should be shorter. Two displays are often better than one large one: people on one, shared content on the other.
Mount the camera at the display, close to eye level, so remote participants see faces rather than the tops of heads. The field of view should cover every seat; automatic framing is convenient but does not replace correct placement. A window in the camera's view creates backlighting — plan for curtains or blinds.
Platform and network
Choose one primary platform — for example Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms — and use devices designed for that ecosystem. Decide whether the room will have its own system for one-touch join, or whether users will connect their own laptops (BYOD). Many offices need both modes. The system's reliability depends heavily on the network:
- A wired network connection for the room system — not Wi-Fi
- PoE switch ports if the camera, microphones or touch panel require them
- A separate network segment (VLAN) for AV devices and traffic prioritization (QoS)
- Enough bandwidth for simultaneous meetings
- Firewall rules that match the platform's requirements
- A room booking panel at the door if rooms are in high demand
Usability: a room that works without instructions
If starting a meeting takes five minutes and a call to IT, the room is poorly planned, however expensive the equipment. One-touch join, a clear touch panel on the table, a laptop cable (HDMI or USB-C) and a wireless presentation system make everyday use simple. A short, one-page guide on the table answers the remaining questions.
The acceptance test
- Make a call to a remote participant and speak at normal volume from every seat, including the far end of the table
- Ask the remote participant to rate echo, volume and speech intelligibility
- Repeat the test with ventilation and air conditioning running
- Check camera framing with the room full and half-empty
- Test content sharing both by cable and wirelessly
- Record the settings and test results in the documentation
The same approach applies to a single room and to a corporate office with dozens of spaces, where standardizing rooms also simplifies support. When audio-visual systems follow one standard from the start, users get the same experience in every room.
Planning a new meeting room or improving an existing one? Tell us about your room — we can help define the acoustic, equipment and network requirements.