My organization has just completed the construction of a three-building campus to house over 2000 of our employees. We now have two large conference rooms on the first floor of each of the two largest buildings. One of the conference rooms can be split in half to hold different meetings simultaneously, or the divider can be opened to set the room up to hold 150 people. My office has been asked to provide the specifications for equip[ing these new conference rooms with vidoe monitors, audio equipment, laptop hook-ups, and to determine how to show the same video on multiple monitors set thorughout the room. HELP! I know enough about this topic to be dangerous (my children program the remote at home for me t and I still have trouble turning the television on and off?)
My questions:
1.Does the room size dictate the size of the monitors and the number of monitors? If I can't go big, should I go with buying a lot of smaller ones placed around the room? Are there specs on what size mointor to buy to accomodate specific room sizes?
2. How do I know where to place the data/phone and laptop plugs to accomodate presentations? Plugging directly into a monitor that is mounted high ona wall doesn't seem pratical. Several throughout the floor?
3. I was thinking one pdium with speakers would be enough of a sound system. But is it? Should I have speakers installed on the walls and linked to the laptop lines/video monitors?
HELP! -- Laurie
2 Responses
sorry Laurie…..
First point is that there is a world of difference between a conference room and a room for presentations, if the room is to be used for meetings, the furniture layout will be totally different to being used for a presentation.
Secondly you need to work out how much the AV equipment will get used….I know of organsiations that spent massive amounts on really clever kit and no one ever uses it.
Personally I’d suggest that you start by approaching your "customer base"; the people who are going to use the rooms, and ask them what they want from them. Then build from there. This goes for furniture as well as the AV gear.
Sorry this isn’t much "help" as such but in the longer run it may make your facility much better and give a quicker ROI than going for industry "standard" that may be of little use in your employer.
Rus
http://www.coach-and-courses.com
Thank you, Rus!
Thank you, Rus for that insight. You are absolutely right that the purpose should define the equipment purchases. As a state agency, we are challenged to make every resource multi-functional. Meeting that expectation (on little $$) is very daunting at times. We may start small with the most common use (training) and build from there on an ad hoc basis. I appreciate your follow-up and will let you know how it goes and what I learn from all this! Take care, Laurie