Audio, Lighting, Furniture: Tips & Tricks for Zoom Rooms
Optimize Your Meeting Rooms for the Best Video Conferencing Experience
Zoom Rooms brings the Zoom video conferencing experience into the real world. Rather than join meetings on your own computer, Zoom Rooms are meant for conference rooms to unite in-person and remote teams. The software syncs to the room's cameras, video displays, microphones, and speakers to capture in-person conversations while including hybrid and remote workers.
If your Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, business is considering installing Zoom Rooms, you’ll want to set up the space for success. As a commercial AV company that installs Zoom Rooms for businesses, here are our tips to make the most of Zoom Rooms.
Looking for a Zoom Room installer in Fort Worth? Contact Texadia Systems to get started.
SEE ALSO: 3 Meeting Pain Points That Zoom Rooms Can Solve
Lighting: Keep It Indirect
When you’re capturing everyone’s faces over video, you want lighting to be as indirect as possible while still providing enough coverage. If light shines directly on people’s faces, it can wash them out or appear unflattering. But without enough ambient light, people may appear hidden in the shadows.
Wall-washing is a lighting technique that spotlights walls or artwork, adding luminance to the space without causing glare. If your conference room has large windows, consider installing diffusion blinds or blackout shades to reduce harsh glare. Dark table finishes and warmer woods will also reduce reflections and glare.
Rethinking Furniture & Layout
Historically, conference rooms have always consisted of one large rectangular table with chairs facing each other. Now that we’re adopting video conferencing systems, that layout no longer works best.
Many businesses are adopting curved, crescent-shaped tables where everyone sits on one side, directly facing the cameras and displays. This improves the video conferencing experience for both in-person and remote employees, ensuring everyone can see (and be seen) clearly. In huddle spaces, small boat-shaped tables like the Unifi Huddle Lite table facilitate cozy Zoom Room calls.
If you don’t want to see a tangle of wires and clunky equipment by the display screen, IT and AV cabinetry like Salamander’s low-profile cabinets fit sleekly into any conference room. Salamander designs cabinets intended for integrated technologies and is official partners with Zoom.
And if you want to create a more dynamic, collaborative Zoom Room? Mobile stands allow you to move conferencing displays around the room to accommodate different angles and positions.
Optimizing Audio
Don’t let the cameras fool you—audio is the most important part of a video call! Without audio, no meeting can occur. Ideally, you want microphones to be as close to each speaker as possible to hear them clearly. For this reason, it’s not ideal to rely on a single mic at the head of the table. Consider adding tabletop or ceiling microphones to pick up each person’s voice.
Once installed, Zoom Room software connects to external speakers and microphones throughout your room. Zoom Rooms systems include its own audio processor that optimizes audio, but your setup can use an external processor as well. Zoom’s digital signal processor (DSP) helps to reduce background noise picked up by your microphones, such as the HVAC or electrical hums. This makes speech easier to comprehend, so be sure it’s activated in your system.
Get Started with Zoom Rooms in Dallas-Fort Worth
Are you ready to improve your video conferencing experience? Texadia Systems installs and programs custom Zoom Rooms and can scale across your business’s needs. Don’t want to purchase all-new hardware? Learn more about our AV as a Service options and contact us here to get started.
