Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
Audio and video for meeting rooms that anyone can use
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
Each room has a different screen, a different cable and its own trick to make the sound work, and the first minutes of every meeting are lost. This is how the rooms of an office are rebuilt on one standard.
The situation: rooms equipped one by one, and meetings that start late
The client is a company whose office has a boardroom, several meeting rooms and a few small rooms for calls. Each was equipped at a different time: a television on a stand, a camera clipped on top, a speakerphone in the middle of the table, and a drawer of adapters that never holds the right one.
Since part of the staff works from home, almost every meeting has participants on a video call. Those in the room start late because the screen will not show the laptop; those at a distance hear the person nearest the microphone and nobody else. The office manager is called to a room several times a day.
What the first visit, room by room, finds
- Rooms that echoGlass on two sides, a hard table and a bare ceiling: the voices of the people present reach the microphone several times over, and no equipment corrects that on its own.
- Cameras that show the table, not the peopleIn the long rooms, the camera under the screen shows the two nearest faces in close-up and the far end of the table as a row of heads.
- No cable path to the tablePower and network arrive at the wall. Cables cross the floor to the table under a mat, or else the laptop stays by the wall.
- A different way to join a meeting in each roomOne room has its own computer, another expects a laptop, a third has a device nobody has updated. Nobody knows which invitations work in which room.
What is designed, and why
Three types of room, one way to start a meeting. Whoever has used one room can use them all.
- One standard for each size of roomThe small call rooms, the meeting rooms and the boardroom each have a defined set: a screen sized for the viewing distance, a camera, microphones and speakers suited to the length of the table. The same set is repeated in every room of the same type.
- Sound designed before the pictureThe microphones are placed for the seats, in the ceiling or on the table depending on the room, and the speakers so that the sound is even everywhere. Where a room echoes too much, acoustic treatment is recommended to the client as part of the design.
- One touch to beginEach room joins a scheduled meeting from a panel on the table, on the video conferencing platform the company already uses. A guest can still plug in a laptop with a single cable, or share a screen without one.
- Cables out of sightPower, network and video reach the table through the floor or under a cable cover fixed in place, and the equipment sits in a ventilated cabinet or behind the screen, labelled and within reach.
- Rooms on the network, managed from one placeEach room has wired network outlets on a separate network, and the equipment reports its state: a room that is offline is known before the meeting.
How the work is sequenced while the office keeps meeting
Only one or two rooms are out of use at a time, and the calendar shows which ones a week ahead.
- A pilot room
One room of the most common type is done first. The staff use it for a while, and the standard is corrected from what they report.
- Cabling and supports
The outlets, the path to the table and the wall reinforcement for the screens are done room by room, at hours agreed with the office manager.
- Equipment and settings
The screens, cameras, microphones and speakers are installed, then each room is tuned with people seated at the table and someone listening at a distance.
- The boardroom on its own
The largest room is done in one stretch, at a time agreed with management, and it is tried with a real call before it is handed back.
- A short demonstration for each team
Each team sees in a few minutes how to start a meeting, share a screen and end it, in the room it uses most.
What is handed over
- The standard of each type of room: equipment, layout and settings
- A one-page guide posted in each room
- The drawings of each room: cable paths, outlets and position of the equipment
- The administrator access to the room equipment and to its management console
- The list of equipment by room, with its labels
- The test notes of each room: picture, sound in the room and sound at a distance
Services involved
Industry
Other typical projects
- Entry panel and fobs in an occupied rental building
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- Low-voltage package of a new mixed-use building
- Wi-Fi and dock cameras in a warehouse that never closes
- A cut fibre backbone repaired and re-certified
- Leak detection with shut-off by riser in a condo building
- An office move on a fixed date: cabling, Wi-Fi, doors and phones
- Mobile coverage for two levels of underground parking
- Analogue cameras replaced by IP cameras across a group of stores
- Access control for an office building with several tenants
- Licence plate recognition at the gate of a logistics yard
- A network put back in order after a security incident
- An old alarm system replaced in a store with offices and a stockroom
A project like this starts with a list of the rooms and how they are used
Tell us how many rooms you have, how many people each one seats and which video conferencing platform you use. We visit each room and listen to it, then send a quote by type of room, starting with a pilot room. We reply in English or French.