In this issue, the focus is on "room design." However, room design is just part of an overall plan. The planning, engineering and implementation of a teleconferencing system can be a complex process requiring expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:

- Audio engineering/acoustical analysis

- Telecommunications and satellite networks

- Devices such as computers, audio graphic, archival and video retrieval, cameras, headsets, speakerphones, monitors, hardware and more

- Video compression techniques and television production

- Designing high-performance or high QoS networks

- Human factors, user training, executive interviewing

- ROI and cost-justification

- Equipment specification and selection process

- Room design and buildout

- Scheduling systems and operational issues - "one touch"

- Support "room attendant" and technical support

We have discussed audio engineering in previous issues and in future issues; we will present ideas on these other topics.  Without bias, here are some various rooms and suggestions for your consideration.  To begin with or rather, in the beginning a long time ago, I visited (and still do) a large number of video rooms in the U.S. and Europe, interviewed users and room managers, spoke with industry experts and put together one "model" room - below. 

The room I designed has a number of features not found in other planning documents, then or now.  You should, in any case, look at your own needs, physical limitations and budget to determine what works.  One of the key issues to be discussed at greater length in the future is onsite "room attendant(s)" and technical support.  While the room below is not drawn to scale, there is a room at the back.  It could also be at the front of the room for a room attendant as well as equipment storage, replacement parts of all kinds, cables, network management tools, supplies (paper pads, pencils, etc.) and even a coffee bar.  The point is that a tele/presence meeting should be everything and more than any executive meeting and should be treated as such.  That is, focus on all aspects of the meeting not just the audio/video network.  The next recommendation is to record all meetings.  This allows for later retrieval by participants unable to attend and presenters to review how they can improve their "tele-skills." 

Next, none of the systems mention an overhead camera.  This is ideal for showing documents, broken parts, body parts and others.  Again, "focus on the problem, not the person" should be the mantra for all meetings.  However, if the person is the focus, then train them for video and have rehearsals.  I did a lot of video for a major telecommunications company and when the executives tried to "wing it," they failed.  When they wrote a script before the video and rehearsed it then night and morning before, they often did it perfectly with "one take." 

I will present more in future newsletters, however, this came out this week from the Chief Scientist from Accenture (click for full article), "Do you have executive telepresence?" Among the many great issues put forth by Mr. Kishore S. Swaminathan is "Videoconferences have a different conversational rhythm."   He mentions the need for presenters to "manage the rhythm" which refers to having an understanding of the communications protocols and nuances in telepresence.  One last comment is to always have a monitor showing you and your room to yourself.  In a F2F-face-to-face meeting, you can always look around and see what you look like, so why not have the same experience in a tele/presence meeting.

Here are just few examples of tele/presence rooms I selected.  Remember your needs and YMMV-your-mileage-may-vary, so these are just ideas for consideration.