Designing a Boardroom Audio Visual System - Part 1: The Function

This is the first in a series of posts where I will take you through the different elements that need to be considered when designing an Audio Visual (AV) system for your Boardroom. 

The first item that needs to be discussed, and which will have an effect on all other items to follow, is the function. I was going to start with the budget, as that can influence the what elements can be included in the room, but when you consider function, this controls what elements have to be included in the room.

So the 1st question we must ask is:

What is the desired functionality of the Room? 

We know that this is the boardroom. The "most important room" in the organisation, but what is its purpose? 

Is your company one where mission critical conference phone calls are paramount? in which case priority will be a high-quality audio conferencing system, or  do visual presentations make up the bulk of meetings? which would require emphasis on the displays installed here,  or,  is the boardroom the room where executives meet to video call other internal sites or external stakeholders? which would mean video conferencing system must be included, or all of the above?

Defining the function of the room early in the design process will make decisions easier later on.

Questions to help guide you here are:

Do or will presentations take place in your boardroom?
Do or will conference call (audio) take place in your boardroom?
Do or will video conferencing calls take place in your boardroom?
Of the above answers which are positive, rank in order. 

Once you have these answers in order we can proceed to part 2: The Budget