Meeting Room Equipment Guide
Every meeting room needs the right meeting room equipment. Learn about the equipment to have in any meeting room, as well as available conferencing solutions.
Meeting Room Equipment 101: What Exactly Do You Need?
Equipping a meeting room may sound straightforward, but there are actually many items to keep track of.
In addition, the type of meeting room equipment you’ll need often depends on the size and intended purpose of the meeting room itself.
In this article, you’ll learn about:
- Basic meeting room equipment
- Conferencing solutions for meeting rooms of different sizes
- Microsoft Teams Rooms
Basic Meeting Room Equipment Checklist
Regardless of the type of meeting room, there are certain “must-haves” for all of them. These meeting room equipment basics include:
1. Table and chairs
While seemingly obvious, it’s important to ensure your table setup is appropriate for the size and main purpose of the meeting room. Make sure they’re spaced out for participant comfort and physical distancing guidelines.
2. Power
This includes the power supply and outlets themselves as well as cables, extenders, and adapters that let meeting room participants easily plug in their own devices. Nowadays, in the hybrid workplace, most meeting room attendees will bring a laptop to work or dial into conference calls from the same room.
3. WiFi
Meeting room users will require access to the Internet, so make sure to have WiFi available, as well as any required connection cables and wireless routers. Don’t forget the usernames and passwords for external guests.
4. Digital AV solution (screen or projector with speakers)
This makes it possible for participants to present slides or share other items from their computer.
5. Office supplies
This includes markers for the whiteboard, paper, post-it notes, pens, and other items that facilitate note taking and group work.
6. Shared writing surface
This lets participants jot things down on the fly while brainstorming or explaining concepts during a meeting. It can take the form of a simple whiteboard or an interactive touch screen solution.
7. Access to refreshments
During long meetings, participants will need drinks and potential light snacks. Make sure the room is either equipped with the necessary facilities or is located close to them.
For meeting rooms with exclusively in-person participants, the basic list above should be enough. However, if the meeting room will be used for conferencing with remote participants, you’ll have to consider additional meeting room solutions.
8. COVID considerations
In the current health climate, it’s also important to ensure that your meeting room can be properly ventilated and that participants have easy access to hand sanitizer. Leave enough space to comply with social distancing recommendations. Use signage to communicate the most current office COVID guidelines such as coughing into your elbow, washing hands, and so on.
Conferencing Equipment for Meeting Rooms
There is no shortage of conference equipment for meeting room use. The exact conferencing solution you choose will typically depend on the size of the meeting room.
Focus Room
This room allows individuals to escape the office noise and work on their own. This often involves dialing into conference calls from a quiet space. For conferencing in these types of rooms, employees can either use personal headsets or small portable speakerphones.
Small Meeting Rooms
These rooms, often called “huddle rooms,” are made for groups of up to 6 participants. Their primary purpose is to facilitate quick breakout sessions for smaller teams working on a task or project.
If participants in a small meeting room need to have a conference call with a remote colleague, a portable speakerphone is often all they will need. This type of speakerphone is easy to move around the office and will support conversations in any smaller meeting room.
Medium Meeting Rooms
Medium meeting rooms can typically accommodate up to 12 participants. They work best for workshops and team meetings. To facilitate conferencing in a medium meeting room, participants will often need a larger speakerphone, capable of reliably picking up the voice of someone seated at the far end of the table.
Large Meeting Rooms
Groups of more than 12 people will need a large meeting room. These meeting rooms are intended for department meetings, board meetings, and the like. Conferencing equipment at this scale will often require tools that enable fully-featured audio and video conferencing. This can take the form of smart all-in-one conferencing solutions, which can follow the speaker as they move about the room. Whatever conferencing equipment you use, it must be capable of accurately picking up voices across larger distances.
Microsoft Teams Rooms: Conferencing Spaces for the Hybrid Workplace
While it’s certainly possible to set up your own meeting room conferencing equipment from scratch, it often makes more sense to invest in a complete, purpose-built conference solution. This not only takes the technical setup effort out of your hands but guarantees that all included pieces of conferencing equipment will work seamlessly with each other.
One such solution is the Microsoft Teams Rooms, which pulls together all the required software, hardware, and video conferencing tools into a complete conferencing package for meeting rooms.
At the same time, you don’t lose the option of selecting your preferred devices. Microsoft continuously certifies hardware and peripherals from industry-leading device manufacturers for use with Microsoft Teams. This lets you select your preferred third-party vendor while ensuring reliable, high-quality audio and video experiences.
Discover EPOS Conferencing Solutions for Any Meeting Room
EPOS offers a range of conferencing equipment for every size of meeting room---from small and large speakerphones to all-in-one smart video conferencing solutions.
No matter the size of your meeting room, EPOS empowers you with the right audio and video conferencing tools.