Ceiling Tiles; Air Conditioning; Interior Design And Finishes - Polycom RealPresence Group Series Reference Manual

Room Design and Layout
while providing a high level of sound and light block. Typically a heavyweight drape (24 ounces or more) of
heavy fullness (not less than 6" fullness on not less than 8" centers per fold) is preferred. In all cases, the
use of sheer draperies or standard vertical or horizontal blinds should be avoided, due to their inherent
inefficiency in blocking sound and light, and the fine lines they create within the camera field of view.

Ceiling Tiles

These should be high-quality acoustic tiles, ideally 1"- thick compressed densecore fiberglass. An added
benefit of this kind of ceiling tile is that it works well with the indirect lighting as specified elsewhere in this
section. To reduce any extraneous noise from leaving or entering the room via the ceiling space, the ceiling
tiles can be blanketed completely from the plenum side, with a minimum of 6"- thick unfaced dense
fiberglass batting or mineral rock wool, (the equivalent of R-15 to R-19). Here again, a barrier layer will
improve the performance, but all local building codes must be followed for allowable materials in the various
aspects of room acoustic modifications. To make entry and exit from the ceiling space easier, the blanket
and barrier do not need to rest on the ceiling tiles, but may be suspended above it.

Air Conditioning

It is critical that all air-handling equipment (blowers, heat exchangers, solenoid valves, etc.) be located
outside the physical meeting room space. This will prevent the noise burden associated with such
equipment from affecting the participants of any meetings held in the room. Location of air-handling
equipment within the ceiling space of a conference room often renders that room unusable for video or
audio-only conferencing.
The air vents should be of open construction to eliminate "wind noise" while the system is running. These
vents normally are specified as "low-velocity" diffusers. The number of air vents within the room should be
sufficient to maintain a consistent temperature throughout the space. All HVAC ducts and diffusers should
be oversized for the general application in the space, with minimum 2' diameter insulated flexible ducts and
matching 2' noise dampening diffusers generally best. All ducts should be installed with gradual bends and
curves rather than rigid 90-degree corners. This will minimize "thunder" sounds as the initial air pushes
through the ductwork and into the room.
There should be a thermostat to control this specific room system independently of the rest of the building,
and that control should be located within the room.
Important: Allow an additional 5,000 BTU of cooling capacity for a standard "roll-about" singlemonitor VC
system with extended in-room peripherals (PC, document camera, scan converter, etc.) and a minimum of
10,000 BTU for a dual display multimedia presentation system with large screen displays. For the comfort
of the participants, the room must accommodate these heat loads, plus the heat load of a room full of
people, with minimal temperature rise.

Interior Design and Finishes

Wall colors within the field of view of the camera have a significant impact on the far-end perception of the
room video quality. Certain colors are better suited to video rooms than others. The electronics and software
of the videoconferencing system "builds" the images at the far-end from a gray/blue reference image. When
there is a minimal difference between the room background and the reference image color, the codec has
an easier time turning the image into numbers, with the result that the far-end will see a much higher quality
video presentation. In general, light gray with just a touch of blue seems to work best. For rooms that have
marginal lighting, slightly darker colors are quite useful.
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