What makes a boardroom different
A boardroom isn’t just a bigger meeting room. The table is long, often U-shaped or boat-shaped. The people using it are executives and directors, some who visit once a quarter, some who join remotely. The topics are sensitive. And the room is a showcase: it’s often where partners are received.
That leads to three requirements: everyone must be heard, even at the end of the table and remotely; the technology must start without help; and it must stay discreet, both to the eye and for confidentiality.
Hearing everyone, from the end of the table to remote participants
This is what makes or breaks a boardroom. A video bar under the display picks up the first few seats well, then voices at the far end fade. In a boardroom, we pick up voices where people sit.
- Ceiling microphones: nothing on the table, pickup that follows the voice. We install Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling and Shure Microflex Advance arrays, among others.
- Table or gooseneck microphones: when the ceiling isn’t accessible, or when assembly tradition calls for one microphone per seat.
- Distributed ceiling speakers, so remote voices reach every seat at the same level.
- Audio processing tuned in the room to handle echo and background noise.
In Brossard, two Sennheiser ceiling microphones, Bose speakers and a Q-SYS processor cover a large flexible room with nothing on the tables. For a regional organization in Brossard, we also installed the boardroom audio system, with an XLR wall plate to plug in microphones for assemblies.
Don’t forget acoustics. Glass, concrete and large wooden tables reflect sound. A few well-placed acoustic panels make the microphones more effective and meetings less tiring.
Dual displays and a camera that follows the speaker
The most useful boardroom layout: two displays side by side. One shows remote participants full size, the other shows shared content. Nobody has to choose between seeing people and reading the document.
Display size is calculated from the farthest seat: it should be no more than 4 to 6 times the image height away. We install commercial displays, LG by default, and they are never connected to the network: they’re controlled locally, by infrared.
A boardroom needs more than a fixed camera shot. In Brossard, a four-lens 4K Yealink camera frames people and follows whoever speaks; a second camera covers the rest of the room. Remote participants see the speaker’s face, not a table seen from afar.
Our height benchmark: display centre 50 inches from the floor and camera lens at 45 inches, for natural eye contact.
Control: one touch, even for a visiting director
A director who comes four times a year shouldn’t have to learn the room. A touch panel offers a few clear scenarios: video meeting, in-room presentation, end meeting. One touch, and the displays, sources, sound and, if needed, lighting and shades fall into place.
- RTI: simple and affordable, with only the buttons you need. Our choice for a standalone boardroom.
- Crestron: for head offices where the boardroom is one of many rooms that must behave the same way.
- Q-SYS: when audio processing, routing and control run on a single platform.
Programming stays adjustable: if the way the room is used changes, we update the scenarios.
Presenting, sharing and voting
For presenting, a table box offers power and a USB-C or HDMI connection for any laptop, and wireless sharing saves guests from hunting for cables. Content shows in the room and is shared with remote participants at the same time.
For voting, it all depends on your governance rules. In hybrid meetings, many organizations use the polling tools built into their meeting platform; others use a dedicated solution. We check what’s required with you and make sure the room displays and captures it properly.
Discretion and confidentiality
A boardroom has to inspire confidence. A few principles we apply:
- Displays stay off the corporate network; only devices that need it sit on a segmented network.
- A clearly visible mute status, so everyone knows when the room can be heard.
- Devices your IT team can manage remotely, with updates kept current.
- Work done in the evening or on weekends, so the room stays available.
In regulated industries like finance or law, some IT teams prefer single-console platforms, such as Cisco with Control Hub. We adapt to your requirements.
Aesthetics: hidden cables and custom furniture
In a boardroom, a dangling cable stands out more than anywhere else. Floor box under the table, conduit to the displays, power, network: all of it is planned before the contractor closes the walls and ceilings. Afterwards, it costs more and it shows.
When there’s no wall, we find another way. For a downtown Montreal meeting room glazed on all four sides, we designed a freestanding media unit that holds the display, the video bar and the electronics, with a floor raceway to the table. The same approach was then followed for the other rooms on the floor, including the boardroom.
Chief mounts, Wiremold raceways and labelled cabling do the rest: a clean room today and an easy one to maintain tomorrow.
Training executives, simply
The best room is useless if leadership is afraid to touch it. At handover, we run a short hands-on session with the assistants and the people who organize board meetings, then with any executives who want it. We leave clear documentation and a single number to call.
After that, our technicians keep your room’s plans on file. Remote or on-site service; a video conferencing service call is a flat CA$310.
Boardrooms we have equipped
- Brossard: the boardroom audio system of a regional organization, with an XLR wall plate for assemblies.
- Montreal: a video game studio’s headquarters, from two-seat focus rooms to dual-display boardrooms, with a booking panel at every door.
- Downtown Montreal: a full floor for a software publisher, boardroom included, following a glass pilot room.
For budgeting, a boardroom usually falls in our “large room” category: our Pricing page shows the ranges. You can also see an equipped room in our Boucherville showroom, free, by appointment.
Meeting rooms and video conferencingControl systemsAudio-video integration
