Boardrooms, Training Facilities and Presentation Centers - Brief Article

Chief Executive, The, March, 2000 by David English

Window on the World

Imagine that the CEO of a major corporation has just called a meeting to order, and one of the board members makes a motion to discuss a proposed acquisition. The CEO leans forward, and presses a button on a small touch screen. Within seconds, the lights dim, the curtains close, two LCD projectors descend from the ceiling, and the walls at the opposite ends of the conference table magically transform into large projection screens.

The financial officer plugs his notebook into a nearby control panel and sends the latest figures on the merger to one of the projection screens. The CEO presses another button, and the second screen reveals the CEO and his management team at the company about to be acquired. As discussions begin between the two companies, the cameras automatically move to each member as he or she expresses an opinion. As the meeting moves along, presentations are made which include videos and other graphic demonstrations of products in use, plant operations, marketing activities and advertising campaigns. After hours of long distance give and take, the basis for a merger is hammered out to everyone's satisfaction.

Pure fantasy? Not at all. This scenario is played out daily in boardrooms, war rooms, presentation centers and other business communications facilities throughout the world. In order to stay ahead of competition from around the globe, corporations are now more than ever before equipping their boardrooms with the tools they need to make real-time, split-second business decisions. In today's speed-intensive corporate environment, the success of a company is often reflected in the form and function of its meetings/communications facilities.

A boardroom shows the kind of company that you're dealing with, explains George Chin, a vice president and studio director with Gensler, an architectural firm based in San Francisco. It represents a firm's signature, so it's not surprising that companies often put a disproportionate amount of their money into the areas that the public is likely to see -- reception areas, client conference areas, and boardrooms -- while spending far less per square foot on private work areas.

What starts as a small remodeling job can take on a life -- and a budget -- all its own.

Usually budgetary constraints have a tendency to go by the boards because so many groups get involved with these kinds of projects, explains Nathan Chess, a project manager with Hird/Blaker, an architectural woodwork firm based in the Bronx. You've got your basic in-house facilities that are planning it, as well as your IT groups, your MIS people, and your AV squad. And everybody is saying, Listen, you have got to have this. As it gets kicked around, high-level executives become involved who might not normally be involved in an architectural project.

Most AV consultants take a needs-based approach. They spend time interviewing executives -- especially those who will be meeting in the boardroom -- to find out how the room will be used. We try to do it in layers, says Peter Schmidt, a project manager with CDAI. We start with a general discussion. What types of meetings will be in the room? How many people will be in these meetings? Does everyone have an active role in the meeting, or do some people serve in an advisory role?

Part of the interview process involves deciding who will have the responsibility for the technology after the construction is completed. You have to think about who will he the stuckee, says Michael Leiboff, a principal with the New York-based AV consulting firm Shen Lisom & Wilke. Who is going to be charged with the responsibility of not only operating the room during the important presentations, but providing maintenance and support and -- to a certain extent -- beating the drum for the technology?

A Collaborative Process

Most high-tech boardrooms involve both an architect and an AV consultant, so there's generally some give-and-take concerning the appearance and performance of the room. It's the fight between form and function, says Chris Maione, with Costello Maione Schuch (CMS) in Long Island, New York. The compromises usually involve hiding the technology from view. A retractable projection screen might be concealed in the ceiling, controls might be mounted in a table drawer, or flat-panel monitors might rise out of the table. A high-profile boardroom will have tiny microphones embedded into the table, where a not-so-public training room will have gooseneck microphones for better audio.

The give-and-take between the architect and AV consultant can also involve a series of design tradeoffs. Maione and Chin worked together on a Mercedes-Benz boardroom. A horseshoe-shaped table had been planned, leaving the middle of the table open to the carpet. When, at the end of the project, Mercedes-Benz opted for a solid table, Maione requested that the ceiling be changed, because he had been counting on the carpet to adsorb some of the sound. A table can also affect the visual quality of the videoconference. When you have AV, the surface shine has to go away, because otherwise you get a reflection on the people there in the room, says Chin.