Guidelines for Studio Design and Layout
The following UKERNA document is available: Advice
and Guidance on Videoconferencing Rooms.
Further documents are available from the JANET Video Technology Advisory
Service (VTAS).
Information on curtains and additional studio lighting
(including where to purchase them) can be found in the Forum
pages.
The Welsh Video Network will provide all academic
institutions across Wales with video-conferencing facilities.
The aim of this document is to help Colleges make decisions
about building their own studio. It is not, and does not claim
to be, the final word in studio design and layout but will aim
to provide pointers in these areas.
There are two fundamental areas which will guide the design
and layout of the studio:
- Its purpose
- The technology it will contain
Its purpose will be decided by each institution, but will in
most cases be a mix of small-group meetings, for management,
staff and students, and large-group meetings where a group of
students may be receiving a lecture from a remote lecturer.
There may, within and between institutions, be variations in the
expected ratio of these options - some may expect primarily
small-group management meetings with very few large meetings
ever taking place. Others may expect use to be primarily by
groups of , e.g. 10, language students meeting their counterparts
in France once a week for language practice. The purpose of the studio will
determine the layout, i.e. the
arrangement of seating and table space within the studio. These factors
should be taken into consideration during the design phase.
The technology that will be contained in the studio imposes
certain constraints on the environment within the studio. Some
of these are:
Microphones are placed in the studios to transmit the
participants voices to each other. Microphones do not have the
ability, as the human ear does, to filter out unwanted sounds
and concentrate only on the conversation taking place. This
means that the studio's acoustics need to help the microphones
focus only on the important sound within the room. This is
generally done by cutting down as much extraneous noise as
possible. This includes noise from outside the room, noise from
equipment within the room and noise caused by echoes of the
desired sound within the room.
The so called 'clap test' can be a very quick indication of
the state of a room acoustics - simple clapping your hands once,
and listening carefully for echoes and at how quickly the sound
dies away will often give a good indication of a room's
acoustics. The more obvious the echoes and the longer the sound
takes to die away, the worse the acoustics are for
videoconferencing. Simply talking to another person in the room
and listening to how clear their voice sounds is also a good
indication. Is there any 'booming' - rumbling background while
they are taking - cause by low frequency resonance within the
room? - this is similar to, but far less noticeable than, the
effect of talking in a cave.
While you are clapping and talking, have you noticed any
noise from external sources? Footsteps from students running
past the door eager to get to their next session? A lift motor
starting? The staff-room next door throwing a party? All these
need to considered - and also that these factors can
substantially change over time/days of the week.
Acoustic treatment in a room will normally only involve
hanging good-quality curtains around two or three walls of the
room which will deaden the acoustic properties of the room.
Other treatments may only be necessary if there are problems
with external noise reaching into the studio. Note: some sites
may require any curtains to be flame-retardant in order to
comply with local Health and Safety policy - talk to your
estates department.
Details of suppliers of suitable curtains are available in
the Forum pages.
Cameras within the studio transmit images to other studios.
Modern cameras are far superior to their old counterparts, but
they still need some help, in a similar way to microphones, to
see the best image quality possible.
Lighting needs to be average/bright office lighting, with fluorescent
lighting preferable to 'spot' lights. Lighting should be even
across the room, i.e. with no dark patches, and should not be
affected by external influences such as the sun going behind
clouds, or even, rare as it may be, coming out from behind them.
Rapid fluctuations in lighting like this can cause problems with
the transmitted video quality so studios will normally be fitted
with blackout curtains if there are windows (especially south
facing ones) and will rely on artificial light during
conferences.
Details of suppliers of suitable additional lighting are
available in the Forum
pages.
A standard 13 Amp ring main will be sufficient to power the studio. Sockets
will be needed at the equipment end of the room with possibly some around the room for flexibility. This supply
should ideally be filtered and from a 'clean' source on a main distribution board. However, in the real world, it should at least be on a relatively clean supply with no heavy loading or switching gear/lift motors
being fed from the same board/phase.
One or more network sockets for the CODEC should be able to
be patched directly back to the site-access router (with some
topologies this may not be possible). Also, one or more
network sockets should be patched directly onto the campus LAN (for the data-sharing PC, if this is a separate entity, and for any other requirements (such as staff bringing in laptops
etc.))
People using the room may be there for a considerable length
of time, and their comfort should be considered. If the room is
too warm or too cold, or there is no flow of air, then people
may be dissuaded from using the studio for longer meetings.
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