Board Room Tech Refresh
A note before we begin: A detailed list of components will accompany this article, so I will not dive into minute details unless they are pertinent to a function or helpful in solving problems. The language is simplified so that anyone can understand the purpose and capabilities of certain equipment.
In 2016 I converted a large open work area that was no longer necessary for daily operations into a meeting room for directors, employees, vendors, etc. I wanted to digitize the space by using a display for presentations instead of printing and reviewing reports, as was practiced before I joined the organization. First, the room received a fresh coat of paint, wainscotting, flooring, new baseboards, crown molding, and a new drop ceiling. We also walled off a couple of doors and added some window dressing.
To neatly manage the audio/video equipment, we created a false wall with a recessed mounting point for the television, a storage cabinet, and a shelf for components. The surround sound system came with a subwoofer to which all speakers returned. This may be common for home theaters in a box, but from my experience, each speaker and subwoofer go directly to the receiver.
I placed the subwoofer inside the wall which would obviously result in less than perfect bass performance, but this is a board room, not a home theater. The speakers were mounted in each corner of the room and the wires returned to the sub through the ceiling. I configured the receiver to use the speakers in four-channel stereo so that everyone, no matter their position in the room, could hear content and voices clearly.
To enable multiple mediums of connectivity, I hooked up a PC for internal users, a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter for casting from Windows laptops, an Apple TV to AirPlay wirelessly with Apple devices, and a 25’ HDMI cable for wired devices with a few dongles available for interface conversion. We had TV service, so I included a set top box in the mix. All these devices were connected to the receiver with HDMI cables and the receiver output video to the TV and sound to the speakers for any chosen input. For webinars and WebEx/Teams meetings on the PC, I installed a Logitech webcam, which at the time was used for both video and audio.
Because the complexity of this setup can be overwhelming for non-technical users, I wanted to simplify the process of choosing an activity. Utilizing the automation functionality available with Logitech’s Harmony Home Hub, I reduced each function to a single button press. For example, if you wanted to use AirPlay to wirelessly display a presentation from your iPad, you would simply press the “Apple TV” button on the Logitech Harmony Ultimate remote control. This action initiates the startup sequence of: Power on TV, power on receiver, power on/wake Apple TV, change TV input to HDMI 2, change receiver input to HDMI 4. This process is executed in seconds, and you are ready to present. After adding some furniture and a fridge, the room was complete.
A few years in, some users began sharing their feedback that the 60” 1080p screen was too small. This got me pumped for an upgrade. In 2021, I removed the set top box when our television provider exited the IPTV space. I upgraded the webcam in 2022 providing better video and audio quality.
The 2024 tech refresh began when I replaced the board room PC and added a discrete video card in anticipation of outputting to 4K displays. I wanted to add a proper microphone, but in-ceiling conference mics can cost thousands of dollars. I have years of experience with Blue Yeti condenser mics which feature a conference setting. They are also relatively cheap, so I decided to give it a shot.
I was concerned with signal degradation over the distance the mic had to travel via USB to the center of the room. The length of a standard USB 2.0 cable is limited to around 16 feet. I chained two 15-foot active USB cables through the ceiling to the desired mounting point and it worked. Using Logitech’s G HUB Gaming Software, I tuned the mic and tested communication from all areas in the room using web meetings. It sounded great. I encountered one issue with our softphone software. It could not work with 5.1 surround in Windows. We would connect, but we could not hear anyone speaking. I set Windows to output in stereo and the softphone worked again. With the receiver in four-channel stereo, losing surround sound in Windows did not matter.
I conducted quite a bit of research trying to find the perfect display at a reasonable cost considering our use cases. I focused on three areas:
A majority of the content displayed on the TVs will be text-based. We need an RGB stripe subpixel layout to accurately render text from a computer. Text rendered on OLED panels with BGR subpixel layouts can appear distorted and difficult to read. This is because the physical arrangement of pixels is different than what the operating system expects. So, we aren’t getting too fancy yet.
A wide viewing angle is essential because one of the televisions will be positioned to replace a frequently used laptop screen at the end of the table. The user must navigate Windows at a 45-degree angle unless they change seats.
The lights in the board room are very bright, so the screen needs to diffuse as much light as possible to limit reflections.
I found that RTINGS.com has an invaluable table tool that enabled me to filter hundreds of televisions by each of my requirements, and sort by ratings in each category. It is an excellent resource, and I cannot praise it enough. I found the perfect fit and ordered three of them.
Like USB, HDMI signals degrade over distance, and that distance gets shorter the more bandwidth you require. I purchased a couple of active HDMI cables from Monoprice to solve this problem and ran them above the ceiling. Our maintenance guy got them down the walls for a clean appearance. I used an HDMI splitter after the receiver so everything going into the receiver gets pumped out to each TV. So, all components plug into the receiver, the receiver outputs audio to the speakers and video to the splitter, and the splitter outputs to the TVs.
Due to the bandwidth limitation of HDMI 1.4, our existing receiver could only pass through a 4K signal at 30Hz, which is half the speed of pretty much every computer monitor used by most people. This can make navigating Windows sluggish and frustrating. I replaced our receiver with a model capable of pushing 4K at 60Hz (HDMI 2.0+) and the issue was immediately resolved. After calibrating the speakers and TVs, and reprogramming the Harmony Hub and remote, the upgrade was complete.
