Boardrooms, Training Facilities and Presentation Centers.

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.

When videoconferencing is involved, Maione will work up a list of AV preferences for the room, such as light-colored fabric, carpet that isn't too ornate, a plain ceiling, or additional lighting. Without that information, our designers might meet with the client and come up with something entirely different, says Chin. The client may want to see dark traditional wood, ornate Oriental carpets on the floor, and chandeliers. We take what the client wants and what the AV guy requires and come to some sort of happy medium.

Lighting is especially important for videoconferencing. There can be so many lights, it looks like a studio, says Chin. You may need literally dozens of lights in the ceiling just to light the space for broadcasting. The higher-than-normal light levels can, in turn, affect the choice of decor. For example, the material on the walls should be reflective, but not so reflective that it casts shadows.

The use of videoconference cameras can affect other design decisions. Video images can make everything appear to be two-dimensional, creating some unusual optical effects, if not handled properly. The portraits of past CEOs could be confused with the living-and-breathing participants at the table, and vertical or horizontal lines on the wall could appear to pass through the heads of the board members.

Videoconferencing also requires that companies alter the way they hold their boardroom meetings. You can't just have a wild meeting where everybody is talking back and forth, because the equipment is geared to jump to whoever is talking, says Dennis Paoletti of San Francisco's Paoletti Associates, Inc. With auto caption goes caption microphone mixers, the system picks up whoever's sound is closest to the microphone. If I start talking, my microphone is on, and everybody else's is off. If other people jump in and start talking at the same time, you get these random bursts of energy over the system. There needs to be a protocol for running the meeting.

The technology is there to support the meeting

... not the other way around, says Randy Triz, a senior associate with Shen Milsom & Wilke. Fortunately, with today's highly automated systems, the boardroom participants don't have to be ruled by the AV equipment. Many boardrooms are outfitted with touch-panel screens with common-sense labels, such as PowerPoint Presentation or Videoconference. By pressing a single button, you can trigger a sequence of actions, including closing the curtains, adjusting the lighting, switching on various cameras and microphones, and routing connections to specific video monitors and sound systems. We've gotten to the point where if the person at the third chair from the end of the table is speaking, the system knows where that person is, turns his microphone on, and shuts the other microphones off until someone else speaks, says Triz. It also trains a camera in his direction automatically.

High-Tech, High-Security

They sound like props from a James Bond movie (anti-eavesdropping devices, bullet-proof doors, and hidden passageways). In fact, they're an integral part of many corporate boardrooms. These high-tech devices are designed to maintain the confidentiality of the participants conversation and protect the participants from malicious harm.

Privacy and security are big, big issues, says Costello Maione Schuch's Chris Maione. His firm handles many of the top financial institutions in New York City. Most of the boardrooms that CMS has been involved with undergo bug sweeps before each meeting. Some of CMS clients perform a bug sweep of the whole building, while others continually limit access to the floor of the building that contains the boardroom.

Thinking about using a wireless microphone? Think again. A Fisher Price baby listening device picks up a wireless microphone just fine, says Maione. Corporate spies could also use an inexpensive scanner radio to monitor the conversation. As a result of advancing technologies, companies have to rethink their usual ways of doing business. One company had spent many thousands of dollars to equip its boardroom with the latest privacy measures only to discover that the board members used cell phones inside the boardroom to discuss confidential mergers. The inexpensive scanner radio that can be used to pick up a wireless microphone can also be used to pick up cell phone conversations.

One of the more elaborate measures that corporations use to ensure the privacy of their meetings includes vibrating the walls and windows to evade eavesdropping. We flush the walls with white noise to prevent external eavesdropping devices or devices that might be fixed to the walls, says Maione. He installs tiny speakers into the wall that emit a steady stream of static. You don't hear it, because the noise is in the wall. Instead of picking up the boardroom conversation, a listening device detects only the noise. CMS has installed several of these systems, which are completely hidden from view. Another common method for preventing electronic surveillance is to install a half-inch sheet of lead or copper around the entire room.

If walls have ears, so do windows. Most boardrooms are situated in a corner office with a spectacular view, explains Maione. You can point a laser at a window and pick up the voices within the room. The glass vibrates from the voices, and the laser measures the vibration. The guy at the other end has an earpiece and something that resembles a gun, which points a laser beam at the window. The best way to counter this form of corporate espionage is to mount tiny mechanical motors into the window frame to vibrate the glass. Like the white-noise wall speakers, the technology is hidden from view. The motors are usually installed above the ceiling line.

Maione has seen a broad range of boardroom-based security measures. We did a room with a hidden elevator door as a measure against terrorists, he says. Other anti-terrorist devices include boardroom entrances that automatically deadbolt or become impenetrable gates, enough stored food to last several days, and razor blades attached to the lining of the air conditioning ducts to prevent anyone from crawling through.

CEO Wants and Needs

One thing is certain in the process of designing and constructing a high-tech corporate boardroom: Most CEOs don't have the time to become involved in the technical details. However, Randy Triz, of New York-based Shen Milsom & Wilke, is spending more and more time talking with CEOs, CFOs, and presidents. They have a goal and vision for the room, he explains. They know that when it comes to their sweetheart room, they need to impart the information themselves. Triz says that executive involvement is especially important for high-tech board rooms because the technology can't run the meeting. If we're going to be successful, we need to obtain the most concise information -- and that has to come from the person with the vision that started the room.

While today's automated control panels make it much easier for non-technical people to control complex operations, it will always be a challenge to fully CEO-proof the controls. Chris Maione of Costello Maione Schuch was explaining to a group of executives that the touch-sensitive control panels are as easy to use as a cash machine, when one executive looked at him and said, I don't know how to get cash from a cash machine.

Table Manners

It's the centerpiece of any boardroom, and often the focal point for the room's design and technology. Yet most people have no idea how much work goes into designing and constructing a boardroom table. The tables are generally custom designed for each installation. For a large and elaborate boardroom, an architect might create 100 drawings for the entire room, and an AV consultant might create 30 to 40 drawings for the audio-video equipment. According to Nathan Chess with the architectural woodwork firm of Hird/Blaker, the table might require 5 or 6 drawings and 20, 30, 40, or 50 sections, details, and elevations. Other woodwork in the boardroom might require another 30 to 40 drawings.

Even the most traditional-looking boardroom tables can hide some very untraditional electronics. Chess refers to high-tech boardrooms as Star Wars rooms. They want it to be sexy with all the bells and whistles, he says. They want everything motorized -- sliding walls that slide away, tables that slide apart, things that pop up, and things that move down. Literally at the flick of a remote control switch, the lights will come down, the shades will draw, and the walls will slide away revealing a rear projection system.

The high-tech controls are usually integrated into the table, often hidden from sight. You'll have keyboard pullout trays at certain stations. When microphones and speakers are required for audio- or videoconferencing, Chess usually builds a combination microphone-speaker into the table near each seat. The challenge is to embed the microphones into the table so that they don't seem to be there, but make them noticeable enough that the participants don't cover the microphones with papers. Inside the table, there's a subsystem of wires -- audio cables, video cables, fiber-optic cables, and power cables. The structural elements that support the overall tabletop also act as raceways and interconnections for all our electrical work.

Stranqe, But True

Chris Maione of CMS recalls the time he was asked by a Chinese trade group to build a karaoke system into its boardroom.

Bill Othick of Dayton-based AAC remembers the time an electrician drilled a hole through B. F. Goodrich's million-dollar 300-year-old Persian rug. The electrician actually cut it with his utility knife, so he could run a wire through it, explains Othick. The electrical contractor had to pay the bill to hand stitch it back together.

Sometimes the transportation charge can vastly exceed the cost of the item being shipped. Hird/Blaker's Nathan Chess has been involved in projects where the equipment had to be hoisted into the building by a crane. For a project four years ago, the rear projection screen itself was something like 30 feet by 20 feet, explains Chess. The screen cost about $15,000, but it cost $150,000 to get it into the building. It was going up to the 27th floor, so they had to peel the skin off of the building and peel the windows out. In a similar situation, another company hoisted two screens by crane. They built one behind a wall for storage, in case the first one ever became damaged. The cost of the screen was relatively small to what it cost to get it into the building.

What's ahead for hiqh-tech boardrooms?

Expect them to become increasingly more sophisticated, as corporations demand up-to-date information and instant communications. Expect the systems to be easy to control by people who couldn't care less about the technology. To fully compete in tomorrow's business world, corporations will have to integrate presentation and communications technology into the workplace -- at all levels. Having someone wheel in a slide projector, sit it in the middle of the table, and speak over the noise doesn't come across as professional anymore.

MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER

Located in New York. The Morgan Stanley boardroom can communicate via audio- or videoconferencing with many of the company's branch offices throughout the world. It also hosts important press events. Located on the 40th floor of the building, the boardroom is connected to a 6th-floor master control room via fiber-optic cables. A camera in the front wall provides a wide view of the room, and a camera on a back side wall focuses on the podium. A voice amplification system allows people at either end of the 30-foot table to clearly hear the people at the other end.

                          MORGAN STANLEY TOOL BOX
Audio Technica Microphones (23)      TOA MB-25 Audio Mixer/Amplifier
Sony 1610 1/2" VHS Videocassette     Atlas/Soundolier FA136/747 Ceiling
Recorder                             Speakers (18)
Sony TU 110 TV Tuner/CATS Transceive Sony EVI-D30 Videoconference Cameras
                                     with
RGB SPECTRUM Computer/Video Scan     Pan/tilt heads (2)
Converter                            Picturetel Concorde Videoconferencing
                                     CODEC
Sony RVP 6010 LCD Data/Video         Ascend Multiplexer and Modem
Projectors (2)

GUY CARPENTER & COMPANY

Providing an impressive view from the 51st floor of the World Trade Center, Guy Carpenter's boardroom has a full complement of presentation and videoconferencing gear. In addition to functioning as a boardroom, the space is used for brainstorming, presentation practice, and customer presentations. The room features AV control panels at both the lectern and table, as well as a computer-based workstation at the rear of the room.

                          GUY CARPENTER TOOL BOX
Sharp XG-E3500U video projector PictureTel 4500 videoconference codec
Autopatch 4 YDM Matrix Switcher Creston custom-configured control system