Cisco TelePresence
Room Design Guide
April 2012
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Cisco TelepResence Room Design Guide
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Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 6
What Is Immersive Cisco TelePresence? .......................................................................................................... 6
How Is Cisco TelePresence Used? .................................................................................................................... 6
Characteristics of Immersive Cisco TelePresence Rooms ............................................................................. 6
How to Use This Guide ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Immersive Cisco TelePresence ........................................................................................................................... 8
Continuity in Cisco TelePresence ...................................................................................................................... 8
Continuity Implementation: Lighting, Acoustics, and Aesthetics ........................................................................ 8
Lighting ................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Lighting Theory ................................................................................................................................................ 10
Color Temperature ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Color Rendering Index ................................................................................................................................. 12
Pigment and Light Color............................................................................................................................... 12
Lumens, Lux, and the Candela Curve .......................................................................................................... 12
How to Measure Lighting Levels .................................................................................................................. 13
Application of Video Production Lighting to Cisco TelePresence ..................................................................... 14
Key Light ...................................................................................................................................................... 14
Fill Light ........................................................................................................................................................ 14
Back Light .................................................................................................................................................... 15
Application of Commercial Office Lighting to Cisco TelePresence ................................................................... 15
Immersive Cisco TelePresence Lighting .......................................................................................................... 16
Facial Lighting .............................................................................................................................................. 17
Shoulder Lighting ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Lighting Control Systems ............................................................................................................................. 17
Occupancy Sensors ..................................................................................................................................... 18
Lighting Fixtures ........................................................................................................................................... 18
Wall Wash .................................................................................................................................................... 24
Ceiling Soffits and Lighting Coves................................................................................................................ 24
Energy Efficiency ............................................................................................................................................. 25
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
Acoustics ............................................................................................................................................................. 27
Acoustic Theory and Background .................................................................................................................... 27
Sound Pressure Level in Decibels ............................................................................................................... 27
Human Range of Hearing Frequencies ........................................................................................................ 28
Human Hearing ............................................................................................................................................ 29
Human Speech ............................................................................................................................................ 30
Reverberation............................................................................................................................................... 31
Echo ............................................................................................................................................................. 32
Reverberation and Echo in Cisco TelePresence Rooms ............................................................................. 32
Lively Sound Environments .......................................................................................................................... 33
Flat Sound Environments ............................................................................................................................. 34
Building for Acoustic Isolation .......................................................................................................................... 35
Sound Transmission Class .......................................................................................................................... 35
Noise-Reduction Coefficient ......................................................................................................................... 36
Impact Insulation Class ................................................................................................................................ 37
Office Environment Acoustic Concerns and Resolutions ................................................................................. 38
High Ambient Noise Levels .......................................................................................................................... 38
Noise from Air Movement ............................................................................................................................. 39
Noise from Machinery .................................................................................................................................. 39
Noise from Adjacent Rooms ........................................................................................................................ 39
Reverberation Remediation ......................................................................................................................... 40
Acoustic Panel Placement ........................................................................................................................... 41
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 43
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning for Cisco TelePresence ............................................................... 44
General Rules for HVAC .................................................................................................................................. 44
Use of an Existing HVAC System .................................................................................................................... 45
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Zoning and Capability to Rezone HVAC .......................................................................................................... 47
Common HVAC Cooling Issues and Resolutions............................................................................................. 47
Supplemental Cooling ...................................................................................................................................... 48
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 48
Aesthetics ............................................................................................................................................................ 49
Aesthetic Principles .......................................................................................................................................... 49
Choice and Customization in Design ............................................................................................................... 49
How to Approach Aesthetic Design for Immersive Cisco TelePresence .......................................................... 50
Wall Color ........................................................................................................................................................ 51
Color Matching ............................................................................................................................................. 51
Aesthetics and Room Remediation .................................................................................................................. 51
Exterior Windows ......................................................................................................................................... 52
Interior Windows .......................................................................................................................................... 52
Doorways ..................................................................................................................................................... 52
Acoustic Panels............................................................................................................................................ 53
Creative Wall Treatments ................................................................................................................................. 53
Wall Coverings ............................................................................................................................................. 53
Wood Panels ................................................................................................................................................ 53
Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes .................................................................................................... 54
Modifiable Aesthetic Elements ......................................................................................................................... 55
Branding In Cisco TelePresence Room Design ............................................................................................... 56
Integration of Aesthetics in a Cisco TelePresence Room ................................................................................ 56
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 57
Immersive Room Design Implementation ......................................................................................................... 58
Room Selection ................................................................................................................................................ 58
Cost Versus Immersive Experience ............................................................................................................. 58
Dedicated or Multipurpose Meeting Space ...................................................................................................... 59
Physical Elements of the Room ....................................................................................................................... 60
Room Dimensions ............................................................................................................................................ 61
Location ........................................................................................................................................................... 62
Doors ........................................................................................................................................................... 62
Windows ...................................................................................................................................................... 62
Placement of The Room in the Building ....................................................................................................... 63
Adjacent Rooms ........................................................................................................................................... 63
Acoustic Evaluation ...................................................................................................................................... 63
Construction Characteristics ............................................................................................................................ 64
Wall Materials............................................................................................................................................... 64
Ceiling Materials........................................................................................................................................... 64
Flooring Materials......................................................................................................................................... 64
Power Outlets............................................................................................................................................... 65
Network Access ........................................................................................................................................... 65
Indirect Lighting ................................................................................................................................................ 65
Lighting Control Systems ................................................................................................................................. 66
Direct Lighting .................................................................................................................................................. 66
Replacing Lighting Fixtures .............................................................................................................................. 67
Room Design Models ......................................................................................................................................... 68
Appendix A: HVAC Components and Systems ................................................................................................ 70
HVAC Components .......................................................................................................................................... 70
Duct Types ................................................................................................................................................... 70
Galvanized Steel .......................................................................................................................................... 70
Duct Board ................................................................................................................................................... 70
Flexible Ducting............................................................................................................................................ 70
Ducting Systems .......................................................................................................................................... 70
Perimeter Duct Systems .............................................................................................................................. 71
Extended Plenum Systems .......................................................................................................................... 71
Other Main Duct Components ...................................................................................................................... 71
Air Terminals .................................................................................................................................................... 71
Diffusers ....................................................................................................................................................... 71
Registers ...................................................................................................................................................... 72
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Thermostats ................................................................................................................................................. 72
HVAC System Types ....................................................................................................................................... 72
Central Air Handler System with Forced Air ................................................................................................. 73
Independent Room Air Conditioning System ............................................................................................... 73
Split Air Conditioning Systems ..................................................................................................................... 73
Cassette Room Air Conditioning Systems ................................................................................................... 73
Independent Room Heat Systems ............................................................................................................... 73
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Introduction
What Is Immersive Cisco TelePresence?
Immersive Cisco TelePresence is a real-time, real-size, interactive meeting experience that enables participants
in different cities and parts of the world to come together in one meeting across all geographies and time zones.
It is unique in that all details of the meeting experience are carefully planned in advance — using the best
practices in this guide — to provide a natural experience that puts people first and technology seamlessly in the
background.
Some people categorize any video conferencing system that provides high-definition (HD) video and wideband
audio as telepresence, but Cisco TelePresence is different from video conferencing because it can deliver a
virtual in-person experience with the highest life-like quality, simplicity, and reliability. The key to this experience
is Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design coupled with Cisco TelePresence technology.
Note:
For more information about the differences between telepresence and videoconferencing, see Cisco
TelePresence Fundamentals (Cisco Press, 2009), which discusses what separates telepresence from video
conferencing, including the history of these technologies.
How Is Cisco TelePresence Used?
Regardless of the economic outlook, companies seek technologies that enable them to improve business results
and reduce operating costs. The premium experience of Immersive Cisco TelePresence transforms businesses
by offering a powerful collaboration platform that is as good as being there in person. This spurs business
productivity by providing a practical and enjoyable alternative to physical travel. The following are common uses
of Cisco TelePresence:
●
Communicate more frequently and more effectively with customers, partners, and employees.
●
Speed decision making among geographically dispersed teams by allowing them to meet regularly
without travel.
●
Collaborate more effectively on projects.
●
Increase intimacy with customers through intracompany meetings that are a normal part of the business
day without disruptive travel.
●
Reduce or eliminate physical access issues such as allowing additional personnel into secure buildings
for a meeting.
●
Lower operating costs by replacing business travel with a life-like virtual meeting.
●
Increase productivity by giving employees time to work on projects that would otherwise be lost during
travel.
●
Build corporate identity across geographies.
Characteristics of Immersive Cisco TelePresence Rooms
An Immersive Cisco TelePresence room is an environment that is completely dedicated to Cisco TelePresence,
provides continuity, and meets Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design recommendations. Immersive rooms
or environments offer the best and most natural Cisco TelePresence meeting experience because they are
predictable in their meeting quality and free from distractions. Implementing a dedicated room with correct
lighting, room color, and acoustics — and remediation of variables that can distract from a meeting — results in a
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room that provides the highest level of ease-of-use for participants. These rooms are ideal for very important
meetings where communication and body language are needed to be viewed without distractions, resulting in an
overall seamless experience that is like all of the participants being in the same room.
The advantage of an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room is that there are no variables to consider — nothing
that will distract participants during the meeting. Everything is 100 percent designed for a Cisco TelePresence
meeting. Lighting is designed to produce the best image on the display, colors and adornments are correctly
positioned, seating positions are well defined, and the network is designed for the best quality and highest
availability. When a participant walks into a purpose-designed Immersive Cisco TelePresence room, the
participant knows where to sit, is in view on camera, and is already correctly positioned with regard to
microphones and speakers. Ultimately, participants have a level of comfort and familiarity when they enter
another Immersive Cisco TelePresence room. Even if the colors, adornments, or room size are slightly different
than what participants are used to, they nevertheless should find the environment familiar and be able to place a
call in a new Immersive Cisco TelePresence room just as if they were in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room
that they had visited before.
How to Use This Guide
For an Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience, preparation of the room before installation of a Cisco
TelePresence endpoint is crucial because improper lighting, unremediated acoustic issues, and glaring or
distracting room colors all interfere with the experience. Furthermore, insufficient or incorrect lighting leads to
poor video quality no matter how well tuned the cameras are or how efficient the network is. This guide describes
each element needed for an Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience.
Additionally, this guide outlines room selection criteria to help facilities planners chose the best room for the
Cisco TelePresence deployment. Individuals involved with any portion of Cisco TelePresence deployment, room
selection, or room remediation will find this information invaluable.
This guide should be read prior to completing the Cisco TelePresence
prequalification questionnaires and Room Readiness Assessment
(RRA).
Combined with an Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint, the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design
principles for lighting, sound, and aesthetics presented in this guide result in an experience that is so life-like and
realistic that meeting participants will be able to:
●
Focus all their attention on the people in the meeting and what is being said or shown, instead of on
distractions caused by acoustic problems or lights that are too dim or too bright.
●
With the clarity of life-like audio and video, experience most of the same emotional and psychological
interactions that occur when people meet face-to-face, instead of dealing with technological distractions.
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Immersive Cisco TelePresence
Continuity in Cisco TelePresence
Feeling like you are in the same room with the participants on the other side of a Cisco TelePresence meeting is
called Immersive Cisco TelePresence. Continuity is what creates this feeling, and if continuity principles are
applied, although rooms may be designed differently, the meeting participants will have a familiar, consistent
experience.
As an example of continuity, consider food and coffee franchises. One of the reasons franchising is so
successful is because customers are already familiar with the environment when they enter a new store in a
different location. From Toronto to Barcelona to Jakarta, franchises create a continuous experience for their
customers. For example, Starbucks uses the same earth-toned colors, wood trim, type of counters, and general
ordering procedure across its locations. The core drink and snack menu is generally the same. The counters for
adding cream and sugar to drinks are generally the same. Details such as lighting and temperature are also
consistent. Even so, no two locations are exactly the same. The square footage of a store may be larger,
smaller, or arranged differently than in other stores. Some stores may have couches while others do not.
However, when a customer walks into a Starbucks store, the experience is the same and familiar across all
Starbucks locations. This is continuity.
Continuity Implementation: Lighting, Acoustics, and Aesthetics
Immersive Cisco TelePresence considers the entire room environment and uses continuity to create a familiar,
consistent experience for all participants. In other words, Immersive Cisco TelePresence matches the
experiences of local and remote participants using continuity principles.
Figure 1.
Continuity In Cisco TelePresence Rooms
San Jose
Kiev
Specifically, the elements of continuity in Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design are:
●
Lighting
●
Acoustics
●
Aesthetics
When these are consistent, there is continuity. This guide discusses each of these elements and how to apply
them to create an Immersive Cisco TelePresence meeting.
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The more continuity there is between multiple environments, the more immersive the experience will feel.
Remember that the idea is to make the local room and remote room as similar in their core design elements as
possible. When successful, the meeting participants will feel like they are in similar rooms sharing the same
experience. If two totally different rooms, in different countries and different time zones, have continuity, the
meeting participants will focus on the meeting rather than the technology or room. This experience is the ultimate
goal of Immersive Cisco TelePresence. When designing a Cisco TelePresence environment, regardless of the
size of the endpoint, one should always consider the environment of the endpoint and if the environment
supports the elements of continuity.
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Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important factors in building continuity across different environments. Variations in
lighting are instantly perceived by the eye and can generate undesirable effects in capturing and displaying
video. For example, room to room, lighting may be darker, more blue, more yellow, or with or without shadows
and hotspots. However, if the lighting is consistent from room to room, the Cisco TelePresence cameras capture
the same image quality across all rooms and create a visually harmonious experience.
Lighting sets the overall tone and feeling of the space and is fundamentally important for capturing the highquality video used in Cisco TelePresence. Lighting also provides aesthetic appeal.
Note:
Improper lighting in a room can create a number of undesirable conditions such as shadowed facial
features, interference with eye contact, and grainy or pixilated video even if the network carrying the Cisco
TelePresence traffic is operating perfectly.
The Cisco TelePresence lighting recommendations, in conjunction with the integrated endpoint lighting
components, take into consideration the participant seating locations and placement of lighting to ensure that
appropriate illumination levels are achieved without overexposure or shadowing, and that the environment
provides for the best overall video quality and Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience.
Figure 2.
Cisco TelePresence Lighting Design
To better understand lighting for Cisco TelePresence, this chapter discusses the following areas:
●
Lighting theory
●
Application of video production lighting to Cisco TelePresence
●
Application of commercial office lighting to Cisco TelePresence
●
Cisco TelePresence lighting
●
Energy efficiency
Lighting Theory
This section describes the main concepts and terms used in lighting theory in order to be able to use them in
Cisco TelePresence lighting design.
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Color Temperature
Light, regardless of the source, also conveys color. Outdoor light has a blue color temperature, whereas the
integrated lighting of a CTS Immersive TelePresence endpoint emits a white light. Color temperature measures
the spectral properties of a light source, regardless of whether or not the human eye is sensitive to it.
Unlike cameras and video systems, the human visual system is adept at quickly correcting for changes in the
color temperature of light. Many different kinds of light can seem ‘white’ to the human eye, even when they
actually have different color temperatures, because the human eye changes aperture and blends light colors to
produce an optimum picture in dark and bright conditions. Cameras, however, cannot adjust to such changes,
and so maintaining a consistent color temperature enhances the quality and consistency of the image that is
captured and transmitted.
As shown in the figure below, lower color temperatures, such as 2900 Kelvin (for example, from incandescent
lights) produce a warm reddish light. Production studios typically use 3200 Kelvin for indoor environments, and
when daylight is present or there is an abundance of viewing screens in the room, studios use a higher color
temperature such as 5000 or 6000 Kelvin to create cooler-colored lighting.
Figure 3.
Kelvin Color Temperature Scale
Generally in production studios, actors are lit with very high intensity light (2000 lux or higher). You can expect
very bright (and annoying) lights when you are in a studio environment. Since an Immersive Cisco TelePresence
room is not a studio, a greater amount of comfort is taken into consideration.
Specifically, through video quality testing and user feedback, the color temperature of 4000 Kelvin was chosen
for Cisco TelePresence because it is the closest color temperature to that of pure white for producing high-quality
video without being overly taxing to the human eye, or modifying the natural hues of human skin tones. If only
4100 Kelvin lighting is available, however, this is also acceptable. Using 4000/4100 Kelvin for all lighting in a
Cisco TelePresence room ensures that the white levels match and are processed and displayed well by the
Cisco TelePresence endpoint.
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Color Rendering Index
The Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a measurement of the ability of a light source to illuminate an object and
reproduce colors accurately. The highest CRI attainable is 100 and a CRI of 82 or greater is recommended for
Immersive Cisco TelePresence.
Pigment and Light Color
For video technology, color needs to be addressed by both pigment color and lighting color.
Pigment color is in respect to paint. The chemistry of paint is made up of three components: hue, saturation, and
value. It is the variation in these three components that creates differences in color ranges.
●
Hue refers to the pure spectrum colors commonly referred to by the color names red, orange, yellow,
blue, green, and violet.
●
Saturation is how intense or vibrant a color is. This is also known as chroma or purity. For example, red
and royal blue are more saturated than pink and sky blue.
●
Value is how light or dark a color is.
The light reflectance value (LRV) of an individual color indicates the amount of light and heat that the color will
reflect back into the room. LRV values range from 0 to 100 percent, with absolute black at 0 percent and pure
white at 100 percent reflectivity. However, the blackest black available as a paint color has an LRV of
approximately 5 percent, and the whitest white has an LRV of about 80 to 90 percent, because in practical terms,
absolute black and pure white do not exist in paint or dye pigments. Yellows can also have LRVs close to the
values for pure whites.
The color temperature, intensity, and positioning of a room’s practical lights affect the way that pigment color is
perceived over Cisco TelePresence. The color of the light source influences the perceived colors used in a room,
therefore paint seen under different lighting looks different to both video and the human eye. In addition, a
camera’s and a monitor’s interpretation of color will be different from the interpretation by the human eye. Also,
the color on monitors appears as a variation of the color the eye perceives when looking at the same room while
®
standing in the room, so the Cisco recommended colors that have been fully tested to be consistent both in the
room and over video. These exact colors are available in the Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick
Reference Guide.
Lumens, Lux, and the Candela Curve
When considering lighting, the concepts of lumens and lux should be well understood.
The intensity of light emitted directly from a source in a specific direction is measured in the scientific unit
lumens. Lux is a measurement of the overall intensity of light within an environment for any given area or
distance from the source. Think of Lumens as the amount of light being emitted from a light source and of Lux as
the amount of light that strikes a surface from the light source. Lux is the amount of light striking the desktop, the
faces of meeting participants, or any other objects in the room.
Lux is also expressed as the Candela Distribution Curve or, simply, a Candela curve. A Candela curve is often
included in a lighting manufacturer specification sheet and is a representation of the light output of the lighting
source, or luminaire, at different angles. Candela curves for fluorescent lights often provide two (or more) curves,
one for the intensity parallel to the fixture axis and the other for intensity perpendicular to the axis. The Candela
curve also shows if light is concentrated below the fixture or widely diffused. This is important as it describes the
direction and intensity of the distribution of light from the light fixture. The Candela curve enables you to
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determine the appropriateness of a fixture for the lighting application you are considering and, if you choose that
fixture, its proper location in the room. The following is an example of a Candela curve:
Figure 4.
Candela Curve
In designing lighting for Immersive Cisco TelePresence, the light fixtures with the greatest area of light
diffusion—that is above 45 degrees and as much as 70 degrees—are preferred because they provide a greater
level of vertical lux and more even light distribution. This choice is important because it reduces areas of light
concentration, minimizing hotspots and shadowing, and can also reduce the total number of light fixtures needed
for proper illumination.
How to Measure Lighting Levels
Measuring lighting or the illumination of an environment requires the use of an incident lux meter or foot-candle
meter. However, the lux is the standard SI unit whereas the foot-candle is not. For this reason, we’ll refer to light
levels in lux rather than foot-candle.
Note:
A foot-candle describes the same measurement as lux and can be converted to lux by the following
formula as needed: 1 foot-candle = 10.764 lux.
For calculating lux based on meters use the following:
Lux = (lumens / meters squared)
This is an important formula to understand when designing lighting because often fixtures will be specified by the
lumens they output in a given direction. In order to determine how much light will reach the participants face,
tabletop, back wall, or any other area of the room, the above formula is required. For example, a lamp rated at
3000 lumens will produce the following:
750 lux at 2 meters, which is 750 lux = (3000 lumens / 2 meters squared)
Lux meters are available in many varieties and may have special features such as recording, noting maximum
and minimum levels, and averaging illumination levels over a period of time or location.
Figure 5.
Lux Meter
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You will use a lux meter in assessing and remediating the lighting of your selected Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room.
Application of Video Production Lighting to Cisco TelePresence
It is important to consider the basics of video production lighting as it relates to proper illumination for video in
order to better understand the challenges of lighting for Immersive Cisco TelePresence. In broadcast studios and
on Hollywood sets, the main purpose of lighting is to provide the required illumination for the picture to be
processed correctly by the camera. The lighting must also provide accurate depiction of objects in the scene,
including their spatial relationship by showing depth within the scene. To accomplish this, it is critical to control
the intensity, color, and distribution of lighting so that it produces well-defined, high-quality images. This is
generally achieved by the use of the three-point lighting, with a key light, a fill light, and a back light. This threepoint lighting method illuminates the subject, provides shape, and separates the subject from the background.
Figure 6.
Video Production Lighting
Key Light
The key light is generally the dominant light source on the subject and is the brightest source of light. This is the
main light used to illuminate the subject. Often, because this light is twice as bright as any other lighting, it
creates hard shadows and contrast. It is also the most important light on the set as it provides the source of light
from which the camera is calibrated as well as the other lighting on the set.
The key light is generally not positioned at an angle low enough to illuminate the subject’s face and this creates
shadows over the subject’s eyes creating a ‘raccoon-like’ effect. If the shadows are not illuminated by a fill light
(discussed below), the whites of the eyes are also lost along with any possibility of eye contact. In a film
production world where dramatic effects are required and eye contact is not, this is an acceptable lighting
solution.
In Immersive Cisco TelePresence, the key light is achieved by the standard commercial ceiling fixtures already
installed in the environment or additional fixtures that are added to the ceiling. However, the use of direct-lighting
fixtures increases the shadowing effects. Since reduction of this effect for better eye contact is desired, Cisco
highly recommends replacing direct-lighting fixtures, if present, with indirect fixtures that balance light throughout
the room and soften shadows.
Fill Light
Fill lighting is generally a reflected light within the studio or set that softens shadows and fills dark areas on the
subject being filmed. This is also referred to as ambient light or global illumination. Fill lighting is accomplished by
using reflectors and diffusers such as soft boxes and other tools in the gaffer’s arsenal (the gaffer is the person in
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charge of lighting on a production set). Without adequate fill light, shadows appear as solid black on camera due
to the camera's limited dynamic range. Adequate fill light is imperative to avoid this.
With an Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint, the fill light is provided by the endpoint. The main difference
between the Cisco TelePresence endpoint integrated lighting and a traditional production fill light is that Cisco
TelePresence participants must be illuminated without eyestrain for long durations, versus the very bright lighting
used for traditional fill lights. To accomplish this, Cisco has developed light sources that are at an extremely low
angle, allowing the light to illuminate facial features with a softer and lower intensity than traditional productionstyle fill lights. This allows for excellent illumination for prolonged durations without eyestrain.
Back Light
To help the subject stand out from the background and promote the perception of depth, back lighting is used.
Back lighting is performed in a two primary ways. First, a light is cast onto the back of the subject, illuminating its
outer edge or contour. This lighting gives the subject a sharp edge that is clearly brighter than the background
and allows the subject to stand out. This type of lighting is called a rim light because it places a rim of light on the
subject. Second, to provide additional separation of the subject from background, the background itself is lighted
with less intensity than the subject in the foreground (sometimes this is referred to as the fourth light). It is also lit
with subtle patterns or angles to provide reference points of focus for the camera, and ultimately the human eye,
to perceive the separation of space and depth within the scene.
The standard commercial ceiling lights in a Cisco TelePresence room also help to accomplish this goal. Since
the fixtures are mounted above the subject (in the ceiling or reflecting from the ceiling) this creates a natural top
or rim light to the subject. Also, the natural gradation of light that is cast on the back wall as the light loses
intensity from the ceiling to the floor creates a background that is illuminated properly to promote depth
perception. This separation of subject and background can be further enhanced by adding wall wash lighting to
the back wall, which can help to make the participants stand out even more on camera.
Application of Commercial Office Lighting to Cisco TelePresence
The goal of illumination in a commercial office environment is to adequately illuminate the work surface or
desktop as well as walking paths. (Office lighting is also known as task lighting.)
Office lighting provides the main lighting in conference rooms, offices, and over cubicles. These fixtures often
have more direct lighting than diffuse or indirect lighting. Commercial offices often incorporate other lighting such
as indirect perimeter fixtures or smaller diffused ceiling lights to add ambient or general illumination. In areas
where greater focus is wanted to highlight the display of items such as signage, artwork, or simply for visual
interest, specific lighting may be used such as spot lighting, walls washes, or sconces.
In recent years, the use of indirect fixtures for task and ambient lighting has become more common due to their
efficiency and to reduce carbon footprint. Creating visual interest, however, still requires the use of direct-lighting
fixtures, but technologies such as LED and CFL can provide accent lighting with lower power consumption.
Levels of illumination for an office space usually range from 200 to 800 lux on the horizontal plane, depending on
the location of the room within the building and the tasks performed within those areas. Lighting on the vertical
plane is often not measured or considered in office environments but is essential for Immersive Cisco
TelePresence.
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Immersive Cisco TelePresence Lighting
Immersive Cisco TelePresence lighting uses both video production and commercial lighting principles. The main
goal is to illuminate the meeting participants with sufficient light to satisfy the camera’s requirements for high
quality video capture while maintaining participant comfort. Key and back lighting comes from the overhead
lighting, which is why fixture placement is important. Supplementary key and fill lighting is supplied directly by the
Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint making lighting placement more flexible as compared to other solutions.
Figure 7.
Cisco TelePresence Lighting in Use
There are two primary methods for measuring light levels in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room, facial and
shoulder lighting, as illustrated in the following figure:
Figure 8.
Callout
Measuring Lighting in a Cisco TelePresence Room
Description
1
Fill lighting comes from the Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint’s integrated lighting. Key and back lighting comes
from the overhead lighting.
2
Measure facial lighting here.
3
Measure shoulder lighting here.
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Facial Lighting
Point the light meter sensor at the camera from where the subject will be sitting or standing. This accurately
identifies how much light is on the subject from the cameras’ perspective. If the subject is a person, the light
meter sensor is held to the persons face, perpendicular to the floor and pointed towards the camera. This type of
measurement is commonly used in video production lighting and measures the vertical plane lighting.
For Immersive Cisco TelePresence, facial lighting should be 200 to 400 lux on the vertical plane at the
participants’ faces (about 1.2 m up from a finished floor). This measurement should not include the
approximately 100 lux provided by the Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint’s integrated lighting. In other
words, this measurement should be taken with the Cisco TelePresence endpoint off.
Shoulder Lighting
Point the meter at the ceiling, parallel to the desk surface or floor. (This type of measurement is commonly used
in commercial lighting and measures horizontal plane lighting.) For Immersive Cisco TelePresence, shoulder
lighting should not exceed twice the value of the facial lighting. This measurement should also be taken with the
Cisco TelePresence endpoint off.
Lighting Control Systems
Lighting control systems consist of two basic types:
●
Switching, which provides a fixed lighting level and uses a switch to turn lights on and off.
●
Dimming, which provides variable lighting intensity and ideally uses a control system that enables you to
turn lights on and off at pre-set levels known as lighting scenes.
Dimming systems should be used for all Immersive Cisco TelePresence environments. The efficiency and
flexibility of these systems allows for very accurate and predicable lighting levels with excellent performance.
Switching systems require much greater design effort and offer less predictable and non-adjustable results. Once
a dimming system has been installed correctly, its lighting presets can be saved, called scenes, and the scenes
then function much like a switched lighting system. This enables the predictable and reproducible in-room
lighting necessary for Immersive Cisco TelePresence.
Multi-Zone Lighting Systems
Cisco recommends using a multi-zone dimming system so that you can control the level of illumination in various
areas of the room. This enables separate control for participant seating locations, backlighting, wall wash, and
any other areas in the room. Because the table shipped with Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoints is curved,
you may have some participants sitting closer to lighting fixtures than others, and multi-zone dimmable lighting
systems enable you to adjust this through the room light controls without relocating the lighting fixtures
themselves. With a switching lighting system the best practice is to place the fixtures in a curved configuration
within the ceiling to even out the distribution of light along the table curve. Additionally, with a multi-zone dimming
control system if you have structural obstructions in the ceiling that must be avoided, you can relocate fixtures
and evenly balance the lighting in the room with the dimming system controls.
Commissioning the Lighting System
When using a dimming lighting system, the lighting system must be commissioned. This is done by adjusting the
dimmers to find and set the optimal lighting level of the room while viewing the room on video in a self-view
mode. Use a lux meter to ensure that the lighting levels are set evenly and at an ideal level for the Cisco
TelePresence cameras. Once the room lighting levels are set, calibrate the cameras to the final lighting levels.
The final level can be saved as a scene preset on the dimmer control. The scene presets should be locked (so
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room users cannot change the settings) to preserve the settings at which the Immersive Cisco TelePresence
endpoint cameras were calibrated. If the room is being used for multiple functions then additional scene presets
can be established for different activities. It is recommended that no more than two or three different scenes be
created for any one room.
Occupancy Sensors
Occupancy sensors detect the presence or absence of occupants and turn lights on and off appropriately.
Ultrasonic sensors emit an inaudible signal and detect motion by the reflection of that signal; they function
effectively in partitioned spaces. Infrared sensors detect occupancy by changes in body-heat patterns; they
suffer the least from nuisance tripping but require line of sight for proper operation and are not suitable around
partitions. Sensors can be mounted on the ceiling or within a wall switch. Occupancy sensors are very cost
effective in well-defined areas, such as private and executive offices with irregular occupancy patterns, and
usually can be retrofitted.
Lighting Fixtures
Lighting fixtures, also known as luminaries, are the most important aspect of achieving a high quality room video
image and should be addressed carefully to assure that the proper lighting levels and contrast are maintained.
Cisco recommends that only indirect lighting sources be used for Immersive Cisco TelePresence key and back
lighting. Point sources and other direct lighting fixtures can cause both shadowing and glare affects that interfere
with video image quality. The following section describes recommended indirect lighting fixtures.
Note:
This document limits its discussion to fluorescent lighting fixtures because these are the most
commonly available commercial lighting fixtures. LED lighting technology continues to make significant progress
and there are now a number of commercially available LED fixtures. Unfortunately, there are not a large number
of LED lighting fixtures that can easily produce the required illumination for Immersive Cisco TelePresence.
Indirect Lighting
The physical design for illumination in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room can be simple or elaborate as
long as the technical specifications are met. Cisco has deliberately not identified specific lighting manufacturers
or fixture model numbers so that organizations have the greatest flexibility in working with local vendors to
procure appropriate lighting. That said,Cisco highly recommends indirect linear lighting fixtures as the primary
source of illumination for a Cisco TelePresence room. This type of fixture is very common and has the ability to
evenly distribute light that is both comfortable for participants and well suited for video.
Also, it is important to ensure that the selected fixtures do not produce direct lamp glare. This means that all
fixtures have a lamp shield or reflector that disperses light from the lamp source, and that no meeting participant
has a direct view of the lamp within the fixture.
Most fixtures are offered with a variety of lamp shield or reflector choices. Lamp shields can be solid, perforated,
micro-perforated, or louvered. Only fixtures with solid lamp shields are completely indirect. These are generally
the best type for Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms. If the lamp shield has any perforation or louvers, it is
more likely an indirect/direct light fixture. The direct characteristic of an indirect/direct fixture allows as much as
10 to 30 percent direct downward light. This amount of direct light can create issues similar to or worse than
those created by point lighting and other direct fixtures. Indirect/direct fixtures can be used in Immersive Cisco
TelePresence environments but cannot be placed directly above participants or the Cisco TelePresence
endpoint. Following these lighting fixture guidelines ensures that hotspots and screen glare are avoided or
eliminated.
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If you must use an indirect/direct fixture with a perforated lamp shield, ask the manufacture if they offer diffusers,
which can be inserted into the lamp shield. Inserting an opaque diffuser into the lamp shield can control and
reduce the percentage of direct light output. Also, be aware that diffusers affect the overall lux output of the
fixture so be sure to calculate this variation into the lighting design.
There are a few different styles of indirect lighting fixtures and the following sections discuss the unique
advantages and disadvantages of the most commonly used types.
Asymmetric Lighting Fixtures
Cisco recommends using asymmetric lighting fixtures in Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms. The advantage
of asymmetric fixtures is that they are efficient at distributing a greater amount of light to one side of a room,
which is desirable in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room, as opposed to symmetric fixtures, which distribute
the same amount of light in two directions. Specifically, asymmetric fixtures are able to provide a very even
distribution of light on the side of the room where the meeting participants sit without spilling light onto the
plasma displays or directly into the endpoint cameras. Excessive light cast on a display can wash out the onscreen image or create unwanted screen glare. Another common usage of asymmetric fixtures is for wall wash,
which is lighting focused directly onto the wall of a room to give depth and added visual interest to the room on
camera.
Figure 9.
Callout
1
Asymmetric Dispersion of Light
Description
Opaque or micro-perforated lamp shield in an asymmetric lighting fixture.
Asymmetric fixtures are available with a single or double fluorescent lamp configuration. There are also
asymmetric fixtures available with compact fluorescent biaxial lamps. Asymmetric fixtures generally have a single
lamp shield on one side of the fixture and a reflector that distributes light as shown below:
Figure 10.
Asymmetric Side Basket (One Side Only)
Asymmetric fixtures come in various sizes, which can be very beneficial given the variety of ceiling shapes and
configurations in rooms across the world. Common sizes are 2 x 2 feet (0.61 x 0.61 meters) and 1 x 4 feet (0.31
x 1.22 meters).
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The only real disadvantage of asymmetric fixtures is in multipurpose meeting room applications, because light is
directed more to one side of the room than the other. The solution is to install a dimming control system with
different lighting scene presets for Immersive Cisco TelePresence meetings and for multipurpose room use.
Additionally, a row of lighting may be installed that is not in use during a Cisco TelePresence meeting but is in
use when the room is occupied for other activities.
The following figure is an example of recessed asymmetric indirect lighting in use:
Figure 11.
Recessed Asymmetric Indirect Lighting
If using recessed indirect lighting, there are various sizes available:
●
2 x 2 feet (0.61 x 0.61 meters)
●
1 x 4 feet (0.31 x 1.22 meters)
●
1 x 2 feet (0.31 x 0.61 meters)
●
2 x 4 feet (0.61 x 1.22 meters)
The main difference in fixture size is illumination intensity; the smaller the size, the less intense the illumination.
Generally, the larger fixtures provide twice as much illumination as the smaller fixtures. However, there is greater
flexibility in placement when using smaller fixtures. If there are obstructions within the ceiling, the smaller fixtures
are more easily installed. Also, since the participants sit at a curved table, it is easier to follow that curvature
when using smaller fixtures. Following the table curvature is not required, but can improve the even dispersion of
light, especially if not using a switching control system. The Lumen output of a lamp and the luminarie efficiency
are also variables to consider.
Recessed indirect lighting should not be placed directly above an Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint or its
participant seating locations. The following figure illustrates the recommended ceiling layout of 1 x 4 feet (0.31 x
1.22 meters) indirect fixtures:
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Figure 12.
Callout
1
Recessed Indirect Lighting Layout
Description
1 x 4 feet (0.31 x 1.22 meters) recessed indirect lighting fixture.
The following figure illustrates the recommended ceiling layout of 2 x 2 feet (0.61 x 0.61 meters) indirect fixtures:
Figure 13.
Recessed Indirect Lighting Layout Following Curve of Table
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Callout
1
Description
2 x 2 feet (0.61 x 0.61 meters) recessed indirect lighting fixture.
Symmetric Lighting Fixtures
Another type of indirect lighting fixture is an indirect symmetric lighting fixture. Indirect symmetric fixtures can
appear very similar to asymmetric fixtures, but symmetric fixtures provide an even distribution of light on both
sides of the fixture and also, consequently, have greater potential to create screen glare than asymmetric
fixtures. Due to this, it is always recommended to place any symmetric fixtures in an Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room away from the endpoint displays.
For multipurpose rooms with a dimming control system, symmetric lighting fixtures may be an appropriate
choice, as long as the Immersive Cisco TelePresence meeting scene preset avoids casting light directly onto the
endpoint displays or into the endpoint cameras. The multipurpose scene lighting preset can have all the lights on.
There are two very common types of indirect symmetric fixtures, center basket and side basket. The center
basket type has its lamps in the center of the fixture with the lamp shield below the lamps, as shown in the
following figure:
Figure 14.
Center-Basket Indirect/Direct Fixture
The side-basket type has the lamps on each side of the fixture with the lamp shields below the lamps on each
side, as shown in the following figure:
Figure 15.
Side-Basket Indirect/Direct Fixture
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Pendant-Style Indirect-Lighting Fixtures
Another type of indirect-lighting fixture is a pendant-style fixture as shown in the following figure:
Figure 16.
Example of Pendant-Style Indirect-Lighting Fixture
This type of lighting fixture is common across commercial office spaces because of its ability to provide very
evenly diffused light across a large space. For that same reason, these fixtures perform well for Immersive Cisco
TelePresence rooms.
The performance of this fixture highly depends on its placement and the reflectivity of the ceiling. This type of
lighting fixture is designed to hang 12 to 18 inches (0.30 to 0.46 meters) below the ceiling (but not limited to that
distance), and the lamp is oriented upward, reflecting its light output off the ceiling to illuminate the rest of the
room. The distance of the fixture from the ceiling can drastically change the overall illumination of the entire room
and must be considered when deciding the height at which the fixtures will hang from the ceiling. The closer a
fixture is mounted to the ceiling, the greater the intensity of light that is cast onto the ceiling and reflected below.
Lowering the fixture from the ceiling lowers the intensity of the illumination.
When using an indirect pendant lighting fixture, the reflective properties of the ceiling must also be considered.
Whether the ceiling is a painted hard surface or consists of commercial acoustic tiles, it will have a specific LRV.
Cisco recommends the use of acoustic ceiling tiles when possible with a 70 to 90 percent LRV. The LRV is also
a large factor in the choice of lamp wattage. It is safer to over-light a room and use a dimmer in the lighting
controls than to install too little lighting and have to redesign the room to install more illumination.
Figure 17.
Note:
Example of Pendant-Style Indirect-Lighting Fixtures in Use
High ceilings are ideal when using a pendant-type lighting fixture.
It should be noted that these fixtures are very effective in achieving illumination in a non-invasive manner but do
have some drawbacks. Incidental direct light can be cast from the ceiling onto the plasma screens, projection
screen, tabletop, or participant’s heads and shoulders. Therefore, placement location in the ceiling is a critical
factor. When working with pendant fixtures, place the first front-most lighting fixture close enough to the endpoint
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so that any direct reflections will not hit the plasma or LCD screens, and place the second front-most fixture far
enough behind the front-row participants to avoid direct light on the tops of the heads of the participants. Actual
distance depends on ceiling height, ceiling reflectivity, lamp wattage, number of lamps, and fixture performance.
Wall Wash
Often, especially in larger rooms, you may not get even coverage of light across the back wall with indirect
fixtures. This situation can result in a dark back wall and shadows in the back corners. If there is too much
contrast, or if the shadows are overly dark, the Cisco TelePresence video codec has a challenge in encoding the
video and may lower the video quality transmitted.
However, if the room and back wall are lit with exactly the same intensity, the image may have a great amount of
detail but look flat. This is because, like the human eye, cameras require variation in lighting to distinguish
between the foreground and the background. One way to this situation is to add a type of lighting called wall
wash to the room, to create variation in lighting in the background. Wall wash is direct lighting pointed at a wall
and it can dramatically improve the overall look and quality of the video captured in a room.
Figure 18.
Wall Wash
When wall wash is introduced, it increases the detail of the background, fills in shadows, and provides a third
element of light which boosts the camera’s perception of depth while lowering overall contrast. This results in
high video quality with great detail and low contrast. Not only will the participants be very distinct from the
background, but the background will have greater interest.
Wall wash can also be used to enhance or call attention to specific elements of room design. You can
incorporate signage, pictures, wall hangings, etc., and direct wall wash onto these elements to highlight them.
Ceiling Soffits and Lighting Coves
In many instances a Cisco TelePresence endpoint may be installed in an executive environment that must
maintain a specific look and feel. In these cases, a more liberal lighting design can be used. Good lighting can be
achieved through many different designs. However, the basic rules for Cisco TelePresence lighting still apply.
A common design that has custom appeal and sophistication and yet yields results that meet the requirements
for Cisco TelePresence lighting are ceiling soffits or lighting coves. These are usually built into the ceiling or walls
during construction and have hidden, indirect fixtures that illuminate upward to fill the ceiling with light. This light
reflects off the ceiling (usually an eggshell white) and illuminates the entire room very evenly. Since this method
of lighting requires a cove to be built around the perimeter of the room, it easily lends itself to the addition of wallwash fixtures as well. This lighting design provides an elegant look within the room and produces ideal lighting
for excellent video. This is just one of many designs that can be developed to illuminate a Cisco TelePresence
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room. The general rule is to use dimmable indirect lighting for Cisco TelePresence rooms but the details are up
to the designer.
Figure 19.
Ceiling Soffit and Wall Wash Use in Cisco TelePresence Lighting Design
Energy Efficiency
Recently there has been a change in general commercial lighting design due to the motivation of reducing
energy usage and environmental impact. This shift has manifested in local building code changes that reduce the
overall wattage budget for commercial lighting. This can affect your Cisco TelePresence environment because
lighting is a critical factor and the local code may restrict your ability to provide adequate lighting. If this is the
case for your Immersive Cisco TelePresence room, use of asymmetrical fixtures in combination with a highoutput ballast and lamps is the most efficient solution. This combinationcan produce a great amount of light at a
lower wattage.
Conclusion
In summary, Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms should be designed with lighting that is:
●
Kelvin color temperature of 4000 or 4100K to match the built-in Cisco TelePresence endpoint lighting,
and to reproduce colors accurately on screen.
●
CRI of 82 to 100.
●
Facial lighting from 200 to 400 lux, with these values measured with the Cisco TelePresence endpoint off.
●
Shoulder lighting not to exceed twice the values of the facial lighting, and also measured with the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint off.
●
Light in all areas of the room within the camera field of view should not fluctuate more than 100 lux within
the room. In other words, lighting is evenly dispersed throughout the room. This includes lighting at the
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room walls, which should be equal to or less than the facial lighting and should differ no more than 100
from rest of the room.
●
Implementation of a dimming lighting control system is highly recommended to adjust the intensity of light
in the room without needing to precisely calculate the overall lighting levels in advance, and to ensure
reproducible results with preset lighting scenes.
●
Regardless of fixture choices, indirect fluorescent lighting fixtures provide the best results for ambience
and amount of dispersed lighting, and asymmetric fixtures provide the most efficient and predictable
option within the range of indirect fixtures available.
It should also be noted that when the Room Remediation Assessment (RRA) for Immersive Cisco TelePresence
is performed, RRA takes into account additional factors and provides some flexibility in meeting recommended
lighting levels.
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Acoustics
Acoustics also play a major role in continuity and Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design. Sound quality can
vary dramatically depending on environmental factors such as the size of the room, hard surfaces in a room, and
ambient and outside noise. Microphone placement and the location of the speaker in relation to the microphone
also affect sound quality.
Imagine being in a Cisco TelePresence conference and the other TelePresence participants all have similar, high
quality rooms with good acoustics. Now a cell phone participant is conferenced in. Instantly there is a loss of
continuity in the meeting. The Cisco TelePresence meeting participants can all still hear and understand each
other, but the cell phone participant is distant, cutting in and out and talking over background noise with overall
bad audio quality. You do not even have to see the participant to notice the loss of continuity. Therefore, when
designing a room, consider its acoustic features. If one room is very quiet and subdued, with acoustic panels on
the wall, make sure that other rooms have a similar sound quality. Alternatively, if the sound quality in one room
is bright and lively, adjust the other rooms to that sound quality.
Acoustics are an important characteristic of any meeting space regardless of the involvement of audio-video
systems. Proper acoustics allow the environment to preserve and deliver sound with clarity and accuracy to the
human ear from the desired source. For example, in a concert hall, the orchestra and performers on stage are
the desired source of sound, and not the audience. Whether the source is a person, a speaker system, or any
other instrument, intelligibility of sound can be preserved or impeded based on the acoustics of the environment.
The acoustic characteristics of a room prior to preparation for Cisco TelePresence may promote sound that is
muffled, reverberant, or choppy. These undesirable effects are often due to noise from airflow from heating and
cooling systems, reverberation, or intermittent exterior noise from outside or adjacent rooms. In extreme cases
where acoustic factors are not remediated, the audio-detection algorithms used to facilitate switching in
multipoint meetings can be adversely affected, resulting in false switching to a participant who is not speaking, or
delay in switching to a participant who is speaking.
The acoustic characteristics of a room require close attention during the room selection and design process.
Preservation of spatial audio is critical to maintain a life-like virtual meeting. To achieve this objective special
emphasis is laid on acoustic elements such as ambient noise, reverberation, and sound isolation.
Acoustic Theory and Background
This section discusses how to preserve and modify sound waves for an accurate and ideal Immersive Cisco
TelePresence experience.
Sound Pressure Level in Decibels
The intensity or amplitude of sound is measured in terms of sound pressure level (SPL), an acoustic scale
independent of frequency and expressed in decibels (dB), where 0 dB is the threshold of human hearing. SPL
can also be described as a logarithmic measurement of the root mean square (RMS), or average power,
pressure of a particular sound relative to silence at 0dB. Cisco focuses on dB SPL for room assessment and
remediation.
Related to SPL is a more detailed measurement called the noise criteria (NC), which is the specific dB level of
multiple octave-band center frequencies. This measurement is highly useful in understanding the sound within an
environment, especially in troubleshooting complicated acoustics. This measurement is not required for
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reviewing Cisco TelePresence environments unless unique issues are present, in which case it can be used in
addition to dB SPL.
The SPL of an enclosed environment can be measured by taking the average amplitude of all sound frequencies
across the entire environment. Sound dissipates over distance, and therefore, the distance at which the
measurement is taken from the sound source must also be noted. For example, if you were to measure the
sound from an HVAC diffuser, you would hold the acquisition microphone 1 meter from the vent and take the
SPL reading in dB, as shown in the following figure. If the measurement is 45 dB, then it should be noted as 45
dB at 1 meter from the source.
Figure 20.
Measuring Sound from an HVAC System in a Cisco TelePresence Room
Callout
Description
1
Sound measurement device
Human Range of Hearing Frequencies
Hearing is one of two human senses that Cisco TelePresence stimulates to evoke the feeling of sharing the
same place and time. The ears receive various sounds and vibrations from the environment that carry details
referencing time and space. The number of vibrations or cycles per second produced is called the frequency of
the sound. These frequencies are measured in hertz (Hz). A sound with a low frequency has a low pitch, such as
a large drum, while a sound with a high frequency will have a high pitch, such as a piccolo.
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Human Hearing
Humans have a limited range of frequencies in which they can hear. The human ear is generally sensitive to
sound waves with frequencies in the range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is known as the human hearing range.
For reference, the following table describes the type of sounds that reside in the different frequency ranges.
Table 1.
Sounds in Various Frequency Ranges
Frequency Range
Sound
20 to 32 Hz
The human threshold of hearing, more likely to be felt rather than heard.
32 to 90 Hz
Rhythm frequencies, the range of lower and upper bass notes.
512 Hz to 2.5 kHz
Range of most human speech. These are the critical voice frequencies.
3 to 8 kHz
Range in which plosive and sibilant sounds reside and give more presence to voice.
8 to 20 kHz
Upper thresholds of human hearing, including tones like bells and cymbals.
When hearing is discussed, it is should be understood what or who is doing the hearing. When sound is
measured on a scientific quantitative level, it is different than when humans are the ones doing the hearing. The
following table contains examples of these two methods, scientific and human hearing, in the measurement of
sound:
Table 2.
Scientific Measurement and Human Perception of Sound
Measurement
Scientific Quantitative
Human Perception
Frequency of sound
Specific Frequency of a Sound Wave, for
example 4kHz.
Tone or Pitch, for example a high pitched
sound.
Amplitude of sound
Amplitude of air pressure created by sound
waves, for example 90 dB SPL.
Loudness or Volume of the Sound, for
example, very loud or with high volume.
The main reason to understand this difference in the quantitative characteristics of sound and the human
perception of sound, known as also as psychoacoustics, is that the human perception is not a linear scale and
ultimately quite complex. In scientific terms, the human ear does not have a flat spectral response to all sound
pressure levels. Generally, the lower range of frequencies has a lower perception of volume in comparison to
higher frequencies. For example, a 250-Hz sound wave at 60 dB seems more quiet to a person than a 2 kHz
sound wave at the same decibel level. Therefore, sound pressure levels are frequency weighted so that the
measured level matches the perceived levels more closely.
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Figure 21.
Frequency Response of the Human Ear
In sound processing, the commonly used weighting schemes (or filters) are A-weighting and C-weighting. Using
the A-weighting filter on a sound pressure meter attempts to match the meters response to that of the human
ear. An A-weighted sound pressure level is expressed as SPL dBA. The C-weighted filter is flatter and better
matches the human ear’s response to lower frequencies at a greater amplitude. This filter can be used to
measure peak noise levels that low frequency machinery may make. The sound pressure level measured with Cweighted filtering is expressed as SPL dBC.
Note:
For more detailed information on this subject, research the equal-loudness contour, which is not
discussed in this guide.
In a Cisco TelePresence environment, both the A-weighted and C-weighted sound pressure levels are measured
in various zones of the room over a preset interval. (Your Cisco TelePresence or Video Advanced Technology
Certified Partner is trained to perform this type of assessment.)
Human Speech
A very interesting fact is that the range of human hearing is much broader than the range of human speech; the
human voice ranges from only about 500 Hz to 2 kHz. This range of human speech is further defined as the
critical voice frequency range. It is within this range that the perceived volume or loudness of a person’s voice is
measured. This can be defined as the root-mean-square (RMS) value of the human voice and the area of
greatest amplitude. Human speech on average is at an amplitude between 60-65 dBA SPL, so it is important to
measure this range in any environment where human speech is the primary source of audio. For sound to be
intelligible, the amplitude of the intended source must be at least 20 to 30 dBA higher than that of the
background and ambient sounds, and in this case the voice must be this much louder than the background
noise. Therefore, if human speech is 60 to 65 dBA on average, the background sounds should be lower than 40
to 45 dBA. This is not a specific requirement for Immersive Cisco TelePresence but a fact related to the quality of
human hearing and speech intelligibility. The greater the amplitude of the background noise, the harder for the
human ear to discern the difference between it and the human voice and to hear accurately. Of course, sounds
which are 20 to 30 dBA lower than the human voice can still be heard, however they are considered unintelligible
and the human brain will tend to ignore these sounds.
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Another element of human voice that is important (and subject to the amplitude differences explained above) is
harmonics. These frequencies can reside above and below the critical voice frequencies. Harmonics consist of
the fundamental frequency, which is the lowest frequency produced by a source, and multiples of that frequency.
Harmonics are important because they provide richness and add personality to each individual voice. In addition,
these frequencies are the first to be affected by competing sounds in the background noise. That is why it is
often hard to discern who is speaking in a loud environment. It is not the volume of the voice but the distinct
personality of the voice that is lost.
Reverberation
When sound waves are generated in an enclosed environment, they continue to reflect from surface to surface
until the energy is completely absorbed. As the sound reflects within the environment, it will be audible for a
period and eventually fall off to a point that it becomes inaudible or silent. This reflection of sound is called
reverberation.
Figure 22.
Reverberation
Reverberation is measured as the rate of time for sound to decay by 60 decibels (RT60). Measuring RT60
requires the generation of enough sounds waves (usually pink noise or chirps) to fill an environment and then a
pause in the sound generation. At the pause, the rate at which the sound decays by 60 dB describes the RT60.
This measurement is very effective in predicting the sound quality of an environment.
Ideal conditions for human speech intelligibility are an RT60 value of 300 to 500 milliseconds for all frequencies
between 125 Hz and 4 kHz. An extreme in either direction - too much reverberation or too little - can be
detrimental to speech intelligibility, and since Cisco TelePresence is generally located in a meeting room in which
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the human voice is the main source of audio, an ideal sound-quality design preserves the human range of
frequencies and isolates this range from interruptions.
Echo
Reverberation and echo are different phenomena. Echo is defined similarly to reverberation with one important
difference: echo occurs only when the reflection of sound reaches the same location as the original source of the
sound.
Figure 23.
Echo
Reverberation and Echo in Cisco TelePresence Rooms
A common problem with rooms larger than the Cisco recommended dimensions is excessive reverberation.
Large rooms with smooth surface areas such as glass or long parallel walls reflect more sound and in some
cases create a noticeable echo, giving the room a ‘boomy’ or ‘echoy’ effect. Additionally, rooms with hard floors
or hard-finished ceilings have more reverberation due to the increased hard-surface areas present. Generally
reverberation is more of a concern for participants in the room than for the audio being shared with the other side
of the Immersive Cisco TelePresence meeting.
If reverberation levels increase beyond 700 milliseconds (ms) in the critical voice frequency range, the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint may not perform as desired. In addition to creating a noisy environment that is
uncomfortable for human hearing and interferes with speech intelligibility, very reverberant environments may
cause phantom video switching, system echo, or a gating effect on the sound in the Cisco TelePresence system.
These issues are defined as follows:
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●
Phantom switching describes the action of a video segment switching into the call when no person is
present, or no person is speaking, in that particular segment. This effect requires a significant level of
reverberation in the voice frequency range. It is often triggered by a flutter echo or standing sine wave in
the path of the microphones. It can be caused by two parallel hard surface walls on either sides of the
room and exaggerated by a highly reverberant sound environment.
●
System echo is generally caused when a loud sound from the speaker has a prolonged RT60 value that
is ultimately reflected to the microphone, retuning it to the original source. The echo cancellation within
the Cisco TelePresence codec is specifically designed to eliminate this effect; however, a buildup of
reflections or a sustained reflection of sound may occasionally last longer than the threshold of the echo
cancellation. This effect is rare and requires very high levels of reverberation, coupled with a very loud
sound source such as yelling for longer than thirty seconds. System echo occurs most often in
environments with glass walls or large windows.
●
Gating or suppression of sound occurs when the noise cancellation within the system can no longer
distinguish between the background noise and speech. This effect is usually caused by the presence of
loud ambient or background noise in excess of 55 dBA. However, the buildup of sound reflections in a
reverberant environment can simulate the increase of ambient noise. As people talk in a reverberant
environment, the sound reflections multiply, creating a perceived loudness in which people begin to speak
louder to be heard over the reflections. This cycle continues until the ambient sound levels are increased
to an excessive level. Very high ceilings can also cause this phenomenon.
Many factors pertain to the reverberation time within an environment. The most common factors are size,
orientation, construction and finish of materials, and objects in the environment. In general, the larger the space,
the more the reverberation. Also, the greater the number of hard surfaces, the more the reverberation. Other
characteristics, such as multiple angles in a room, can also promote higher reverberation times.
The effect of reverberation on the sound quality of an environment and the intelligibility of human speech is
generally defined as lively or flat: environments with longer reverberation times are called lively, and those with
shorter reverberation times are called flat.
Lively Sound Environments
In a very lively environment, sound will echo and be difficult to discern. It may also have a higher perceived
volume.
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Figure 24.
Lively Sound Environment
Flat Sound Environments
A very flat sound environment will eliminate the harmonics that give speech its uniqueness and personality. The
sound quality will lose its presence and become dull or drab. It may also be perceived as lower volume.
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Figure 25.
Flat Sound Environment
Building for Acoustic Isolation
This section discusses the factors that pertain to the sound isolation and privacy of the environment. Sound
quality is very much dependant on the construction of the room environment. The construction materials of the
environment directly relate to the amount of sound isolation an environment has.
Sound Transmission Class
The sound transmission class (STC) is a single-number rating of a construction material’s ability to prevent the
transmission of sound waves. Specifically, STC describes how much a sound will be diminished as it travels
through the material at each of the following frequencies: 125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 4 kHz. For
example, if a wall has an STC of 40, then a sound that is 60 dB will diminish to 20 dB by the time it transfers from
one room to the next.
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Figure 26.
Sound Transmission Through Walls
Callout
Description
1
Sound reaches wall at 60 dB SPL
2
Wall rated at 40 STC
3
Sound transmitted through wall at 20 dB SPL
Generally, walls in commercial office spaces have an STC rating near 40. Taking into consideration the
discussion regarding human speech levels, this means that human speech will diminish from 60-65 dB to 20-25
dB by the time it passes through the wall. Ultimately the sound will be much lower and unintelligible but still
audible. This is where the decision must be made regarding the amount of privacy that is desired. Is
unintelligibility of the transmitted sound good enough, or does your organization want the sound to be completely
inaudible? If inaudibility is desired, the walls should have a minimum rating of 65 STC. This type of sound
isolation requires materials that are denser than normal, separation of structural elements, and absorbent
insulation.
As a general rule, you need to double the existing material to increase the STC rating by 5. Therefore, acoustic
materials such as sound barriers and acoustic paneling are better means of improving isolation than is doubling
the thickness of existing walls.
Noise-Reduction Coefficient
The noise-reduction coefficient (NRC) is a single-number rating that represents the amount of sound energy that
a surface will absorb. An NRC of 0 indicates no absorption, whereas an NRC of 1 indicates complete absorption
of sound. NRC is generally used to rate carpeting, ceiling tile, acoustic paneling, and other treatments and
sound-absorbing materials.
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The NRC value does not relate directly to STC; however, it relates closely to the absorption coefficient (AC),
which is used to rate some acoustic materials. The difference is that the NRC is a single-number value, whereas
the AC has a rating for each frequency from 125 Hz to 4 kHz. This level of accuracy is good to have when
looking at materials that have vastly different absorbent characteristics at different frequencies, or when trying to
reduce a very specific frequency within a space. These scenarios are rare occurrences, and the use of an NRC
value should be sufficient in most situations.
For a room that needs acoustic remediation, Cisco recommends using acoustic panels with an NRC rating of
0.75 or greater. This approach enables a relatively small number of panels to be used for highly efficient sound
remediation.
Figure 27.
Acoustic Paneling to Reduce Reverberation and Sound Transmission
Callout
Description
1
Sound being absorbed by an acoustic panel.
Impact Insulation Class
The impact insulation class (IIC) is a rating similar to STC but is specific to flooring and ceilings. IIC rating
measures the resistance to the transmission of impact noise such as footfalls, chairs dragging, and dropped
items. The IIC rating represents the amount of sound energy required to transfer sound through a structure. An
IIC rating of 40 would require more than 40 decibels of sound energy to travel through a structure.
The one place this measurement is important is in an environment with raised flooring such as technical floors.
These types of floors are made of materials such as wood, metal, or porcelain that may add echoes or more
easily transmit sound. Carpet can perform some of the same remediation functions as acoustic paneling when
echoes off the flooring or sound transmission through the floor cause problems.
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Office Environment Acoustic Concerns and Resolutions
Most commercial office environments are not built with acoustics in mind. Two common issues discovered in
commercial room environments are ambient sound levels that are too high and reverberation levels that are too
great. Each environment is unique and has its own idiosyncrasies; however, most acoustic issues fall into these
two categories, and can be resolved with the elements below.
High Ambient Noise Levels
The background noise level should be less than 36 dBA and 54 dBC for a Cisco TelePresence room. This level
is an ideal threshold for background noise in most audio-video communication environments. However, sound
levels are usually higher in a commercial office environment. Because of this, Cisco recommends lowering
background noise to at least 45 dBA and 60 dBC. The Cisco TelePresence system will continue to operate
properly with background noise at even higher levels; however, the sound quality begins to suffer. Background
noise above 45 dBA begins to compete with the intelligibility of human speech, and these noises become
distracting for participants. The Cisco TelePresence system may be able to filter out the background noise for
participants at the other end of the call, but the in-room experience is still degraded for the local participants, who
must endure a meeting in a loud environment. In extreme cases, such as when background levels exceed 55
dBA for a sustained period of time, gating or sound-suppression effects may occur in the Cisco TelePresence
audio. These effects occur when the system can no longer distinguish between background noise and speech,
ultimately causing the system to suppress most sound because it identifies that sound as background noise.
The most common causes of background noise are as follows:
●
Noise from HVAC air movement
●
Noise from HVAC machinery or other machinery
●
External sounds such as street traffic
●
Adjacent room noise (server rooms, break rooms, bathrooms, or kitchens)
The first step is to identify the source of the sound. Once this has been identified, a path for remediation can be
defined.
If ambient noise levels are too high, use the following tables to troubleshoot the cause and apply a remedy.
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Noise from Air Movement
Table 3.
Noise from Air Movement
Symptom
Possible Issue
Possible Resolution
Whooshing or whistling
sound coming from vent or
diffuser
Inappropriate diffuser type
Change diffuser to a plaque style diffuser that is
NC30 rated.
Velocity of airflow is too great
Increase the number of supply diffusers or
increase the size of the ducting.
Too many bends in the ducting
Shorten the path of the ducting and use
sweeps rather than 90 degree turns.
Whooshing sound above the Velocity of airflow is too great
ceiling but not from the
diffusers
Too many bends in the ducting
Increase the number of supply diffusers or
increase the size of the ducting
Shorten the path of the ducting and use
sweeps rather than 90 degree turns.
Ducting does not contain sound dampening
Add a sound-dampening liner to the ducting.
Encase the ducting in a sound enclosure and
use sound-dampening materials.
Environment requires high air velocity
Add sound-dampening material to the ceiling to
reduce sound transference from the ducting
into the room.
Noise from Machinery
If the source of the noise is from HVAC machinery rather than HVAC airflow, this can be a more difficult to
remediate. Use the following table to identify possible resolutions if this is an issue.
Table 4.
Noise from HVAC Machinery
Symptom
Possible Issue
Humming or clicking sound Variable air volume (VAV) unit installed too
when the air handler is on
close to, or above, the room
Walls are vibrating and a
humming sound is present
Possible Resolution
Move the VAV unit to the hallway or over
another room. Make sure the wall extends to
the structural deck.
Air handler is located close to the room
Relocate the air handler if possible. If not,
and if the air handler is located adjacent to
the room, make sure the wall extends to the
structural deck. If not, and if the air handler is
located over the room, provide additional
insulation to the ceiling.
Other mechanical component (not HVAC
related)
If other mechanical sounds cannot be
relocated, make sure the walls extend to the
structural deck and provide insulation to the
ceiling.
Air handler or main duct is located near or
above the room
Avoid using this room for Immersive Cisco
TelePresence.
If this room must be used, relocate the air
handler. Otherwise, you may not be able to
resolve this issue.
Noise from Adjacent Rooms
Often rooms are located near an adjacent space that generates noise at a level that can become disruptive to
the meeting room. Generally these types of issues should be identified during the room selection process and
help determine whether or not to use that room. However, in some instances, these rooms must be used due to
limitations on available space or proximity to intended users. Refer to the following table to remediate noise from
adjacent environments.
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Table 5.
Noise from Adjacent Environments
Symptom
Possible Issue
Possible Resolution
Noise from street traffic
through windows
Windows do not have a high enough STC
rating
Options include:
● Replace windows with higher STC rated
windows such as dual-pane windows.
● Cover windows with drywall and include
adequate insulation.
● Cover windows with acoustic paneling
backed with insulation.
● Cover windows with heavy drapery.
● Plant trees and shrubs outside the window
to reduce sounds.
Noise from plumbing of
adjacent bathroom or
kitchen
Wet walls inherently have noise
Options include:
● Double the drywall and include a soundbarrier material to help reduce the sound
of a wet wall.
● Leave a large air gap (3 inches or
7.62 cm) and build another dense wall
with sound-barrier material.
Noise from adjacent server
or mechanical room
Machine noise creates a humming and may
Options include:
cause noise cancellation of lower frequencies ● Ensure that the wall is attached to the
structural deck of the ceiling.
● Provide insulation to the wall.
● Provide insulation above the ceiling in
both rooms.
● Install acoustic paneling in the server
room to absorb some sound.
● Double the drywall and include a soundbarrier material to help reduce the sound
of a wet wall.
● Leave an air gap (3 inches or 7.62 cm)
and build another inner wall with soundbarrier material.
Noise from adjacent break
room or workspace
Voices heard through walls or over the ceiling Options include:
through the ceiling tiles
● Make sure that the wall is attached to the
structural deck.
● Provide insulation to the wall.
● Provide insulation above the ceiling in
both rooms.
● Install acoustic paneling in both rooms to
absorb some sound.
● Double the drywall and include a soundbarrier material to help reduce the sound
of a wet wall.
● Leave a large air gap (3 inches) and build
another inner wall with sound-barrier
material.
Sound heard through door
Door does not have adequate STC rating
Door jam does not have acoustic gasket or
skirt
Options include:
● Replace the door with heavier material
with a higher STC rating.
● Install a sound gasket on the door jam
and add a skirt to the door.
Reverberation Remediation
The Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint itself can reduce reverberation levels simply by being installed in
what was empty space because Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoints tend to be physically large and curved
in form factor, and so reduce the number of parallel hard surfaces that face each other in the room. The addition
of chairs and participants also reduces overall reverberation. However, if the room selected has significant
reverberation issues, the common resolutions are described in the table below:
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Table 6.
Common Reverberation Issues and Resolutions
Issue
Possible Resolutions
Larger than recommended
room size
Options include:
● Decrease the room size with a wall or acoustic partition (this is the optimum way to
decrease reverberation). By effectively decreasing the room size, the amount of wall
surface that creates reverberation is decreased, so reverberation is decreased as well.
● Add acoustic panels to the walls. Be sure to place panels so that no two parallel flat,
unpaneled surfaces remain facing each other.
Excessive glass walls or
windows
Options include:
● Cover windows with drapes, blackout shades, blinds, or other window treatments which
are both light blocking and sound absorbing.
● Cover windows with drywall and finish with fabric acoustic panels.
● Adhere acoustic panels to the windows or glass walls. These panels can be doublesided to maintain visual appeal.
● Install acoustic panels to the opposing walls from the floor to the ceiling so there are no
parallel hard surfaces.
● Place the Cisco TelePresence endpoint in front of the windows.
Hard-surface flooring
Options include:
● Replace or cover the flooring with carpeting.
● Strategically place fabric acoustic panels in the room. This option is the best and least
invasive approach for reducing reverberation. For floor sound remediation, these panels
may need to extend from the floor to the ceiling.
Hard-surface ceilings
Options include:
● Strategically place fabric acoustic panels in the room. These panels may need to reach
from the floor to the ceiling.
● Replace the ceiling with an acoustic tile ceiling or install an acoustic ceiling below the
hard-surface ceiling.
● Install a sectional acoustic ceiling or floating acoustic panels in the ceiling along with
fabric acoustic panels on the walls.
High ceilings
Options include:
● Cover walls with fabric acoustic paneling from the floor to the ceiling.
● Install a sectional acoustic ceiling or floating acoustic panels in the ceiling cavity along
with fabric acoustic panels on the walls.
● Lower the ceiling to help reduce reverberation.
Acoustic Panel Placement
The following images represent a progression of acoustic-panel treatments from minimal through complete floorto-ceiling treatments. How much, or how completely, you add acoustic paneling depends on how much sound
needs to be remediated in the selected room.
As mentioned previously, in rare instances, phantom switching can be noticed in lively room environments. For
this type of issue, there is a need to eliminate the flutter echo or standing sine wave between the two side walls.
The placement of acoustic panels on one or both side walls will eliminate the parallel hard surfaces and, in turn,
eliminate this issue.
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Figure 28.
Acoustic Panels on Opposite Walls Only
In situations with many hard surfaces, windows, or high ceilings, more panels can be used. These can be placed
in an alternating pattern on the walls around the room. The goal is to remove any remaining parallel hard
surfaces in the room, as shown in the following figure:
Figure 29.
Acoustic Panels Strategically Placed on Walls
Some organizations do not like having gaps in the panels and prefer a more symmetrical solution. Use of a track
system with the acoustic fabric to continue the material around the room can accommodate this preference. This
approach provides more sound absorption, so the room may begin to sound too flat. If this is the case, lower the
overall vertical length of the panel to allow some reverberation, as shown in the following figure:
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Figure 30.
Acoustic Panels Covering Most of the Wall Surfaces
In rooms with large glass walls or hard-surface ceilings (such as drywall or smooth plaster ceilings), it may be
beneficial to continue the acoustic panels or fabric coverings from the floor to the ceiling. However, this approach
produces a very flat sound environment and should not be used if significant reverberation is not already present
in the room.
Figure 31.
Acoustic Panels Covering Walls Completely
Adding furniture, plants, wall hangings, and other décor to a room can also significantly reduce reverberation in a
room. Any items that provide additional reflection and absorption of sound reduce overall reverberation.
Conclusion
Acoustics are an important element in Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design. Immersive Cisco
TelePresence rooms require close attention to room acoustics during the selection and design process to ensure
that acoustic quality and sufficient sound isolation are achieved.
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Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning for Cisco TelePresence
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is an important element of your Cisco TelePresence
environment and should be considered at the onset of your room selection process.
In most commercial office environments, an important integrated element of any building is the management of
air quality and temperature through HVAC systems. Although many areas of the world do not enlist all three
components due to their local climates and temperatures, most use at least one or more HVAC systems in their
facilities. The main purpose of an HVAC system is to maintain indoor air quality and regulate temperature for
both people and equipment.
The goal of an HVAC system in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room is to ensure that the room is
comfortable for its participants while providing ventilation and compensating for the heat generated by the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint. Additionally, the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room should have independent HVAC
controls so the system can be used at any time, including outside normal working business hours, when many
international meetings are held.
Note:
For HVAC definitions, please see the HVAC appendix in this guide.
General Rules for HVAC
The ventilation required in a room depends on many factors such as the frequency with which the room is used
and the number of people normally using the room. For example, a small conference room may require more
ventilation than that of an office of the same size due to the number of occupants commonly present. As a
general rule, a ventilation system should change the air in the room once every 10 minutes. For example, to
change air every 10 minutes in a 10 x 20 foot (3.05 x 6.10 meter) room with an 8 foot (2.44 meters) ceiling height
(which is 1600 cubic feet or 45.31 cubic meters), use this calculation:
1600 cubic feet / 10 minutes = 160 cubic feet per minute (CFM)
45.31 cubic meters / 10 minutes = 4.53 cubic meters per minute
Therefore, a 160-CFM exhaust fan is required for the room (or an exhaust fan that can move 4.53 cubic meters
per minute.)
The cooling required in a room depends on many other factors as well. As a general rule, 30 BTUs of cooling are
needed for every square foot (or 0.09 meters squared). Rooms with windows and rooms that are located near
heat sources such as server rooms with large amounts of equipment running require more cooling than rooms
without additional heart sources. Also, each person in a room accounts for approximately an additional 225 BTUs
of heat. Additionally, electrical equipment inside a room also raises the cooling requirements. For example, with
30 BTUs of cooling for every square foot (and 322.41 BTUs for every square meter) of floor space:
Example in Feet
●
10 x 20 foot room = 200 square feet
●
200 square feet x 30 = 6000 BTUs of cooling required
Example in Meters
●
3.05 x 6.10 meters = 18.61 square meters
●
18.61 square meters x 322.41 = 6000 BTUs of cooling required
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Another detail to consider is the length of time the space is occupied per use. The BTU/hr level of a typical
Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint assumes the following:
●
Adequate size room for the Cisco TelePresence endpoint and occupants
●
Room location is not subject to additional radiant energy (such as windows or heat from an adjacent
room)
●
Proper number of air supplies and returns provided
●
Placement of air supplies and returns for optimized circulation and heat dissipation
●
Room meets Immersive Cisco TelePresence design palette guidelines
If the room does not allow these conditions to be met, additional cooling may be required beyond what is listed in
the Cisco TelePresence endpoint’s installation guide. The BTU/hr output for each Immersive Cisco TelePresence
endpoint is reported as the typical use scenario based on metrics from Cisco’s existing deployed rooms and
takes into consideration a diversity factor defined by the use of these rooms and the average of various building
envelopes. Specifically, in this scenario the average room is used periodically throughout a typical 10-hour
business day, and each of these use periods may last 1 to 3 hours with periods of nonuse in between. During the
hours of use, the HVAC requirements are greater than during the period between meetings, and these
requirements are averaged across the 24-hour day. For efficiency, energy conservation, and meeting participant
comfort, the room HVAC systems must be designed to manage these waves of cooling without being
overdesigned and so providing too much cooling.
Having independent HVAC controls is also important in a Cisco TelePresence room. Cisco TelePresence
systems are frequently used to communicate with international offices and business partners in different time
zones, and so Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoints are often in use outside normal daytime office hours.
Use of an Existing HVAC System
Some existing HVAC systems are already capable of compensating for the heat output of the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint. However, the existing system may also be generating unwanted sound at the air
registers that is above the maximum ambient noise levels for Cisco TelePresence meetings. Therefore, special
sound-dampening registers and baffles are recommended such as the use of an NC30-rated (or, better, NC20rated) plaque-style diffuser, as shown below.
Figure 32.
NC30-Rated Plaque-Style Diffuser
Noise from the existing ducts and mechanical equipment should be evaluated as well. The target ambient noise
should be 36 dBA or less at the registers and cannot exceed 45 dBA or 60 dBC. Noise above the maximum
levels requires remediation because it will affect the Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience, and
organizations should consult their facilities departments or an HVAC engineer to assist in evaluating and
designing an acceptable solution to reduce ambient noise generated by the HVAC system.
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For optimal diffuser performance, a straight section of duct needs to serve the diffuser. An elbow or kinked duct
just before the diffuser often leads to poor air distribution and increased noise.
Also, when possible, dampers, extractors, and other air-flow-control devices should not be placed near the
diffuser outlet. Air-flow equipment installed near the diffuser dramatically increases noise that the diffuser cannot
remediate because the diffuser quiets sound from airflow and not machinery.
The location of the HVAC registers is also very important to accommodate the heat output of the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint and to keep sound levels within requirements. Cisco recommends locating the return
registers above the Cisco TelePresence endpoint to allow natural dissipation of heat as it rises into the return.
Supply diffusers can then be placed slightly behind the participant seating locations. The following figure
illustrates optimal placement of the HVAC registers.
Figure 33.
Recommended HVAC Circulation
Callout
Description
1
Seating area
2
Cold-air outflow
3
Warm-air inflow
4
Cisco TelePresence unit
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Zoning and Capability to Rezone HVAC
Larger office building locations commonly use zone HVAC systems that cover an entire floor or large area.
Inclusion of a Cisco TelePresence room in an HVAC zone with other rooms is not recommended because of the
localized heat output of the Cisco TelePresence endpoint. Check with facilities personnel to determine whether
the HVAC system can be rezoned and ideally rezone the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room so that it has its
own zone with independent controls.
The most common way to rezone a room into its own zone is to use a variable air volume (VAV) system with a
local thermostat. VAV provides a method for independently controlling the capacity and airflow rate of each of an
HVAC system’s zones. It makes air conditioning more efficient by regulating the amount of cooling targeted at
any specific room or area. A VAV system can be contrasted with a constant air volume (CAV) system.
In a VAV system, VAV boxes regulate the cooling to specific zones. A VAV box has a valve that constricts to
allow less air through, or opens to allow more air. For example, when at maximum cooling, the VAV terminal unit
damper is completely open. When the cooling is decreased, the damper closes until the minimum is reached.
When a VAV box constricts its valve to let less air through, it decreases the amount of energy consumed by the
fans that direct the air around the building.
Modern VAV boxes come with advanced control equipment that supports automated changes to airflow as
efficiency dictates. This control equipment is also linked to central computers for the entire HVAC system for a
building. Small pressure sensors detect the pressure of air in the VAV box, and hinges open and close its doors
to manipulate airflow and air volume.
Rooms that contain equipment, have windows that face the sun, or hold a large number of people have an
increased cooling load relative to rooms with minimal equipment, people, or windows, and VAV systems are
designed to accommodate these differences.
Most HVAC zone systems have timers that shut off the HVAC system after normal business hours to save
power. Verify with facilities personnel the capability to turn on the HVAC system in the Cisco TelePresence room
after hours. You should not run the Cisco TelePresence system without the HVAC system in use because the
endpoint can overheat and become damaged.
If the existing HVAC zone system does not compensate for the BTU/hr requirements for the endpoint and cannot
be rezoned or used outside preset business hours, an independent HVAC solution may be required for the Cisco
TelePresence room.
Common HVAC Cooling Issues and Resolutions
Depending on the type and configuration of the HVAC system and its control system, a variety of solutions may
be available to provide additional cooling (Table 7). Be sure to consult the appropriate HVAC professionals when
determining which solutions are appropriate for a specific facility.
Table 7.
HVAC Issues and Resolutions
Existing HVAC System
Possible Resolution
Adequate capacity
already In place without
separate Immersive
Cisco TelePresence
Room Controls
Options include:
● Update the control system to provide additional cooling to the intended room.
● Install an additional VAV system to allow independent control of this room. The VAV box should
be located away from the room to avoid issues from additional noise. A dedicated thermostat
also is required for this space.
● Reallocate cooling from other zones to this space to provide additional cooling.
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Existing HVAC System
Possible Resolution
Inadequate capacity
Options include:
● Upgrade the existing HVAC system (a costly solution).
● Install a supplemental split-style air conditioning system.
● Install a supplemental cassette-style air conditioning system. However, this solution also adds a
new noise concern for the room.
Supplemental Cooling
Supplemental cooling is an option if the main HVAC system cannot be rezoned and additional cooling is needed.
Split air conditioners can be more cost effective than changing central air conditioning systems, and because the
compressor sits outside of the room, split systems are much quieter than cassette-type systems. Many split air
systems are available that produce 45 dB of noise for up to 24,000 BTU/hr of cooling. However, they are typically
more expensive than a cassette-type system. Either type of supplemental air conditioning system — split or
cassette — can provide independent cooling to the room without modification to the existing central air system.
Note:
Installing a mini split air conditioner is more complicated than installing a cassette system, but is far less
complicated than installing a new central air system.
For a Cisco TelePresence room, it is always recommended to avoid installing any air conditioner along the same
wall as the Cisco TelePresence endpoint. The main reason is that if any leakage of water in the drain tubes
occurs, then the seepage is not next to the Cisco TelePresence endpoint. The preferred location is behind, or on,
the wall behind the participant seating locations. This approach also follows the recommended placement of
traditional air supply diffusers and promotes the natural dissipation of heat with returns or vents placed above the
Cisco TelePresence endpoint.
Conclusion
In summary, regardless of choice, ensure the following:
●
Appropriate BTU/hr of cooling
●
Appropriate noise level (less than 45 dB of noise in the room)
●
Appropriate location of the system and ducting to reduce ambient noise in the room
Be sure to keep in mind that the goal of the HVAC system is to ensure that the meeting room is comfortable (that
is, less than 76°F [24°C]) and inviting to its participants, while keeping ambient noise levels to a minimum. The
challenge in recent times is to accomplish this goal efficiently with the least energy consumption possible.
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Aesthetics
Aesthetic Principles
The physical components in a Cisco TelePresence room give the space its identity. They define who the end
user is and what the room says about the company, and provide an opportunity for corporate branding.
Upgrades to the room aesthetics, in parallel with lighting and acoustics, produce the overall quality of the
Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience.
Figure 34.
Basic Room Design
By following the design concepts outlined here, an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room will meet the standards
for a high quality Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience. Cisco TelePresence rooms can have a customized,
sophisticated appearance while still maintaining Immersive Cisco TelePresence audio and video capture and
transmission recommendations.
Figure 35.
Specialized Room Design
Choice and Customization in Design
Organizations are advised to deploy rooms based on the requirements and expectations of their users.
Adaptation of lighting, acoustics, and aesthetics help achieve the expected experience. Organizations are also
advised to design their Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms to reflect their corporate culture as well as the local
culture of the places in which the Cisco TelePresence room is located. Consulting with your organization’s
corporate branding team is encouraged.
While it is always the organization’s prerogative to determine the look of their Cisco TelePresence rooms,
designs do need to comply with basic room design guidelines to work optimally with the Immersive Cisco
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TelePresence technology. To achieve this balance, these guidelines welcome aesthetic creativity in execution,
and each organization should consider adding a personal signature to its rooms’ appearance.
How to Approach Aesthetic Design for Immersive Cisco TelePresence
Aesthetic room design for Immersive Cisco TelePresence addresses visual enhancements to the meeting room,
including wall color, lighting scheme, visual improvement of remediation materials such as acoustic panels, and
decorative accents.
Addressing the aesthetics of a space creates a more comfortable meeting environment and enhances the inroom experience. Room design can also create on-camera interest and improve the on-camera visual
perception. Aesthetic design choices are also powerful tools for reinforcing a company’s corporate identity.
Within a physical space, visual perception and interpretation are addressed from a three-dimensional viewpoint
involving the relationship between distance, scale and openness. If the room is devoid of everything other than
the Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint — in an essentially empty environment — the experience may feel
stark and cold. That feeling may be amplified if the space is large. A person using an undecorated room will have
a vastly different experience than a person using the same room with added design elements. Below is an
example of a well-designed Cisco TelePresence room that has a unique personality of its own.
Figure 36.
Elements in Aesthetic Room Design
The design approach for an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room has to be planned for two purposes:
●
The local in-room experience
●
The remote on-camera experience
While designing the Cisco TelePresence in-room experience for the comfort of the end user, consider how that
room will appear on camera to other sites engaged in a meeting. The on-camera experience relies on the
technology’s interpretation of that room. Remote locations will see only what is within the camera’s field of view
and, therefore, have an abridged view of the design elements introduced into the room, so aesthetic elements
should maintain continuity along the back wall behind the participants and carry that continuity through all Cisco
TelePresence screens.
Certain design elements enhance the way that a room appears on camera. The addition of textures and layering
of decorative elements within the camera’s field of view helps make the two-dimensional image shown to remote
participants appear more three-dimensional on the screen. These elements include the use of wallpaper, fabrics,
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furniture, decorative pieces, artwork, plants, and signage. In Cisco TelePresence meetings with multiple sites
connected to the same meeting, room aesthetics provide visual reference points to identify participant locations.
Wall Color
Wall color is very important because the Cisco TelePresence image captured is filled to a large extent by the
room wall behind the participants. This places particular demands on the color of that area to reproduce well on
camera, convert efficiently to video, and be comfortable for participants in the room. Cisco has tested a broad
spectrum of hues to identify the characteristics of paint colors that complement the codec and plasma
technology, work well with the skin tones of the participants on camera, and feel comfortable in person. These
form the approved wall colors, which are available in the Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick
Reference Guide. Extensive tests have shown that the Cisco approved wall colors create optimal images on the
Cisco TelePresence display. Organizations sometimes ask, ”Can we leave the walls white and save some
money on the painting?” This may seem like a way to save costs; however, when the total impact is understood,
it is clear that this is not a great way to save money. Plasma displays require a large amount of energy to
produce white pixels. If most of the background is white, the endpoint will consume more energy, which is a cost
factor. More energy consumption also means greater heat output and more HVAC compensation required,
another cost point. There are also additional factors that affect the experience. When the plasma screen expends
a greater amount of energy producing white, there is less energy available to render other parts of the images
such as the participants’ faces. Therefore, the video quality will be diminished. Lastly, white, black, and patterned
high-contrast backgrounds introduce the potential for areas of glare and are more challenging to the video
encoding process. These areas can create jitter or may require a greater amount of bandwidth on the network to
process.
Working with the approved wall colors, there are several creative options that can upgrade the room to a
customized environment with design elements such as accent colors, wall coverings, fabric, and wood panels.
Color Matching
There are several competing color systems that have been developed to communicate an accurate
representation of color. Unfortunately, there is no universal color standard in use globally today, and most of
these color systems were designed predominantly to address printing ink rather than paint. The approach to
mixing paint is vastly different.
Specific colors from the North American paint manufacturer Benjamin Moore & Co. have been approved for use
with the Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick Reference Guide. Color matching should be
performed by requesting paint card samples from Benjamin Moore & Co. and obtaining a color match from a
local paint manufacturer. True color accuracy can be achieved only by having an actual paint sample in hand.
Colors viewed on monitors or printed from electronic presentations vary based on the color calibration of the
equipment used.
Aesthetics and Room Remediation
Remediation addresses the baseline requirements to tune the environment for an optimal Immersive Cisco
TelePresence experience. Remediation solutions are also an opportunity to introduce aesthetics into the room to
add style. Care should be taken to ensure elements in the background are not highly patterned, such as with
checkerboard or paisley prints, or cluttered with too many multi-colored objects, which can degrade the overall
image clarity. The following sections describe the recommended combination of room remediation with aesthetic
design.
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Exterior Windows
To avoid introducing conflicting light temperature zones, it is recommended that windows to the exterior should
be blocked to eliminate the strong blue light that will be brought into the room by the sun. Overhead lighting
should be consistent with the color temperature of the integrated lighting in the Cisco TelePresence endpoint.
Large exterior windows in a space affect the lighting and acoustics of a room. If a large window along the back or
a side wall is visible on camera, window treatments should be used to block the outdoor light. Depending on the
desired look, wide architectural panels may be installed. These panels can hold opaque materials and maintain
the structure of the room. Window treatments that are not recommended are tightly woven materials and
patterned fabrics, horizontal blinds, and narrow vertical blinds.
Interior Windows
Interior windows do not need to be covered unless they are large enough to affect lighting and acoustics. In
these instances, cover the windows with fabric-finished vertical panels or vertical blinds. Usually, the greatest
effect that a small interior window has on an Immersive Cisco TelePresence meeting is the distraction of seeing
people walk by the room through the glass. Additionally, window tints, or your corporate logo or other desirable
graphic elements, can be applied directly onto the window glass to provide privacy and freedom from outside
distractions.
Doorways
Due to the positioning of the Cisco TelePresence cameras, a parallax effect is visible, especially when observing
horizontal and vertical lines on the left and right screens. Parallax, in the context of Cisco TelePresence,
manifests as straight lines in the camera view that appear bent or angled instead of strictly horizontal or vertical.
The best way to address this discrepancy is to distract the eye by building up the background with other objects
and giving the eye something else on which to focus. The shallower the room, the less noticeable the parallax
effect appears because horizontal lines, such as floor and baseboard lines, do not appear on camera. However,
you do not have to cover up architectural elements such as doors, interior windows, outlet plates, or baseboards.
These are physical items, indigenous to a room and act as identifiers to help associate viewers in the setting, as
shown in Figure 40.
Figure 37.
Door Placement in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room.
Furniture and shelves with interesting objects break up the horizontal plane at the back of the room.
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Acoustic Panels
An organization may want or need less reverberation or sound transmission in the Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room and opt to place acoustic panels in the room. Use of fabric-wrapped acoustic sound panels
can add aesthetic appeal as well as sound dampening properties.
Fabrics with a subtle weave and minimal pattern variation render better on camera than flat, solid surfaces. The
fabric covering the acoustic panels should match the complementary or field color described in the Cisco
TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick Reference Guide. The fabric should also be viewed on the Cisco
TelePresence screen to check how the pattern renders and to check for color accuracy on camera. The Cisco
TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick Reference Guide also provides samples of fabrics that have been
extensively tested and perform very well as an acoustic and aesthetic solution on camera and off.
Creative Wall Treatments
Immersive Cisco TelePresence works best with the pre-tested range of colors and fabrics specified in the Cisco
TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick Reference Guide. Within these design palettes there are several
creative wall treatments to upgrade rooms from a utilitarian deployment to a highly customized, sophisticated
room experience.
Note:
Questions regarding the viability of creative finishes or requests to use colors outside the existing color
palettes should be addressed to your room design and remediation partner, or Cisco Advanced Services during
room remediation as an additional service.
Wall Coverings
Wall coverings come in various materials, textures, and patterns. Selecting a wall covering in the approved
colors instead of paint offers a greater array of options to introduce a different look and feel in the room
environment. Patterns and textures should be subtle enough to show variances but should not have so much
contrast that they are distracting on camera. Several companies produce eco-friendly wall coverings that are
good options for Leadership in Environment and Energy Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System
compliance.
Wood Panels
Wood panels produce excess sound reverberation due to the polished, reflective nature of the panels, and these
effects are magnified in larger room sizes. However, wood panels can still be used in a Cisco TelePresence
environment if they are strategically placed. Acoustic paneling applied at the level of the microphones will
dampen the effects of the wood, with the areas above and below the acoustic treatment done in wood paneling,
as shown below:
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Figure 38.
Strategic Use of Wood Paneling Combined with Acoustic Wall Treatment
Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes
Cisco has developed the Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes, which are available in the Cisco
TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick Reference Guide, for Immersive Cisco TelePresence. These room
design palettes take into consideration all the previous concepts in this guide while allowing flexibility with a
variety of options. The Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes are a complete design package optimized for
Immersive Cisco TelePresence. This design package implements a three color approach, as well as fabrics and
carpets. The three colors are defined as the Field, Complement, and Detail colors, as follows:
Field is the main color in the camera’s field of view.
●
●
Complement is an optional color that can be applied within the room for enhanced visual interest.
●
Detail is an optional color recommended for trim elements, such as baseboards, door frames, etc.
The approved fabrics can be applied with both the Field and Complement colors, while reducing optical effects
that otherwise often happen with textured fabrics on camera. The carpet choices in each palette also work with
the matching colors in the palette and are generally darker in tone to help ground the environment and tie all
design elements together.
Table 8.
Finish
Field color
Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palette Application
Application
Notes
Main color used within field of view Eggshell finish highly recommended.
of the camera.
Preferred Light Reflectance Value (LRV) range of 21.5 – 73.9.
Complement color Second most used color within field Eggshell finish highly recommended.
of view of the camera.
Preferred Light Reflectance Value (LRV) range of 21.5 – 73.9.
Detail color
Only used for trims and fine detail Eggshell finish highly recommended.
areas.
Preferred Light Reflectance Value (LRV) range of 21.5 – 73.9.
Should appear only marginally within the camera’s field of view when
applied as described.
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Finish
Fabric
Application
Treatment for acoustic panels.
Notes
All fabrics should be ordered and applied without backing.
Acoustically transparent mesh may be required underneath to
prevent acoustic panel fiber colors from altering the fabric hues.
Carpet
Treatment for floor.
Installation pattern defined for each.
Walnut table
Cisco TelePresence TX series
table color option.
Can be used with all Cisco TelePresence design palettes, but is best
when used with the table color specified for that design palette.
Maple table
Cisco TelePresence TX and CTS
series table color option.
Can be used with all Cisco TelePresence design palettes, but is best
when used with the table color specified for that design palette.
Modifiable Aesthetic Elements
There are several highly customizable elements of design to enhance the visual experience of an Immersive
Cisco TelePresence meeting. To optimize the aesthetics in the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room, here are
some modifiable aesthetic elements that can be introduced:
Accent, Complimentary, and Detail Colors: Work with the Cisco TelePresence Room Design Palettes Quick
Reference Guide for complimentary and detail wall colors. Organizations can then opt to add their brand colors
as accents throughout the room.
Furniture: Furniture can be added to identify the purpose for the space and the identity of the end user. For
example, if the furniture that is added is a long rectangular table and four chairs placed around it, the space feels
like a conference room. The same space filled with a few lounge chairs, a coffee table, and ottomans feels like a
social setting instead of being a work-related space. Examine the amount of space available for adding furniture
pieces to the room. Some suggested furnishings that work well in the Cisco TelePresence room environment are
additional seating, credenzas, bookshelves, side tables, and coat racks.
Decorative Accents: To add visual interest and depth to a room, include decorative accents. Items to consider
placing in a room are vases, corporate awards, table art, books, clocks, and other items with interesting shapes.
Wall Art: Wall art helps balance the room as a whole. Given the camera’s field of view, chances are that the art
will not appear on camera, but it serves to address to in-person experience, as shown in the following figure:
Figure 39.
Wall Art in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room
Plants: Plants offer a pleasant touch to any room environment. Consider the height and leafiness of the plant as
how well as how its shape works on screen. Flowers also introduce a nice touch of color to a room. Depending
on the organization, plants can be real or artificial. Furthermore, plants can help integrate the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint into the space. Placement of a plant on the side of the endpoint helps connect the
endpoint to the room and breaks up the void between the endpoint and the side wall, as shown in the following
figure:
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Figure 40.
Use of Plants in a Cisco TelePresence Room
Additionally, plants are often used in the back corners of a Cisco TelePresence room to enhance depth
perception for the on-camera experience.
Hospitality: Items related to supporting the comfort of the people in the meeting room can be added as part of
the in-person experience and as decorative elements on screen. Items to consider are water trays, coasters,
mint dishes, pens, note pads, napkins, and tissue boxes.
Signage: Signage is an opportunity for branding and also may assist in the identification of the room’s location.
Optimal positioning of signage is so that it appears in the middle of the center TelePresence screen. Signage
should not be made of highly reflective materials or obstructed by the participants when seated. The position of
signage should be gauged with the cameras in mind.
Branding In Cisco TelePresence Room Design
To build brand recognition companies enlist marketing expertise, modify corporate practices, and invest billions
of advertising dollars to distinguish themselves in the marketplace. Branding efforts applied to a Cisco
TelePresence room also have the potential to accelerate return on investment (ROI) because the organization’s
brand now receives broader exposure than beyond the four walls of the physical room. Every Cisco
TelePresence meeting in which the room is engaged becomes an opportunity to relay corporate identity.
Integration of Aesthetics in a Cisco TelePresence Room
Interior office environments have the potential to influence the attitudes, behavior, and decision making of people
who come into contact with these spaces. Creating the right environment can boost employee morale and
positively affect key stakeholders such as customers, partners, and the media.
Before beginning to assess how to fill the background of the camera view, be sure that the chairs around the
Cisco TelePresence table are in place. These will act as reference points, indicating where your Cisco
TelePresence participants will be seated.
With the Cisco TelePresence table and chairs in place and the camera field-of-view parameters marked out,
assess the best location for aesthetic items in the background of the on-screen image. Choose the placement of
objects based on fit for the space and consider the functionality of the aesthetic objects as well.
It is not recommended to place background items symmetrically or directly behind the Cisco TelePresence
participant seating positions because the objects may appear to be touching or attached to the heads of meeting
participants, distracting people on the other side of the Cisco TelePresence meeting. Choose areas on camera
that are behind the participants’ shoulders.
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Be aware of the distribution of objects on each screen. If a large object is placed on one edge of the camera view
and the other edge is not addressed, this can leave the transmitted image looking unbalanced. The attention of
the participants on the other side will gravitate to the most prominent object in the frame.
Be cognizant of color distribution as well. When adding a colorful object to the background, think about where the
eye of the Cisco TelePresence participants at the other endpoint will be drawn. Likewise with color, try to create
a balance among all three Cisco TelePresence screens so attention is not drawn to a single very intensively
colored object only on one screen.
After you have established a plan for determining the placement of objects within the camera view, step back
and assess the room as a whole. To balance the room as a physical space, the wall area above the maximum
camera height will need to be addressed. If signage is placed within the camera field of view, notice that the
signage sits far below a natural height at which wall art is typically placed on walls. Compensate for this
phenomenon by adding wall art at its natural height. Think about placing additional framed photos, artwork, or
sculptures around the room that reconcile the upper half of the wall with the decorations you have placed on the
lower half of the wall.
Décor to Avoid in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room
You should specifically avoid certain items as background elements in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room.
In particular, you should avoid items that are distracting to participants or difficult for the video to process,
resulting in diminished video quality or loss of the overall Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience, as listed in
the following table:
Table 9.
Décor to Avoid in an Immersive Environment
Décor to Avoid
Affect on Video or in Person
Oversized furniture
Large pieces of furniture can take up precious space for local participants. Over video, these can
seem overbearing or daunting because only a small portion of the piece can be seen in the camera
view. They also tend to create numerous large background shadows that increase areas of high
contrast.
Dark furniture
Dark furniture tends to create numerous areas of high contrast that are difficult for video to process.
Reflective or shiny
elements
Light reflections in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence environment should be controlled such that
they do not reflect light into the cameras or on displays to avoid issues such as glare, lens flares, or
undesirable points of interest in the room that distract from participants being the focal point.
Highly repetitive
patterned materials
or fabrics
Highly repetitive patterns should be avoided unless the pattern is small enough such that the
pattern blends into the background when seen from 10 feet (3 meters) away. If patterns are visible
from that distance, they tend to look very busy and distracting over video. In extreme cases, they
can create a moiré pattern or other undesirable visual effects in the video transmitted.
Excessive vertical or
horizontal patterns
These types of patterns draw attention away from the participants and to the background. They
exaggerate any misalignment of the endpoint’s cameras and in some cases can make even wellaligned cameras seem misaligned.
Conclusion
The design of your Immersive Cisco TelePresence room has many considerations but also offers the ability to
personalize the room to suit organizational expectations and identity. Organizations should consult their design
and remediation partner, facilities department, and their preferred architectural firm to implement these
Immersive Cisco TelePresence room design recommendations.
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Immersive Room Design Implementation
The recommended order of room design implementation, as shown in the following figure, is:
1.
Room Selection
2.
Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) & Room Remediation
3.
Aesthetic Design
Room Selection
Many considerations are necessary when choosing a room for Immersive Cisco TelePresence because the room
affects the quality of the experience and so should be assessed carefully.
When Cisco’s recommendations and guidelines are followed, they help reduce complexity, cost, and time to
deployment. Room selection criteria are:
●
Dedicated or Multipurpose Meeting Space
●
Physical Elements of the Room Environment
●
Room Dimensions
●
Location
●
Construction Characteristics
●
Lighting
●
Acoustics
Note:
Consultation with the facilities personnel of the building in which the prospective room is located is
usually needed to assess all room selection criteria.
Cost Versus Immersive Experience
As with many projects, there is a budget scheduled for the Cisco TelePresence room remediation and
deployment. However, many factors that may seem unimportant ultimately affect the overall Immersive Cisco
TelePresence experience. With a full understanding of the overall impact, it is clear that seemingly small details
are very important to the experience and are worth the expense to implement. The table below compares the
cost and impact of room design choices.
Table 10.
Cost vs. Immersive TelePresence Experience
Characteristic
Observations and Comments
Cost
Effect on
Immersive
Experience
Continuity
Continuity is the most important element in Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room design. It is also the simplest and least
expensive element to achieve.
LOW
HIGH
Lighting
Lighting can be inexpensive with good results, but this is one
area where it is worthwhile to spend a little more. Great lighting
LOW - MEDIUM
HIGHEST
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Characteristic
Observations and Comments
Cost
Effect on
Immersive
Experience
is the key to great video.
Acoustics
Acoustic remediation creates much more pleasing sound, both
in the room and on the other side of the Cisco TelePresence
meeting. Cost ranges from low to medium, from basic acoustic
panels to custom panels, respectively.
LOW - MEDIUM
MEDIUM
HVAC
Look for rooms with few HVAC remediation requirements.
Addition of VAV boxes or control systems or rezoning of the
existing HVAC system is usually sufficient, but purchasing an
entirely new HVAC system is usually very expensive.
LOW - HIGH
HIGH
Room size and
orientation
Look for a room size in the recommended size range for the
endpoint and with no or few windows to keep remediation costs
down. Interior rooms are preferred because they can be less
costly to remediate and maintain cooling more easily.
MEDIUM
MEDIUM
Dedicated or Multipurpose Meeting Space
A dedicated Immersive Cisco TelePresence room is a room completely designed around the use of the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint. There are many advantages to dedicating a room for Cisco TelePresence, including:
●
Ability to match all Cisco’s room recommendations for a constant, continual, Immersive Cisco
TelePresence experience
●
Absence of other technology and devices that may interfere with a Cisco TelePresence meeting
●
Assurance that the room will always be properly configured for a Cisco TelePresence meeting
●
Assurance that the Cisco TelePresence endpoint is available for use and that the room’s potential ROI is
achieved
●
Assurance that no distractions are present in the room that would break the continuity of the experience
Below are two examples of dedicated, fully Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms. Although these rooms are
different in shape, flooring, and type of Cisco TelePresence endpoint installed, the similarity in lighting, colors,
and artwork creates a fully Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience.
Figure 41.
Dedicated Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room Examples
San Jose
Kiev
Dedicated Cisco TelePresence rooms offer the most predictable and overall highest quality Immersive Cisco
TelePresence experience.
Multipurpose rooms can also be used for Immersive Cisco TelePresence meetings as long as the rooms follow
continuity principles, have been properly prepared, and meet all Immersive Cisco TelePresence room
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recommendations. However, the higher number of variables in a multipurpose room due to its flexible use leads
to a less predictable meeting environment.
Figure 42.
Multipurpose Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room Examples
Sydney
Cairo
Smaller, personal endpoints can also provide an Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience if they follow
continuity principles, have been properly prepared, and meet all Immersive Cisco TelePresence room
recommendations. However, an important additional consideration is whether or not the network connection into
the personal room has sufficient bandwidth to support Cisco TelePresence traffic.
Figure 43.
Personal Immersive Cisco TelePresence Room Examples
Winnipeg
Genoa
Physical Elements of the Room
The size, configuration, orientation, and location of doors, windows, and adjacent rooms and the placement of
the Cisco TelePresence endpoint are all physical elements that need to be considered when selecting a room for
Immersive Cisco TelePresence. It is beneficial to have layout drawings with the physical dimensions of each
room that is being considered easily accessible during room selection.
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Room Dimensions
The dimensions of the room to be considered are depth, width, and height. Also, accessibility must be
considered.
Note:
For more information on specific maximum and minimum room dimensions, please refer to the
installation guide for the endpoints you are considering deploying.
In general:
●
Rooms that are larger than the maximum recommended size for an Immersive Cisco TelePresence
endpoint do not provide optimal acoustic characteristics and may require remediation such as acoustic
paneling. Additionally, the maximum width is limited to avoid large areas of wall surface directly across
from each other that may promote reverberation and degrade the audio quality.
●
The maximum depth of the room is also limited due to the angle of the Cisco TelePresence camera. The
Cisco TelePresence camera has a slight downward tilt to improve perspective and eye contact. At 30 feet
(9.15 meters) away from the camera there is no longer an adequate viewing area for an average person
to be seen. In addition, with rooms longer than 26 feet (7.01 meters), the camera will view more floor
space than wall space (except with the TX 9200 series and CTS 3200 series endpoints) and this affects
the contrast and quality of the Cisco TelePresence experience.
●
Ceilings higher than 10 feet (3.05 meters) can create undesirable acoustic characteristics and may need
remediation.
●
Ceilings lower than 8 feet (2.44 meters) may not be able to accommodate the physical height of the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint itself, as well as fire sprinklers and other such ceiling-mounted items.
●
The minimum required height and width of a room is due to the physical footprint of the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint.
●
The minimum depth of the room is to accommodate the space between the wall and the back edge of the
Cisco TelePresence participant seating table and chairs.
●
Rectangular rooms are preferred but irregular shaped rooms can be accommodated. Odd angles, curved
walls, and pillars can create unusual acoustic effects that may also require additional sound remediation.
●
Access requirements for disabled persons may mandate a specific minimum space to allow access for a
standard wheel chair. Please be sure to review building codes and access laws in your area.
The following figure illustrates the room and endpoint dimensions to consider, except for ceiling height. This
figure is given as an example only. For endpoint room dimensions and details, refer to the respective installation
guide on Cisco.com.
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Figure 44.
Room Dimensions To Consider
Callout
Description
1
The room width.
2
The room depth.
3
This is the back wall. For systems that use a free-standing lighting reflector there is a minimum distance
between the free-standing reflector and the back wall of the room.
4
The distance between the light reflector, if used, and the table edge.
5
The space between the table for participant seating and the rear wall. Consideration should be given to local
fire codes and disability compliance to ensure there is adequate egress.
6
The maximum width of the endpoint, including any lighting reflector if used.
7
Distance between the endpoint camera and the table edge at the outermost chair position.
8
The position of the back of the endpoint.
Location
Doors
Doors should be on the left or right side walls or on the wall behind the participants. Preferably, the doors should
be out of camera view to help prevent disruption of the consistency of the Cisco TelePresence experience. Doors
should not be behind the Cisco TelePresence endpoint.
Windows
Ideally, Cisco TelePresence rooms should have no windows. If the room does have windows, the glass should
not comprise more than 20 percent of the total wall space. In an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room,
reverberation and lighting levels need to be controlled, and windows present many problems. Windows increase
reverberation in the room and let in uncontrolled light. Windows may need to be treated for both acoustic and
lighting factors.
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Placement of The Room in the Building
Rooms with exterior walls or windows may allow too much noise from street or local airline traffic, wind and
weather, or neighboring businesses. Any outside noises that can be heard in the Cisco TelePresence room may
cause undesirable noise levels and affect the Cisco TelePresence experience. For this reason, rooms in the
interior of the building are recommended for Immersive Cisco TelePresence. Likewise, the doors and walls of an
Immersive Cisco TelePresence room should be away from areas of high foot traffic to limit intrusive noise.
HVAC systems can also produce sound that needs to be remediated depending on where the HVAC system
components are in relation to the Cisco TelePresence room.
In addition, proximity and accessibility for the intended participants needs to be considered to help ensure
optimum use of the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room. For example, if the Cisco TelePresence endpoints are
geared toward use by executives, the executives may place a premium on having the room physically located
next to or near their offices to optimize both the use of the Cisco TelePresence room and their personal time.
Adjacent Rooms
Adjacent rooms need to be evaluated to verify if additional acoustic remediation is required to isolate noise
coming into or going out of these rooms. Sound levels within the room must be under 45 dBA and 60 dBC to
enable a high-quality Cisco TelePresence experience.
Consider and evaluate adjacent rooms and infrastructure such as break rooms, elevators, and large conference
rooms as they can increase the noise levels inside the Cisco TelePresence room.
Additionally, privacy should be a factor when evaluating adjacent rooms. Cisco TelePresence participants will
expect a certain level of privacy, as with other conference rooms, and extra remediation should be considered to
keep conversations inside the Cisco TelePresence room confidential.
Acoustic Evaluation
Noise from HVAC ducts and mechanical equipment should be evaluated in choosing a room as a candidate for
Cisco TelePresence.
The ideal ambient noise level is 36 dB or less, as measured by an SPL meter that is one meter away from each
register. This goal may be difficult to achieve when dealing with an older HVAC system or one that was not
designed with the comfort of sound in mind. The Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoint will perform properly
when the ambient sound is greater than 36 dB and will still meet Cisco’s Room Remediation requirements at 45
dB. However, noise greater than 45 dB becomes distracting to participants and ultimately diminishes the overall
experience.
Cisco highly recommends the use of NC30-rated plaque-style diffusers for adequate airflow and minimal noise
from the airflow into the room from the HVAC system. Also, the use of sound boots or duct wrapping may be
recommended in situations with increased air velocity that creates undesirable sound. Diffusers may be added to
accommodate greater airflow without increased noise. Consultations with your facilities department or an HVAC
engineer may be needed to assist in designing an acceptable solution to reduce ambient noise generated by the
HVAC system. Provide HVAC engineers with the BTU output outlined in the Cisco TelePresence endpoint
installation guides. This information, in combination with details of the room’s location and environment will
enable them to design adequate cooling for the room.
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Construction Characteristics
Think of an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room as a confidential area. Outside conversations should not be
heard inside the room, and inside conversations should not be heard outside the room. Therefore, careful
attention needs to be paid to the construction materials of the room being considered for Immersive Cisco
TelePresence. Also, understand that the materials from which the room was made effect the acoustic properties
of the room and may be well or poorly suited to a high-quality Cisco TelePresence experience.
For an Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience, all walls should have an STC rating greater than 40. Cisco
TelePresence rooms in high-traffic areas or with loud adjacent rooms require walls with a rating higher than STC
40. Additionally, walls should reach toward the structural deck of the floor, and not end right above false ceiling
tiles, to help isolate unwanted noise from adjacent rooms.
The wall, ceiling, and floor materials in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room all work collectively to provide an
overall NRC rating for the room.
You may be able to use a room with hard surfaces, such as wood or marble floors and glass walls, if acoustic
considerations are addressed and compensated for by the materials of other surfaces in the room. For example,
a wood or marble floor can be accommodated if the walls are covered with acoustic fabric panels and the ceiling
tiles have a higher NRC rating to reduce reverberation. Similarly, a glass wall can be accommodated if the
remaining walls are covered with acoustic panels and the floor is carpeted. If necessary, add an additional heavy
curtain that matches the Field color of the room to compensate for a glass wall and reduce reverberation.
Wall Materials
Normal drywall surfaces are recommended for Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms. Drywall with an NRC of
0.1 is adequate for an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room. Lower-rated wall materials should not be used
because they allow unwanted sound to leak into the room from adjoining rooms and hallways, reducing the
quality of the Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience. Standard drywall with a smooth finish or slight texture
is preferred, and wall materials with heavy textures are highly discouraged due to how they reproduce visually on
camera.
Cinder block, brick, and glass walls are highly reverberant materials and are not recommended because they
require additional acoustic treatment.
Ceiling Materials
Standard office ceiling tiles with an NRC rating of 0.70 or higher are recommended for Immersive Cisco
TelePresence rooms because they help absorb reverberation and unwanted noise. Verify the NRC rating of the
ceiling tiles with your organization’s facilities department. Plaster or drywall ceilings are not recommended
because they increase the reverberation in the room, causing undesirable sound conditions. If plaster or drywall
is used in the ceiling, further remediation may be required.
Noise that can be heard in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room that is coming from above the ceiling tiles
requires remediation such as sound batting or acoustic fabric in place of, or above, the ceiling tiles.
Flooring Materials
Standard office carpeting is recommended for its sound absorbing properties. Other surfaces such as linoleum,
hardwood, or marble are highly reflective and usually require remediation to reduce reverberation.
Rooms with raised floors can be accommodated as Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms but need to be
evaluated to verify that the floor can handle the weight of the Cisco TelePresence endpoint. Additionally, raised
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floors may increase the sound resonance in the room, therefore, raised floors may require remediation to keep
sound levels within Immersive Cisco TelePresence requirements.
Power Outlets
Power outlets in the room must be of the appropriate type, sufficient in total number, and designed to carry the
amperage for the Cisco TelePresence endpoint intended for the room. If the type and number of power outlets
do not match what is needed for the endpoint, new or additional power outlets must be installed in the room.
Network Access
Immersive Cisco TelePresence endpoints usually require a Gigabit Ethernet port (RJ-45 UTP) installed on the
wall behind the endpoint. This port connects the Cisco TelePresence endpoint to the organization’s network
infrastructure. The RJ-45 UTP port, if not already present and in the correct location, is installed during the buildout of the Immersive Cisco TelePresence room.
Network access for in-room participants can be provided through a wireless access point or with wired
connectivity using an additional RJ-45 UTP port combined with a switch. If used, switches should not generate
more than 45 dB of sound within the Cisco TelePresence room.
Indirect Lighting
When evaluating a room for Immersive Cisco TelePresence, the first step is to verify whether the room’s current
lighting fixtures are indirect lighting fixtures or some other type. You can determine the type of fixture with a
visual inspection, however the level to which the fixtures are indirect versus indirect/direct cannot be determined
visually. You need to get the model number of the fixture and research it for verification. Many indirect fixtures
may appear to be completely indirect but can provide a significant amount of direct downlighting.
The next step is to verify that the placement of the light fixtures provides optimum lighting conditions, which are:
●
Kelvin color temperature of 4000 or 4100K to match the built-in Cisco TelePresence endpoint lighting,
and to reproduce colors accurately on screen.
●
CRI of 82 to 100.
●
Facial lighting from 200 to 400 lux, with these values measured with the Cisco TelePresence endpoint off.
●
Shoulder lighting not to exceed twice the values of the facial lighting, and also measured with the Cisco
TelePresence endpoint off.
●
Light in all areas of the room within the camera field of view should not fluctuate more than 100 lux within
the room. In other words, lighting is evenly dispersed throughout the room. This includes lighting at the
room walls, which should be equal to or less than the facial lighting and should differ no more than 100
from rest of the room.
●
Implementation of a dimming lighting control system is highly recommended to adjust the intensity of light
in the room without needing to precisely calculate the overall lighting levels in advance, and to ensure
reproducible results with preset lighting scenes.
●
Regardless of fixture choices, indirect fluorescent lighting fixtures provide the best results for ambience
and amount of dispersed lighting, and asymmetric fixtures provide the most efficient and predictable
option within the range of indirect fixtures available.
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If the room is at a site that has not been remodeled within the past 15 years, the light fixtures are likely to be
direct-lighting fixtures. These direct fixtures are designed to illuminate work surfaces, tabletops, and walking
paths, but they do not provide evenly dispersed lighting. Direct-lighting fixtures create hotspots and require
remediation. If these are present, some direct-lighting fixtures can be converted to indirect-lighting sources with
light diffusers that cover the lamps, so an option is to have local facilities personnel check with the manufacturer
of your current lighting to see whether existing direct-lighting fixtures can be converted into indirect-lighting
sources, as a cost-saving alternative to replacing the existing fixtures. Also, check with your facilities department
to determine whether they have indirect lighting fixtures that can be used for the new Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room before you purchase new fixtures.
Lighting Control Systems
Dimming lighting control systems should be used for all Immersive Cisco TelePresence rooms. The efficiency
and flexibility of these systems allows for very accurate and predicable lighting levels with excellent performance.
Switching control systems require a much greater design effort and offer less predictable and non-adjustable
results. Once a dimming system has been commissioned appropriately, lighting levels can be saved as scene
presets that function much like a switching control system. This enable precision design with simple in-room
control.
Direct Lighting
Direct lighting fixtures are suited for accent lighting only in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room due to the
hotspots of illumination and other undesirable visual effects they create on camera.
Direct lighting is designed specifically to illuminate horizontal surfaces. It is also designed to minimize horizontal
light distribution to avoid shinning light into the eyes. This type of fixture is often seen in hallways and corridors,
and less often in offices and over cubicles where desktops or flooring requires illumination. Since these lights are
direct by nature, the light is focused directly downwards and results in the illumination focusing on the tops of
people’s heads and shoulders rather than the face and torso. Direct lighting often translates on screen as a glare
or a glow across surfaces. Below is guidance on two common types of direct lighting fixtures:
Table 11.
Common Commercial Office Direct-Lighting Fixtures
Light Fixture
Remediation
Comments
Parabolic Louvers
Diffuser kit
Available from some manufacturers.
Recessed Can
Lights
Use only as accent lighting
Useful as a design element but not for
primary illumination.
Figure 45.
Parabolic Louver Lighting
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Callout
Description
1
Direct parabolic louver lighting.
2
Lighting diffuser kit over parabolic louver lighting.
If parabolic louver lighting fixtures must be used, avoid placing them directly over meeting participants. In a Cisco
TelePresence room, these fixtures can be used on the perimeter of the room to add wall wash or perimeter
illumination in the back of room. Often these fixtures are used in the back of a large Immersive Cisco
TelePresence room to illuminate the back area where shadows would be present.
Can lighting is also not recommended as primary lighting in a Cisco TelePresence room because it creates
hotspots, but it is suitable for accent lighting such as wall wash or to illuminate adornments. This use, as accent
lighting, can provide an excellent means of creating depth perception within the room and add to the meeting
experience.
Figure 46.
Recessed Can Lighting for Accent Lighting
Replacing Lighting Fixtures
If the light fixtures in the selected Cisco TelePresence room need to be replaced, give special consideration to
selecting the new lighting solution. Ceiling height and space above the ceiling tiles will affect the indirect lighting
fixtures that can be used.
With lower ceiling heights, hanging pendent light fixtures may not leave adequate space above the Immersive
Cisco TelePresence endpoint or participants’ heads.
With recessed light fixtures, the air space above the ceiling tiles must have adequate clearance to accommodate
the light fixtures and still adhere to local building and fire codes.
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Room Design Models
The practical application of aesthetics in an Immersive Cisco TelePresence room comes into play when
considering how the participants who will use the space. A company may have a different design approach for
the look and feel of an environment that is meant to be used by its executives than for an environment to be used
for frequent conferences by knowledge workers.
How each flexible aesthetic element can be used to create a specific environmental effect is summarized in the
table below:
Table 12.
Aesthetic
Element
Room Design Models
Executive Level Room Design
Professional Level Room Design
Classic Level Room Design
Example
Lighting
Custom overhead indirect lighting
Indirect overhead lighting fixtures
fixtures combined with lighting coves combined with back wall and
and scene-type lighting presets as aesthetic-element accent lighting.
well as back wall and aestheticelement accent lighting.
Commercial indirect overhead lighting
fixtures.
Color,
Cisco TelePresence design palette Cisco TelePresence design palette Cisco TelePresence design palette
Fabrics,
with field, complimentary, and detail with field and complimentary colors in with field color only in the room.
and Carpet
colors in the room.
the room.
Furniture
Space permitting, incorporate a
Space permitting, incorporate
selection of credenzas, bookshelves, additional seating, bookshelves, or
side tables, or coat racks.
side tables.
No additional furniture needed.
Decorative Vases, corporate awards, table art, Vases, corporate awards, and items No additional accents needed.
Accents
books, clocks, and items with
with interesting shapes.
interesting shapes.
Wall Art
Add art on the walls to help create
balance in the room as a whole as
well as provide the advantage of
carrying the continuity of the room
across all three screens for
multipoint scenarios.
Plants
No plants needed.
(Optional) Plants can help integrate (Optional) Plants offer a pleasant
the Cisco TelePresence endpoint
organic touch to any room
into the space when placed on the environment. Consider the height and
sides of the system by the lighting leafiness of a plant and how well its
facade. This placement helps
shape works on screen. Depending
connect the system to the room and on an organization’s corporate policy,
breaks up the void between the
plants can be real or artificial.
system and the back wall. Plants are
often used in the back corners of an
Immersive Cisco TelePresence
room to help enhance the depth
perception for the on-camera
experience.
Consider adding wall art to help carry
the continuity of the room across all
three screens for multipoint
scenarios.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Consider adding wall art to help carry
the continuity of the room across all
three screens for multipoint
scenarios.
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Aesthetic
Element
Executive Level Room Design
Professional Level Room Design
Classic Level Room Design
Hospitality Hospitality items that support a
meeting can be added as part of the
in-person experience or as
decorative accents on screen. Items
to consider are: conference desk
pads, a mint dish, pens, note pads,
napkins, or a box of tissues.
No special hospitality items needed.
Hospitality items that support a
meeting can be added as part of the
in-person experience or as decorative
accents on screen. Items to consider
are: water glasses, coasters, pens,
note pads, napkins, or a box of
tissues.
Signage
Add signage on the back wall as a
means of identifying the location to
participants on the other end of the
Cisco TelePresence call. Optimal
positioning of signage is in the center
of the center screen.
Add signage as a means of
identifying the location to
participants at the other end of the
call.
Make sure that signage does not
use high-reflectivity materials such
as glass and polished metals. Also
check that signage is not obstructed
when participants are seated.
Add signage on the back wall as a
means of identifying the location to
participants on the other end of the
Cisco TelePresence call. Optimal
positioning of signage is in the center
of the center screen.
Use these flexible elements to tailor your room design to the needs, preferences, and brand of your organization.
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Appendix A: HVAC Components and Systems
HVAC Components
Air conditioning is part of a larger entity called an HVAC system, which encompasses heating, ventilation, air
conditioning, and control systems. There are several HVAC components that make up an HVAC System. These
components should be reviewed during the room selection and room remediation process. Below are
descriptions and definitions for these components.
Duct Types
Ducts are used to deliver and remove air. The airflows include supply air, return air, and exhaust air. Air ducts
are generally rectangular or round and are made from a variety of materials. When ducts are accurately sized
and the duct system is correctly designed, the air will be delivered to the rooms and spaces with little noise or
airflow resistance.
Galvanized Steel
Most ducts are made of galvanized steel. Galvanized steel can be easily bent and cut, which allows bends and
curves to be created as needed. In addition, many features are available in default sizes and shapes. Galvanized
steel ducts are usually wrapped with fiberglass thermal insulation. The insulation helps reduce heat loss or gain
and prevents water vapor from condensing on the outside of the duct when a duct is used for cold air in air
conditioning. Insulation also has a particular effect on the Immersive Cisco TelePresence experience since
insulation can help reduce noise from air movement within the duct work. Duct liner and fiberglass installation
both reduce noise through the duct walls.
Duct Board
The main types of duct board are polyurethane and fiberglass.
Polyurethane duct board is not as common as galvanized steel, but ducts that are rectangular are often made
from duct board. One benefit is to this type of ducting is that it does not require additional insulation.
Polyurethane duct board has built-in properties that provide sound damping. The duct is made through a forming
process using water or gas. The panels are then coated with aluminum. The ducts are installed using a flange
system.
Fiberglass duct board provides built-in thermal insulation and excellent sound absorption, which helps reduce the
noise of an HVAC system. The cut boards are generally rectangular and closed off with staples or metal-backed
tape.
Flexible Ducting
A variety of flexible ducting types are available. Generally, flexible plastic is laid over a metal wire coil to make a
round, flexible duct. The duct can be insulated with fiberglass insulation to help reduce heat transfer from the
duct as well as noise. Flexible ducting makes it easy to attach the supply air outlets to the ducting. One
disadvantage of flexible ducting is that pressure loss is greater than with other types of ducting. This means that
the installation needs to be kept to short ducting runs with few turns.
Ducting Systems
The two duct systems most commonly used are perimeter duct systems and extended plenum duct systems.
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Perimeter Duct Systems
In a perimeter duct system, the supply outlets are located around the outer edge of the structure, close the floor
of the outside wall or on the floor itself.
There are two basic perimeter duct systems used today:
●
Perimeter-loop duct system
●
Radial perimeter duct system
The perimeter-loop duct system is characterized by feeder supply ducts and extends outward from the furnace
plenum to a loop duct running around the perimeter.
In a radial perimeter duct system, the feeder supply duct extends from the furnace plenum to the warm-air supply
outlets located on the outside walls or the floor next to the outside walls.
Extended Plenum Systems
In the extended plenum system, a large rectangular duct extends straight out from the furnace plenum and
generally in a straight line down the center of the basement, attic, or ceiling. Round or rectangular supply ducts
extend as branches from the plenum extension to the plenum, which permits a better airflow rate with reduced
resistance because of the large duct diameter. The branching ducts are usually located between structural joints
in the floor or ceiling.
Other Main Duct Components
In addition to the ducting itself, the duct system has other components such as vibration isolators, dampers, air
terminals, take-offs, and terminal units.
Vibration isolators reduce the vibration that blowers create. Vibration isolators are installed before and after the
air handlers and are made of a flexible rubber-like substance that reduces the vibration the air handlers transmit
through the duct system.
Dampers provide a means of adjusting the volume of airflow through the duct system. Dampers can be fitted in
the ducts and can be manual or automatic.
Take-offs are fittings that allow part of the flow from the main duct to be diverted to a duct branch. Take-offs
allow the air to be diverted to the various diffusers, grilles, and registers in the system.
Terminal units are in branch ducts. Normally, there is one terminal unit per thermal zone. VAV boxes are one
type of terminal unit. They may also have a heating or cooling coil.
Air Terminals
Air terminals are the supply and return outlets. Diffusers are the most common type. Grilles and registers are
also used. For the return, exhaust grilles are used, and some also incorporate an air filter, which is then called a
filter return.
Diffusers
Diffusers are very common in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems. Diffusers are used on both all-air
and air-water HVAC systems, as part of the room air distribution subsystems, and serve the following purposes:
●
Deliver of ventilation and air conditioning
●
Evenly distribute the flow of air in the desired directions
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●
Enhance mixing of room air into the air being discharged
●
Attach air jet(s) to a ceiling or other surface
●
Create low-velocity air movement in the occupied portion of room
●
Accomplish the preceding functions while producing the minimum amount of noise
Diffusers may be round, rectangular, or linear slot diffusers. Linear slot diffusers take the form of one or more
long, narrow slots (hence the name) that are often semi-concealed in the ceiling.
Occasionally, diffusers are used in a reverse fashion, as air returns. More commonly, grilles are used as return or
exhaust air inlets.
Registers
Registers are devices attached to an air-distributing duct for the purpose of discharging air into the space being
heated or cooled. A register is an opening that discharges air in a confined jet, whereas a diffuser is an outlet
that discharges air in a spreading jet. Both registers and diffusers can be placed at a number of locations in a
room, including in the floor, in the baseboard, low on the side wall, on the windowsill, high on the side wall, or in
the ceiling.
For heating, the preferred location is in the floor, at the baseboard, or at the low side wall of the outside wall,
preferably under a window. For cooling, the preferred location is high on the inside wall or the ceiling. For yearround air conditioning in homes, a compromise location is the floor, baseboard, or low side wall at the exposed
wall, especially if adequate air velocity in an upward direction is provided at the supply outlet. Registers are
generally interchangeable with vented grilles.
Thermostats
A thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a system so that the system's temperature is
maintained near a desired set point. Thermostats start and stop the system depending on the room temperature
set. The thermostat does this by controlling the flow of heat energy into or out of the system. That is, the
thermostat switches heating or cooling devices on or off as needed to maintain the correct temperature.
Thermostats contain a sensor that operates based on its expansion or contraction. As the temperature rises, the
sensor expands, which causes the cooling system to engage. As the temperature drops, the sensor contracts
and causes the system to shut down. Duct thermostats have sensors that extend into the wall of the duct. An
instrument head is connected that is accessible for adjustment or inspection. These sensors can be helpful for
cooling specific areas or rooms.
Common sensors include:
●
Bi-metal mechanical sensors
●
Expanding wax pellets
●
Electronic thermistors
●
Electrical thermocouples
The thermostat can control the heating or cooling apparatus using direct mechanical control, electrical signals, or
pneumatic signals.
HVAC System Types
There are many different types of HVAC systems. The following are commonly found in commercial buildings. As
these systems can be quite complex, it is always recommended to consult with an HVAC engineer to ensure that
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an adequate HVAC system is designed or already in place for the intended Immersive Cisco TelePresence
room.
Central Air Handler System with Forced Air
Air distribution systems based on the forced-air principle of delivery use a system of ducts to deliver the heated
or cooled air to the various rooms and spaces in the structure.
A forced-air or warm-air heating system uses air as its heat-transfer medium. These systems use ductwork and
vents as a means of air distribution. The return plenum carries the air from several large return vents to a central
air handler for reheating. The supply plenum directs heated air from the central unit to the rooms that the system
is designed to heat. Regardless of type, all air handlers consist of an air filter; blower; heat exchanger, element,
or coil; and controls. As in any other kind of central heating system, thermostats are used to control forced-air
heating systems.
Forced-air heating is the type most commonly installed in North America. It is less common in Europe,
particularly in the United Kingdom, where it is typically referred to a warm-air heating.
Independent Room Air Conditioning System
Air conditioning packs consist of an internal device and an external unit for the individual air conditioning of a
single room. The different versions of internal devices offer many options for air conditioning. These internal
devices are available in wall-mounted versions as well as cassette units for integration into ceilings.
Split Air Conditioning Systems
Ductless or split-system air conditioners, often called mini-split air conditioners, are frequently used in
commercial applications in situations where extending or installing additional ductwork is not practical. These
systems are composed of two units, with one part installed directly in the room to be cooled (either in the ceiling
or the wall), and the other part located outside or away from the room. These systems generally operate quietly
since the noisy part of the system is installed away from the room.
Cassette Room Air Conditioning Systems
Cassette air conditioning devices are designed for installation in larger rooms. Except for the air outlets, the
entire technology hides discretely behind the suspended ceiling. A three-stage fan with an automatic operating
mode selection regulates the temperature in the room. The cooling air can be distributed through four adjustable
outlet apertures, even in larger rooms. Changes in the settings can made using a remote control. Cassette-type
systems are very effective but may produce more noise than desirable. Their advantage is that these systems
are independently controlled and self-contained in one unit.
Independent Room Heat Systems
Space heaters are essentially spot heaters that heat a single room. A wide variety of space heaters exist, using
different kinds of fuel. Some have supplemental fans to help distribute heat. The characteristics of the space to
be heated determine if one is appropriate.
Unless operated exclusively by electricity, space heaters should always be vented to the outside. The
combustion process creates harmful by-products (including carbon monoxide) in addition to large amounts of
water vapor, and it is important that these pollutants be removed from the room.
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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Cisco TelepResence Room Design Guide
Printed in USA
© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
C07-643449-02
04/12
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