Much has been written about the rise of the huddle room AV Furniture and its value when it comes to encouraging collaboration, communication, and decision making, and there’s no doubt that these spaces are incredibly useful for helping to bring teams together.
In this post, you’ll learn what you should be looking for from your AV Furniture including:
- Connectivity | opting for a desk that offers full AV and IT integration
- Clean design | look for a desk that offers a neat cable management
- Space for a screen | include the option to mount a screen at the end of a desk
- Sit or Stand | the option to conduct meetings standing up can add to the speed and efficiency that huddles are known to deliver
- Stay on Brand | portray a consistent brand image across a company
- Booths & Pods | specially designed pods can offer both comfort and peace
While much of the focus has been on the technology that is needed within a huddle room to ensure it meets users’ needs, very little has been discussed about the requirement for the right furniture within the room to make it a comfortable yet productive space.
This may be because it’s easy to think that a desk is a desk and a chair is a chair. Go into any space in any office environment and you’re likely to see standard wood or metal desks, usually rectangular but maybe circular or oval in meeting spaces, and standard adjustable office chairs.
And, while these may be suitable for basic office tasks, they don’t offer much in the way of flexibility or connectivity, which is also why there’s often a tangle of cables under these desks as everyone has to plug into shared sockets.
The good news, however, is that AV furniture solutions have moved on from this and a whole suite of products are now available that are specifically designed for use within a huddle room.
Source: WSJ
In a small space it’s important to avoid unnecessary mess and clutter so look for AV Furniture desk that offers a neat cable management solution that links all worktops with options for connectivity.
AV Furniture designed for huddle rooms often include the option to mount a screen at the end of a desk. This can be a great way to encourage immediate collaboration while offering a comfortable setup for those taking part in video calls – there’ll be no more moving around the room to make sure everyone is in the picture as the screen and camera can be mounted in the correct position to ensure this is automatically the case.
If your huddle space is being incorporated into a more open area, specially designed pods can offer both comfort and peace. High-back booths created out of foam panels (WorksZone Pods) can be placed pretty much anywhere in an office to create an immediate huddle space. Additions such as power modules and display mounts and brackets again ensure collaboration is quick and easy while integrated sofas mean comfort is also factored in.
Booths and pods also highlight the fact that huddle spaces don’t even have to be actual rooms, and that’s another major benefit of these versatile spaces – they can be designed to meet specific business needs no matter the space or budget you have available. In fact, creating a huddle space can be as easy as investing in a room divider. With multi-configurable solutions now available that come with screen mounting kits or wipeable writing surfaces while supporting power modules, HDMI, display ports and control panels, these mobile solutions can be manoeuvered between spaces to create mobile meeting spaces wherever they’re needed. Look out for those incorporating sound absorbing fabrics for ultimate usability.
In these more open collaborative areas, av furniture can actually be used to define the space, rather than walls, meaning breakout spaces, corridors and other under-utilised areas can be transformed into productive workspaces. Here, a small table and seating are all that’s needed to create the perfect budget-friendly BYOD collaborative space.
If your huddle space is being incorporated into a more open area, specially designed pods can offer both comfort and peace. High-back booths created out of foam panels can be placed pretty much anywhere in an office to create an immediate huddle space. Additions such as power modules and display mounts and brackets again ensure collaboration is quick and easy while integrated sofas mean comfort is also factored in.
Booths and pods also highlight the fact that huddle spaces don’t even have to be actual rooms, and that’s another major benefit of these versatile spaces – they can be designed to meet specific business needs no matter the space or budget you have available. In fact, creating a huddle space can be as easy as investing in a room divider. With multi-configurable solutions now available that come with screen mounting kits or wipeable writing surfaces while supporting power modules, HDMI, display ports and control panels, these mobile solutions can be manoeuvered between spaces to create mobile meeting spaces wherever they’re needed. Look out for those incorporating sound absorbing fabrics for ultimate usability.
In these more open collaborative areas, furniture can actually be used to define the space, rather than walls, meaning breakout spaces, corridors and other under-utilised areas can be transformed into productive workspaces. Here, a small table and seating are all that’s needed to create the perfect budget-friendly BYOD collaborative space.
So, with AV furniture available to meet all styles and budgets, what are some of the key features to look out for?
For added flexibility, consider height adjustable furniture solutions in your huddle space. The WorksZone desk from TeamMate, for example, is available as fully height adjustable where the entire table rises or lowers depending on the needs of the users or just a single area of the desk can be adjusted. This can either accommodate a user with specific height requirements, making it Equality Act compliant, or can be used as a presentation point to a small group.
While height adjustable desks can be an asset in any workspace, for those areas where space is tight or where furniture is shared between spaces, mobile folding desks can be your budget’s best friend. One example of this is the Synergy Folding Table from TopTec. Designed for flexibility it can be manoeuvered between spaces without the need to disconnect any worktop peripherals, thus minimising any disruption and reducing setup time. Based on castors, once in position two location pins can be moved to lock the table’s folding capability safely in place.
To be truly effective, AV furniture must enhance a huddle space, providing everything a user needs to simply sit down and start working, this means access to charging and connectivity points for users and quick access for tech teams should they need to troubleshoot. This is at the core of Unicol’s Rhobus range of collaborative tables, which comes with ample capacity and connectivity for cabling, codec and integration with other systems, all accessible through a cable well and locking door, as well as a built-in 4-way socket to ensure devices can be kept charged throughout a meeting or presentation.
Source: WSJ
To enhance the use cases of your huddle room, a central display is essential. As well as making videoconferencing easier, it also provides a space for documents to be shared and presentations to be shown. With this in mind a desk that comes with the option to integrate a display can be a good choice. Take the Hive family of desks from Loxit, for example, which comes ready with a mount suitable for screens up to 50in/30kg, helping users to deliver anything from impromptu internal meetings to full-blown presentations complete with AV integration and control.
Finally, consider how the furniture will fit in the overall environment. In huddle rooms that will regularly be used to communicate with external stakeholders such as clients and prospective clients, it can be worth looking at customisation options to ensure the image being portrayed matches your overall corporate profile. To achieve this look for furniture solutions that allow customisation, such as the Huddle Delta from JM Supplies. Although designed with affordability in mind, it comes in a range of sizes, colours, finishes and shapes and so can be matched with corporate colours. Other solutions also offer the option of including company logos to further enhance brand recognition.
Whatever your office layout and whatever your needs, huddle rooms are key to helping teams work together to become more productive. AV Furniture has a central role to play here, combining form and functionality to make the huddle room a desirable place that adds true value to a workplace.
However, with so much choice available, taking the first steps towards choosing your huddle room furniture can be daunting, which is why Hudd.io is on hand to simplify the process (Check our out Huddle Room Explainer: What is a huddle room for more information).
With solutions from leading manufacturers including JM Supplies, Loxit, Quadra, TeamMate, TopTec and Unicol, we can guide you towards the size, shape and style of AV furniture that will work best within your space. From simple space-saving pods to make the most of your breakout spaces, to desk and chair setups tailored to the size of your room and the number of participants, it’s never been easier to create the effective huddle spaces whatever your budget.
Source: Frost and Sullivan
Designing your own huddle space doesn’t have to be costly or time consuming. Take a look at our simple online AV furniture configurator to see how you can specify your own huddle room in minutes, or contact Natalie Barnett to find out more.