Your conference room is the prime space for colleagues to come together, collaborate, and present new ideas. However, garish lighting design can distract from the tasks at hand and create an unwelcoming and uncomfortable work environment. Optimal lighting design requires audiovisual integrators to carefully balance different forms of lighting to encourage employee productivity.
Additionally, lighting options must enhance the functionality of a conference room with multiple purposes. Effective lighting within a meeting room demands versatility for uses such as video conferencing, presentations, and notetaking.
Ultimately, the best lighting options for meeting and conference rooms must enable employees to perform all required tasks while maintaining harmony and balance throughout the meeting space.
The Importance of Lighting in an Office Environment
Proper lighting is integral to nurturing a productive culture in the workplace. While it is often one of the last aspects of the office under consideration, it should actually be one of the first. The lighting chosen for your office can fundamentally increase employee happiness and productivity or diminish them.
80% of employees have stated that the lighting in their workplace is crucial to them, while two in five employees are regularly subject to poor lighting in the office. Lighting has a profound effect on employee creativity, physical health, and efficiency. If you choose lighting that is too dim, it can cause immense strain on your employees’ eyes and induce drowsiness. In contrast, overly bright lighting wreaks havoc on their sleep cycles and leads to productivity-undermining headaches.
Choosing Lighting for Your Conference Room
Lighting for company meeting spaces differs from other office areas because it is a space for presentations and collaborations. As such, the lights must be just as multifunctional as the space itself.
Use Different Lighting for Different Tasks
One way to build an optimal lighting array is to combine multiple lighting options. In a conference room setting, employees are primarily taking notes or communicating with one another. Begin with overhead lighting that provides sufficient illumination without generating overly-stark contrast to keep employees concentrated on the task at hand without producing a sterile, uncreative environment.
Colleagues will also use this space to interact using technology, whether hosting a video conference call or giving a presentation with an interactive whiteboard. Targeted lighting in areas where employees use technological devices should cast a softer glow to prevent glare.
Use Versatile Lighting
Another way to specialize your conference room for various functions is by employing versatile lighting. Since it will be necessary to adjust the lighting according to your usage, make sure that your team of audiovisual professionals makes use of dimmable control features. This functionality is arguably one of the most critical elements of conference room lighting.
With dimmable lighting controls, you can easily adjust the light as needed to create optimal illumination for any need. For example, discussions and meetings may require brighter lighting than that of a presentation requiring technological devices. Dimmable, versatile lighting options allow your employees to use their discretion concerning lighting options.
Select the Right Color Temperature
Color temperature is an often undervalued consideration when designing the lighting for a conference room. Lighting professionals measure color temperature using Kelvins(K). For increased creativity, warm lighting is the prime option, ranging between 2000K and 3500K. Or, for improved concentration, cool lighting is a better choice, ranging from 4000K to 6000K.
Dynamic, fast-paced environments typically require cool lighting. But as conference and meeting rooms need a balance of concentration and creativity, their color temperature should remain neutral, from 4000K to 4300K. Cold lighting is not suggested for the conference room because it can cast a severe appearance that risks interfering with the effectiveness of face-to-face communication.
Choose LED Lighting Over Fluorescent Lighting
In modern times, LED lights have proven to be the preference for office space lighting compared to fluorescent lights. Although they are initially more expensive than fluorescent lights, LED lights provide companies the advantage of saving money over time. LED lights use 75% less energy than traditional lighting. LED lights also last 25% longer than fluorescent lights, so they do not require replacement as often as fluorescent lighting.
LED lighting also wins over fluorescents regarding employee health. Outdated fluorescent lights have a history of causing migraine symptoms in people who are sensitive to light. For employees who chose to stay late in the office, fluorescent lights can also interfere with their sleep cycle by inhibiting melatonin production. As a fit and reliable workforce is paramount to any company, LED lights can, in this way, provide a critical advantage.
Types of Lighting Design
In an ideal scenario, different forms of direct and indirect lighting work together throughout the meeting room. While each light within the room serves an individual purpose according to the conference room’s layout, these three types of lighting are typically in use.
Direct Lighting
Direct lighting indicates a light that emits from its source squarely onto a target area without reflection. Direct lighting’s principal strength and usage is a brightness level that can illuminate a large conference room. When using direct lighting, ensure that your audiovisual integration team is careful in the placement of the lighting fixtures to avoid creating a “tunnel vision” effect within the space.
Indirect Lighting
In contrast to direct lighting, indirect lighting reflects onto its target for a softer, more diffused effect. Indirect lighting is typically used to soften the harsh appearance of direct lighting and create a warmer, more welcoming ambiance for participants in the conference or meeting room.
Ambient Lighting
The primary goal of ambient lighting is to illuminate the entire conference room equally. It intends to be functional, not decorative. Ambient lighting typically disperses brightness throughout a wide-angle area for clear illumination without the severity and high contrast of direct lighting.
Task Light
A task light is generally small and meant for an individual to use during document reading. The most popular task lighting is installed within a conference room table or podium, with adjustable settings to control the brightness and point of focus.
Accent Light
When a lighting fixture draws attention to a specific point within the room, we refer to it as an accent light. Spotlights are the most prevalent form of accent lighting, and they add the final touch to conference room lighting. Accent lights are best for the portion of the meeting space where employees hold presentations.
Professionals Can Provide the Best Lighting Options for Meeting and Conference Rooms
Your conference room’s lighting design must enhance specific aspects of the space to encourage optimal focus and productivity. The experienced team of audiovisual integration professionals at Applied Global Technologies can accurately assess your meeting room needs based on the dimensions and layout of the room itself.
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