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The difference between a traditional and hybrid meeting room
The old meeting room is gone for good. Companies need to employ technology that permits all of their workers to collaborate, whether they are at home, in the office or on the road.
All facets of the workplace -- at home and at the office -- have had to adapt as hybrid work continues to gain traction. In terms of meetings, the function of a meeting room hasn't really changed from prehybrid times -- workers need a space where they can collaborate -- but the tools have certainly evolved. The hybrid meeting room experience has become more technology driven. Let's look at three key ways the traditional meeting room differs from the hybrid meeting room.
1. Support workers wherever they are
The defining characteristic of hybrid work is the ability to work equally well in or out of the office. For deep focus work, location should not be a factor, but when working in teams, meetings are where the group gets things done.
A hybrid meeting room needs to have AV and endpoints that enable remote participants to be fully engaged with those physically in the room. Cameras, screens, lighting and microphones all must support this going both ways. Not only do remote participants need to see all that is going on in the room, but all of them need to be seen by those in the room.
To that end, AV and IT leaders should consider hardware from best-of-breed vendors as well as hardware offerings from unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) providers. Some make their own hardware; others use third-party partners. In either case, the most important consideration is measuring how well all the hardware integrates with the UCaaS software. Without seamless integration, it will be difficult to effectively support workers wherever they are.
2. High-quality AV experience
This is where the technology really comes into play and where vendors have upped their game. AI is driving a lot of innovation, both for audio and video. First, today's digital workers are social media-savvy, and they use these tools extensively to build their personal brands. By extension, they will expect the same with meetings, regardless of whether working from home or being in the meeting room.
Second, enhanced AV simply makes for better meeting experiences, especially for those not in the room. Most important, however, is the need to feed AI models. Capturing as much data as possible for AI has become a strategic business imperative. Meeting rooms generate multiple data streams that have not been effectively harnessed before. In this context, the better the AV, the better the audio and video inputs for AI. Leading edge examples would be spatial audio for richer conversations and cinematic forms of video to capture our facial expressions, body language and other physical indicators.
3. More connected collaboration experience
This is another technology-driven vector designed primarily to support AI. Since all inputs for collaboration are now digital -- including voice, text and video -- they can readily be shared, which is essential for hybrid meeting rooms. The more connected remote participants believe they are, the better the overall team performance. The meeting room needs to support this.
Again, this means that the endpoints and devices in the room must support the tools needed for collaboration and provide the same capabilities for remote participants as well. Aside from providing sufficient bandwidth, a connected experience requires capabilities beyond multichannel communication. Examples include interactive whiteboarding, where all participants can engage in real time, or using mixed reality headsets for immersive forms of 2D and 3D collaboration.
AI is also playing a growing role in making meeting room experiences more connected. Consider workflow automation, where AI executes tasks that might originate while in the room and during the meeting, but continue outside the room -- either inside the organization, or externally to customers, suppliers and partners.
These processes no longer need to wait for everyone to leave the meeting room. This lets IT leaders think more holistically about how hybrid meeting rooms provide business value. Technology investments here need to be just as much about connecting meeting outcomes to the rest of the organization as they are about connecting all team members during the meeting.
Editor's note: This article was updated in 2025 to improve the reader experience.
Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst providing thought leadership and go-to-market counsel with a focus on the business-level effect of communications technology on digital transformation.
