The boardroom is where decisions are made, deals are closed, and impressions are formed. When the video call drops, when remote participants can’t hear the room, when the presenter spends five minutes trying to get their laptop on screen — it doesn’t just waste time; it undermines confidence in your organization’s professionalism. Executive conference room AV needs to work perfectly, every time, for every user, without technical support.
The Penn Group designs and installs conference room AV systems for corporate clients across seven states. Here’s what a modern, professional conference room actually needs.
Video Conferencing: The Non-Negotiable
Video conferencing has moved from “nice to have” to “essential infrastructure.” Every conference room needs the ability to connect to Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or Webex with one touch. That means a dedicated video conferencing codec or PC, a commercial-grade camera with wide-angle optics and auto-framing, and a display (or dual displays) large enough for the room’s viewing distance.
Camera selection depends on room size and shape. Huddle rooms and small conference rooms work well with a single wide-angle camera. Larger boardrooms benefit from PTZ cameras with speaker-tracking capability that automatically frames whoever is talking. The newest AI-powered cameras can simultaneously show a wide room view and close-ups of active speakers in a gallery format — giving remote participants a much more natural meeting experience.
Audio: The Most Critical (and Most Often Botched) Element
Poor audio kills remote meetings. If remote participants can’t hear the room clearly — or if they sound tinny and distant to people in the room — the meeting is effectively broken. Conference room audio requires ceiling microphone arrays that pick up voices from every seat in the room, DSP processing that eliminates echo, noise, and feedback, and speakers that make remote voices sound natural and present.
Ceiling microphone arrays have largely replaced table-mounted speakerphones and boundary microphones in professional installations. They’re invisible, they don’t take up table space, they can’t be accidentally muted or moved out of range, and modern beamforming technology means they pick up the person speaking while rejecting HVAC noise, paper shuffling, and side conversations.
Wireless Presentation
The days of crawling under the table to find an HDMI cable should be over. Wireless presentation systems let any meeting participant share their screen — laptop, tablet, or phone — to the room display without cables, dongles, or apps. The best systems support multiple simultaneous presenters (showing two or four screens at once) and integrate with the video conferencing platform so shared content is visible to both in-room and remote participants.
Control: One Touch to Start
The control system is what separates a professional conference room from a pile of equipment. A well-designed control system gives users a single touch panel with clearly labeled buttons: “Start Meeting,” “Share Screen,” “End Meeting.” It automatically powers on the display, sets the correct input, raises the microphones, and joins the scheduled video call. It works every time. No one needs to call IT.
We design control systems on Crestron and Extron platforms with custom programming tailored to your workflows. The interface shows only what users need — no engineering menus, no confusing source lists, no settings that can be accidentally changed.
Investment Ranges
A huddle room (4-6 people) AV package with display, camera, audio, and wireless sharing runs $8,000 to $20,000. A mid-size conference room (10-16 people) with dual displays, ceiling mics, PTZ camera, and control runs $25,000 to $60,000. An executive boardroom with premium finishes, custom control, and full video production capability ranges from $50,000 to $150,000.
Contact The Penn Group to standardize your conference room technology.
