Hybrid Furniture Tweak Required
Above I link to the widely shared photo of an event last Thursday evening. Physically hosted in London. A ceremony of which, the less said about, the better.
As the most reported hybrid meeting appearance across the world's media for a fair old while, it is noteworthy for a number of reasons.
This isn't an atypical depiction. In the sense that many an in-person get-together can have an individual dialling in for a slot during it.
Let's leave aside the venue of the remote attendee. All very multi-million mansion rustically 'real'. All frontal straight lines. Not even bothering to raise their own camera height.
Overall the main room set-up is pretty much replicated in meeting rooms around most offices.
The issue with this, no matter how standard this configuration may be, is that it is sub-optimal.
Here, we see eight people in the physical space. The follow-on snap [below] shows even more. There's no way the lone video presence can see all those faces. Despite natural camera projection perspective.
Maybe they needn't.
Yet you can also see how participants need to alter their posture to get a decent view.
I'd suggest this is a common failing.
I've been in offices with hexagonal and octagonal meeting tables. Even split in two for moving about. In one of the first places I ever conducted 'telepresence' meetings - still a benchmark fifteen years on - imagine a kind of trapezium table around a trio of big screens aligned with the outer two angled slightly inwards. Six attendees spread across the globe could have an incredibly productive session.
Yes, such deployments come at a higher cost than normal.
In balance, few meetings in reality will have the numbers in one place as in this case (at least fifteen seated).
Yet here, you can see there's what appear to be four normal rectangular tables pushed together. Move them all back from the screen a touch. Slightly nudge out the ends nearest the screen. You can see from the picture-in-picture there's scope within the webcam range.
If nothing else, it'd make for a different set-up. And different in this context is absolutely 'good'. It shows you've thought it through. It shows you think of best outcomes for all. It shows you care.
Do you?
