Large conference rooms—those designed to accommodate twenty or more participants—are essential spaces for organizational collaboration, strategy, and decision-making. Yet these environments often present some of the most complex audio challenges in the modern workplace. Without proper design considerations and technology planning, even the most impressive meeting space can become an acoustical struggle with echo and uneven volume, resulting in participant fatigue and less fruitful collaboration.

Creating exceptional sound in these rooms requires a thoughtful combination of strategic microphone placement, even sound distribution, intelligent processing, and scalable solutions.

Strategic microphone placement

In large spaces, microphone placement is critical to capturing every voice clearly and evenly. Ceiling-mounted microphones are popular for maintaining a clean aesthetic, but placement and coverage patterns must be calculated carefully to ensure uniform pickup. Parlé Beamtracking microphones, for example, automatically follow voices as participants speak and move, eliminating the need for multiple handheld or tabletop microphones. This ensures that whether someone is at the far end of the table or standing to present, their voice remains intelligible and balanced.

Even sound distribution

Capturing sound is only half the equation—distributing it evenly throughout the space is equally important. Without proper loudspeaker placement and tuning, some participants may experience overpowering audio while others strain to hear. Using distributed loudspeaker systems, such as Desono or Community models, helps maintain consistent coverage and natural sound levels across large or acoustically complex rooms. When paired with amplifiers like Voltera, audio levels can be finely tuned and zones adjusted to suit the room’s layout and occupancy.

Intelligent processing

Every conference room is unique—materials, dimensions, and furnishings all affect acoustics. That’s where intelligent signal processing makes the difference. Digital signal processors (DSPs) such as TesiraFORTÉ X apply automatic gain control, adaptive noise reduction, and acoustic echo cancellation to deliver pristine audio quality for every participant. Combined with Biamp Launch, the system can automatically analyze the acoustic environment and optimize performance in minutes, ensuring consistent sound across deployments with minimal manual configuration.

Scalable solutions

As organizations grow, their conferencing needs evolve. Scalable audio solutions allow IT teams to expand system capacity or integrate new technologies without replacing existing infrastructure. Networked DSP architectures like Tesira support flexible AVB/TSN connectivity, making it easy to add microphones, amplifiers, or cameras as spaces expand. This future-ready approach protects investment and ensures long-term performance across an entire building or campus.

Design with confidence using Conference Room Designer

A key advantage for integrators and IT planners is the ability to design rooms quickly and accurately using the Biamp Conference Room Designer tool. This browser-based, guided design environment makes it simple to configure large conference rooms, select the right products, and visualize how microphones and loudspeakers will behave in the space. Users can enter room dimensions, seating layouts, and table arrangements, and Conference Room Designer instantly recommends the ideal combination of microphones, DSP, amplification, and loudspeakers—complete with coverage maps and system diagrams.

The tool streamlines the entire planning process, eliminates guesswork, and ensures that large, complex rooms are designed correctly the first time. It’s especially valuable for organizations standardizing on templates or deploying across multiple facilities, since designs can be replicated, exported, and shared with deployment teams effortlessly.

Bringing it all together

When large conference rooms are equipped with the right combination of microphones, loudspeakers, processing, and control, participants experience natural, immersive communication—no matter their position in the room. The result is not only better sound, but also better collaboration, because participants can focus on the discussion rather than the technology.

By combining precision engineering with intelligent automation, Biamp solutions make it simple to transform large, complex meeting spaces into seamless communication environments. Whether designing for twenty people or two hundred, the key is the same: every voice deserves to be heard clearly, and every seat should feel like the best seat in the room.

Read more about meeting and conference room solutions from Biamp.