Specifications

20
VidyoPanorama Design Guide
Room Design Recommendations (continued)
Lighting
Your VidyoPanorama room should have evenly
dispersed, ambient lighting. If possible, you may
want to hire a lighting designer and have the
lighting professionally installed. The rst place
a professional may start is by throwing out
standard uorescent bulbs. The direct uorescent
common in ofces causes harsh shadows on
the faces of the participants and its brightness
can vary considerably in different parts of the
room. If you are on a limited budget or stuck
with uorescent xtures, get full spectrum bulbs
designed for video. The ideal color temperature
should be between 3,000 and 3,500 degrees
Kelvin, and about 70 foot candles of intensity at
the subject.
For the best lighting, follow these lighting
guidelines as closely as possible:
• At least 80 percent of the lighting should be
indirect
• The remaining 20 percent should be evenly
distributed direct lighting
• Use LED lights. The upfront cost is higher, the
long-term cost is lower.
• Make sure no lights are pointing in the camera
lens.
• Avoid pointing any lights directly at the
displays. If there are lights that point at the
displays, make sure that you can shut them off
or dim them.
• Don’t use recessed can light xtures, which
cause uneven pools of light and heavy
shadows on the participants’ faces.
Here are the four lighting options for an
optimized broadcasting environment:
Key Light: Light shining on the subject from the
front. These lights are generally placed high and
at the center, or to each side of the seating area
if two are required. Aim them downward at a
45-degree angle to light the face without the
eyebrow casting a shadow over the eye-sockets.
Fill Light: Lights shining on the subject from
the front, but placed at a low angle to soften
shadows under the eyes and chin.
Hair Light: Lights at the rear of the room,
above the subjects and aimed downward to help
separate the subjects from the background.
Backdrop lighting: Lights above and (if
space allows) between the subject(s) and the
background. Two lights are usually required,
each aimed toward the opposite half of the
background to evenly light it.
Lighting for video can involve all four lighting
positions, the Key Light being the most important.
For most multi-purpose conference rooms, a
strong color-balanced Key Light supported by
additional full spectrum lighting in the room will
work well enough. Just remember: you don’t
want regular meeting participants feeling like
they’re in a television studio.