THE RIGHT LIGHT FOR MEETING ROOMS

The job of lighting is to create an atmosphere for effective communication. Facial modelling is obviously important. This is achieved through good vertical and cylindrical illuminance. Good horizontal illuminance on tabletops is also important to enable comfortable reading and writing. If projectors, monitors or whiteboards are being used for presentations, lighting should avoid creating glare or shadows. Controls are important in meeting rooms for a number of reasons. First, these rooms are used in a variety of ways: a presentation using a projector may require lights to be dimmed, or for only the speaker to be illuminated. By contrast, a face-to-face meeting will require the entire room to be lit. Secondly, meeting rooms are likely to benefit from daylight, so energy can be saved by dimming or turning lights off when there is sufficient natural light. Thirdly, meeting rooms tend to be used for short periods, and will sometimes be empty, so presence/absence controls can reduce electricity costs. By making clients aware of the varied requirements of meeting rooms, and of what is possible with today’s technology, contractors and designers can help create a solution that gives their client much greater value.