OFFICE AND CORPORATE ASSEMBLY HALL

Many companies or corporations include an assembly hall in their facilities. These spaces are used for events, meetings, conferences or professional gatherings. Likewise, these auditoriums are used as training rooms, for seminars or workshops or for presentations at corporate events.

Certainly, colleges or universities always have assembly halls. The same is true for some administrative offices. However, it is becoming more and more common for the offices of many companies to have function rooms at their headquarters.

At DESMON we have developed several projects for the fitting out or remodelling of assembly halls. This experience has made us recognise what type of equipment is necessary and what are the best conditions for the space.

With this article we want to give you the keys to have a functional and fully operational assembly hall. Take note of these ideas.

First of all, it is advisable to find a suitable place on the company premises to build the assembly hall. Our first piece of advice is to set up the space on the ground floor or, at the most, on the underground floor.

This way, the area will be much more accessible and it will not be necessary to use lifts to go up to the upper floors. The movement of people will be much smoother and energy costs will be much lower.

When planning the construction of the assembly hall, it is important to pay attention to the dimensions. The total surface area, the height of the hall, the length of the stalls, the width of the stage and the seating capacity should be determined.

With regard to the layout of the auditorium, the most common is to have a stage and a stalls area. How to equip these two areas correctly will be explained later on.

Once the size, height and layout have been specified, attention needs to be paid to the equipment that the area should have.

This can be divided into 3 important sections:

• Technology
• Furniture
• Lighting

We will elaborate on each of these issues.

Nowadays, assembly halls, paraninfos or chambers must have a complete infrastructure that makes it possible to see and hear everything that is going on. For this, it is obvious that it is necessary to have technological equipment that includes the following devices.

• Audiovisual system with cameras.
• Recording system that allows streaming of the event being held.
• Projection screens and video projector.
• Personal computer with different ports and inputs.
• Printers and scanners as auxiliary elements.
• USB connections to enable consultation and display of documents.
• Wireless microphones including handheld and/or lapel microphones.
• Wi-Fi connection for speakers and attendees.

It is clear that all these devices need power supply and access to sockets. For all this, the best option is to install a raised technical floor in certain areas of the hall, for example, the stage.

The reason is simple: all the wiring required for the technological equipment will be hidden in the gap between the original floor and the raised floor. The necessary cable can then be pulled out through a cable duct at the height of the table or lectern to make the connection.

Now, the result will be a floor free of cables, connections or even conduits that can be an obstacle for event attendees and speakers.

Furniture is a fundamental element in an assembly hall. Firstly, because it must be comfortable and, secondly, because it must be practical.

Sometimes event attendees and speakers may spend many hours inside the facility. This means that people will be sitting for a long time and probably taking notes or jottings.

Typically, a presidential table and chairs are placed on the stage. Of course, this furniture will need to be sized according to the number of speakers.

The table can be similar to a meeting table where users have space for documents, computers, tablets or notebooks. Regarding the chairs, at DESMON we always recommend ergonomic chairs. They are adaptable, adjustable, breathable and very comfortable for speakers.

With regard to the audience area, armchairs can be installed. It can also be interesting to equip these seats with elevating desks. In this way, the attendees will only have to slightly raise the sheet that serves as a desk, take a seat and then lower the desk again. They can then take notes or place their own computer on it.

Another aspect is to equip some fine seating for people with reduced mobility or even free up a row of bleachers for wheelchair access. For the same reason, it is better to use a ramp rather than stairs to go up to the stage.

Finally, at DESMON we always recommend the installation of movable partitions in function rooms. The reason is that by deploying these movable walls you can limit the space to the number of people attending. It is a very useful resource to delimit spaces without the need to build walls.

The last important issue in the fitting out of an assembly hall is the lighting. It must be taken into account that there are 2 very different areas in the hall and both need their corresponding luminaires.

The entire hall should have warm and pleasant ambient lighting. In addition, in the stage area it is advisable to have adjustable spotlights for possible readings that may occur. When projecting images or watching videos on the screens, there should always be light points to facilitate the speaker’s work. In the seating area, fluorescent lights can be used.

DESMON’s advice is to opt for lamps with LED technology. The reason for this is that they consume much less energy and have a very long service life.

Finally, it is much easier to install the lighting in a false ceiling. This makes it possible to hide all the wiring and fixtures of the lamps. Installation is much simpler and, if a fault occurs, it is enough to raise the ceiling tile to access the point that needs to be corrected.

So much for our advice on how to achieve a function room with all the guarantees. It only remains for us to recommend that you turn to professionals to achieve an optimal result.

At DESMON we have a multidisciplinary team that is responsible for the design, manufacture and assembly of all our pieces. We are experts in offering customised solutions always in accordance with the customer’s needs. In addition, we meet delivery deadlines and only work with top quality materials.

If you need more information about the fitting out of an assembly hall, contact us and get a customised quote.