Cisco Workspace Designer

When thinking about optimizing a workspace, you're mostly thinking: How can users be their most productive selves in this room, and what tools can I provide to help them collaborate, brainstorm, share ideas, and produce results? Designing workspaces is challenging; no two spaces are the same. Each one comes with its own difficulties and requires a certain level of creativity to bring everything together. With that in mind, Cisco created the Workspace Designer, a tool designed to take the guesswork out of designing workspaces.

Let’s go over this tool and explore its benefits.

1. Access

To Access this tool you need to go to the following url:

https://www.webex.com/us/en/workspaces/workspace-designer.html#

2. Choose the room that closely resembles your Workspace

Cisco already have 7 template room you can start working with. Choose the room that most closely resembles the room you’re designing. If the room you’re working with doesn’t resemble any of these options, you can reach out to a Cisco Specialist for help.

The rooms that are available are based on the number of users that can be supported per room:

1. Huddle Room (1-6): this could be a user’s office or a small room that 1 to 6 people would have a video call in.
2. Small Room (4-6)
3. Medium Room (6-10)
4. Large Room (11-24)
5. Executive Boardroom (11-24) : this is a larger room then the large room with more complex table shapes and seating arrangements.
6. Training Room (10-50): Similar to a classroom.
7. Auditorium (20-150)

For the purpose of this blog we will proceed with the medium room.

3. Customize the Room
   Once you have selected the room size you want to work with, you can start making it your own.
   
   

1. Give it a name : Make it a familiar name so you would easily identify it in case you were working on multiple spaces. Click on the Pen next to medium room to rename it.
2. Select the units you’re going to work with: meters or feet.
3. The first tab we land on is Room Size , fill the Width, Length and height of the room.
   1. 1.    For my custom room I will go with the following measurements:
   2.    14’2” for width, 20’ for Length and 8’10” for Height.
4. Click Next.

4. Table Layout

In this section we focus on the second most feature of a conference room, the table.

We want the following information:

1. Table Shape: Rectangular, Tapered or Round.
2. Number of Seats
3. Table Width (additional width at the front if you selected tapered)
4. Distance Table to wall
5. Distance between seats
   
   Click Next once you enter this information.

5. Experience: Cisco RoomOs vs Microsoft Teams MTR

Let Cisco now which experience will you be having in this room, Cisco Room or a Microsoft Teams Room. This is will affect the conference experience as they both have a different feature set.

For the sake of this blog we’re choosing cisco Room Experience.

6. Hardware

In this fun section we select the hardware, which is the codec model and the color of the codec and navigator. Once we do that, we’re able to toggle between multiple viewing options:

1. When the unit is turned off
2. Idle Home Screen
3. In Call
4. Just Sharing
5. In Call with Remote Sharing

I’m going to select the Room Kit Bro and the Grey coloring for both Codec and Navigator.

Where it says In-room view in the middle of the screen, you can toggle display options.

7. Displays and Camera Location
   On this page, we select number of screens, screen size mounting height, and choosing if I want the camera/codec be under or over the display.
   
   Whatever my selections are, I will have the chance to see how the camera view is on this page.
   
   I’m going to select single screen, 80 inch display and I’m going to keep the auto height of 3’11’’ as I like the the camera view being at eye level, which also means I will select the codec/camera to be under the display.
   
   Check below snapshots to see the camera view difference if the Codec was placed over vs under the display:
   
   This is the camera below the display snapshot:

Versus camera above the display snapshot:

You can also move the camera around (PTZ) to adjust the best viewing angle. The controls are on the bottom right corner of the image.

8. Microphones

This helpful section will let you know if the microwave placement is capturing audio from all users in the room. You will get an audio map to see the coverage of the microphones.

You can also click on the green link “ Which microphone setup is right for my room?” and you will find plenty of information to help you setup the best microphone options for your space.

Does your space have acoustic treatments that will absorb sound reflections from hard surfaces? That will enhance the efficiency of the microphones deployed.

My choice will be having 2 Table Microphone Pros deployed at both end of the tables.

You have the options of selecting the number of microphones and their colors.

9. Screen Sharing

Here you can select which options you want to use for screen sharing , you have 3 options for the Room Desk Pro:

1. Wireless Sharing: Apple Airplay, Miracast and/or Webex Share
2. Multi-head cable 4K: supports USBC, Display Port Mini and HDMI Connectors. Up to 9m/30’ long.
3. Traditional HDMI Cable, up to 9m / 30’ long.

10. Summary & Wrapping Up

Once you complete all the input, you’ll be presented with a summary of your choices and also options to elevate the conference room , some of those options can be:

1. Room Scheduling Display: a Room Navigator installed on the Wall outside the room that displays booking information for the room.
2. Presenter Tracking Cameras
3. Extended Speaker View
4. Cross View

Once done with the elevations, you can print the blueprint and keep a copy for yourself or send it to a customer for their records.

Information in the blueprint include:

1. Room Name
2. Date of creation of the blueprint.
3. Room Dimensions
4. Table Dimensions: Shape, Number of Seats, Length & Width and distance from table to wall.
   
5. Mounting Height
   
6. A list of technical equipment and their starting price.
7. An evaluation of the room that includes:
   1.    Camera Coverage
      
   2.    Microphone Coverage
      
8. Display coverage
   
   
   1.   Table Choice
   2.   Cables and Connectors: shows you how you would have cable directed in the room.
      
   3.    Loudspeaker Coverage

You can also view all of these options from the interactive room in the workspace designer where you can zoom in on which views you want, or specific cables to direct.

As always if you have any questions and would like to schedule a free video room consultation with us, please reach out to us at sales@lookingpoint.com and we’ll be happy to help!