Sizing from the people, not the table
Meeting rooms are routinely drawn by placing the largest table that fits and then counting chairs around it. The result is a nominally eight-person room in which the two end seats cannot be reached without everyone standing up, and which is therefore used as a six-person room forever. The correct sequence is to fix the headcount, allow the area per person, and let the table be whatever is left.
| Headcount | Room size | Table | Area per person | Display |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 (focus room) | 2.4 x 2.0 m | 900 x 700 mm | 2.4 sq m | 32–43 inch |
| 4 | 3.0 x 2.7 m | 1,500 x 900 mm | 2.0 sq m | 55 inch |
| 6 | 3.6 x 3.0 m | 1,800 x 1,000 mm | 1.8 sq m | 65 inch |
| 8 | 4.8 x 3.3 m | 2,400 x 1,100 mm | 2.0 sq m | 75 inch |
| 12 | 6.6 x 3.9 m | 3,600 x 1,200 mm | 2.1 sq m | 85 inch or dual 65 |
| 16–20 (boardroom) | 8.4 x 4.5 m | 5,400 x 1,400 mm | 2.2 sq m | 98 inch or LED wall |
Circulation of 900 mm behind each chair is included. Reduce it to 750 mm only along a wall nobody has to pass.
The screen-distance rule
Display size is not a budget decision, it is a geometry one. For detailed content — spreadsheets, drawings, code — the furthest viewer should be no more than four times the screen height away; for general presentation content, six times. A 65-inch display has a screen height of about 810 mm, which gives a maximum detailed-viewing distance of 3.2 m and a general-viewing distance of 4.9 m. In a 12-person room 6.6 m long, a 65-inch screen is too small and the people at the far end will not read it, whatever it cost.
The same rule determines mounting height. The bottom of the display should sit 1,050–1,200 mm above finished floor level so that it clears the heads of people seated in front and remains within a comfortable viewing cone from the far end. Screens mounted at 1,500 mm — which happens when the joinery below is designed first — force everyone in the room to look upward for an hour.
Designing for the camera
Since roughly 2021 the majority of meetings in Indian corporate offices include at least one remote participant, which makes the camera a primary design input rather than an accessory. Three things decide whether a room works on video: the camera's distance from the participants, the light on their faces, and what is behind them.
- Camera distance. To frame four people across a table at a natural scale, the camera needs 2.4–3.6 m of run. In a short room, a wide-angle camera distorts faces at the edges. Plan the long axis for the camera.
- Camera height, 1.2–1.4 m. That is roughly seated eye level. Mounted above a large display at 2 m, it looks down on everyone; on a laptop on the table, it looks up.
- Front light on faces, 300–500 lux vertical. Downlights directly overhead put eyes in shadow. Use a wall-wash or an angled fitting in front of the seated position, at 4000 K and CRI 90+.
- Control the background. A plain wall, a low-contrast graphic or acoustic panelling behind the participants. A glass wall onto a busy floor, or a window, makes everyone a silhouette.
- Microphone coverage. One ceiling array covers roughly 4.5 x 4.5 m. Beyond that, add a second or use table mics. Reverberant rooms defeat any microphone, which is why acoustics come first.
Acoustics and services inside the room
A meeting room is the one place in an office where acoustic failure is immediately visible to clients. Target a reverberation time of 0.4–0.6 seconds, which in a 3.6 x 3.0 m room means an absorptive ceiling plus roughly 6–9 sq m of wall absorption — typically one fully treated wall behind the display or behind the camera position. Glass on two or three sides, which is the fashion, makes this harder and pushes the treatment onto the ceiling and the remaining wall.
Services need equal attention. An eight-person room with the lights on and a display running generates 700–900 W of heat plus the occupants, and needs its own cooling provision and a supply air path that does not whistle. Grilles must be selected for NC 30 at the room's air volume; the standard grille in a base-build ceiling is usually not, and the resulting hiss is audible on every recording made in the room.
What a meeting room costs
| Element | 6-person room | 12-person room | Boardroom, 18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partitions, slab-to-slab, glazed front | ₹3,20,000 | ₹5,40,000 | ₹9,80,000 |
| Acoustic door with seals | ₹42,000 | ₹55,000 | ₹1,20,000 |
| Ceiling, lighting, HVAC branch | ₹1,60,000 | ₹3,10,000 | ₹6,40,000 |
| Table and chairs | ₹1,40,000 | ₹3,20,000 | ₹9,50,000 |
| AV: display, camera, mics, control | ₹2,40,000 | ₹5,60,000 | ₹14,00,000 |
| Acoustic wall treatment | ₹68,000 | ₹1,30,000 | ₹2,80,000 |
| Total, ex-GST | ₹9,70,000 | ₹19,15,000 | ₹43,70,000 |
Add 18% GST. AV is the line that varies most; a room without video conferencing saves 50–70% of that figure.
If you can size only one thing correctly, size the room from the camera. Everything else can be corrected later.
Greenbox commercial fit-out lead
A note on scheduling and how it changes what you should build. Most organisations have booking data going back years, and almost none of them look at it before commissioning a fit-out. The two numbers that matter are the distribution of meeting sizes and the peak concurrent demand. In the offices we have measured, the median booked meeting has three to four attendees while the median room seats eight, which means large rooms are chronically occupied by small groups and small groups have nowhere else to go.
Correcting that distribution is the cheapest capacity gain available on a floor. Converting one twelve-person room into two four-person rooms typically costs ₹6–₹9 lakh and adds far more usable meeting capacity than the same money spent anywhere else. Ask the facilities team for a year of calendar data, plot the attendee counts, and size the room schedule against the actual distribution rather than against an org-chart assumption about how meetings ought to be composed.
Meeting rooms planned for the camera as well as the table
Selected work by Greenbox Design Studio. Tap any image to enlarge.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a 6-person meeting room be?+
3.6 x 3.0 m with an 1,800 x 1,000 mm table, which gives 1.8 sq m per person and 900 mm of circulation behind each chair. Anything smaller nominally seats six and is used by four, because the end seats cannot be reached once the room is occupied.
How high should a meeting room display be mounted?+
Bottom edge at 1,050–1,200 mm above finished floor. That clears the heads of anyone seated in front while keeping the screen inside a comfortable viewing cone from the far end. Mounting above credenza joinery at 1,500 mm forces everyone to look upward, which is tiring over an hour.
What lighting is best for video calls?+
Front light on the faces at 300–500 lux vertical illuminance, 4000 K, CRI 90 or better, from a wall-wash or angled fittings in front of the seated position. Overhead downlights alone put the eye sockets in shadow, which reads badly on camera regardless of how good the camera is.
How many meeting rooms does an office need?+
In 2026, roughly 5–6 four-to-six person rooms and 2–3 larger rooms per 100 staff, plus 7–9 single phone booths. The shift to hybrid work moved demand sharply towards small enclosed spaces; large-room demand has fallen slightly while small-room demand has roughly tripled.
What does a meeting room cost to fit out?+
₹9.7 lakh for a six-person room, ₹19 lakh for twelve and ₹44 lakh for an eighteen-seat boardroom, ex-GST, at Indian metro rates in 2026. AV is the most variable element — a room without video conferencing costs 50–70% less on that line.
Should meeting rooms have glass walls?+
Glazed fronts help a floor feel open and make availability visible, which reduces the double-booking problem. The cost is acoustic: single glazing gives about STC 32. If confidential conversations happen in the room, specify double-glazed acoustic partitions and a sealed door, or keep one solid wall for the treatment.