If you need a regular place on campus to meet with colleagues, a new hybrid conference room might be what you’re looking for. Faculty and staff at UW–Madison can take advantage of a new service to customize your own hybrid conference room, so you can meet virtually with people across campus or around the globe. Essentially, it’s about bringing people together on a virtual platform.
Hybrid conference rooms with “out of the box” configurations can be arranged to fit up to 25 people in person, with plug-and-play conferencing hardware that accommodates hybrid meetings with ease, depending on your needs. For spaces that are larger, custom configurations would be needed and these custom configurations can accommodate very large spaces.
The cost of the “out of the box” room depends on the size and its capabilities, but rooms generally run between $3,000 and $25,000. The department requesting the room is responsible for the costs.
The rooms, designed by the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), come equipped with a TV and a touchscreen controller with integrated cameras, speakers and microphones. These rooms offer a way to connect with employees who are working in a hybrid manner or anyone who may be on the other side of campus, at different universities or different organizations such as contractors and collaborators.
The equipment accommodates Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
Anyone in the university can request to have a room fitted by filling out this form. DoIT team members will contact you for a consultation, so they can determine which room setup best suits your needs. DoIT will handle building the room, including collaborating with contractors and technology partners, and all the logistics. The rooms can take up to 8 months to build due to the current supply chain delays.
DoIT began this service to meet internal demand, but soon expanded to the rest of the campus when the desire for this service was indicated by other departments. So far, DoIT has designed more than 100 rooms.
How to get started
Interested in setting up a hybrid conference room in your area? Learn more about the available conference rooms and hardware configuration options. You can contact DoIT Departmental Support and fill out a request form on our custom audiovisual conference room page.