What is the best meeting room lighting for video conferencing?

Good meeting room lighting for video conferencing means 300 to 500 lux at desk level, a colour temperature of 3,500 to 4,500 K for natural skin tone, and lighting that hits faces from the front rather than directly above. Get those three right and the camera produces a usable image even on a mid-range VC bar; get them wrong and a £40,000 boardroom looks like a dim box on the far end of the call.

The most common lighting problems on hybrid calls are predictable:

• Direct downlights above the table cast facial shadows under eyes and chins. Use indirect lighting, wall-washers or front-of-room luminaires angled towards faces to fill the shadows.
• Backlight from windows silhouettes participants. The camera exposes for the bright window and faces go dark. Fix with blinds, window film or fully managed motorised shades tied into the control system, and add front lighting to compensate.
• Cool white-blue lighting above 5,000 K makes skin tones look clinical on camera. 3,500 to 4,500 K reads as natural without going orange.
• Mixed colour temperatures between fixtures, daylight and the display itself confuse white balance. Aim for one consistent colour across the room.
• Insufficient lux below 300 forces the camera to push gain, introducing noise and motion blur. Above 500 starts looking flat.

Practical fixes range from low-cost (a continuous LED strip or two adjustable ring lights at the front of the room) up to a full architectural relight for executive boardrooms where the room is on camera daily. A controllable lighting scene, recalled from the meeting room control panel for "video conference", "presentation" and "in-person", is what turns one space into a room that works for every mode without manually adjusting fixtures each time.

When the room is being designed from scratch, lighting belongs in the brief alongside displays and acoustics rather than left to the M&E contractor in isolation; the consultation and design phase is where lighting, AC noise and camera position get coordinated as one system.

Quick reference: 300-500 lux at desk level, 3,500-4,500 K colour temperature, front fill not direct downlights, blinds or film on windows.