The multipurpose, multidimensional modern office featuring hybrid work, open offices, shared workspaces, and hot desking is here. To support today’s digital workers, businesses are designing modern meeting spaces. The emergence of the video-first enterprise has led to a growing demand for simple, affordable, and instant audio-video meetings and content sharing.

Powered by the ongoing workplace transformation and rising use of software-based communications, video conferencing in huddle rooms is witnessing exponential growth. The playing field is poised to get more crowded as vendors race to capture growth opportunities. A growing number of open offices, proliferation of high-quality low-priced video conferencing and the need for ad-hoc team collaboration are the primary market drivers. Market revenues for huddle room video conferencing devices are on a high growth trajectory and forecast to reach $1.50 billion in five years growing at a CAGR of 29.2 percent (2018 -2023).

Huddle rooms are small work spaces and conference areas accommodating up to four to six people. Equipped with audio, video and display technologies, they are informal spaces for ad-hoc and agile collaboration characterizing today's digital workplace. Huddle rooms are all about providing a productive environment for workers to come together for instant interactive collaboration with a clear purpose.
When it comes to huddle rooms – one size does not fit all. A broad range of options exist today. Devices with varied form factors, software, add-on peripherals, and paired cloud services at competing prices are prompting customers to make their selection based on meeting room needs, use cases, and current technology investments.

An increasing number of huddle rooms and open spaces will be video enabled for ad-hoc collaboration. We estimate that globally there are 33.3 million huddle room spaces and less than 3 percent are enabled for video conferencing. The market is seeing significant technology evolution. A broad range of options exist today for huddle rooms. Key aspects of huddle room collaboration are centered on – robust audio, intuitive wireless content sharing, engaging video conferencing, and flexible white boards; while accommodating BYOD so users can bring their choice of devices and cloud services into the room. The focus is on User Experience (UX) and natural flows of interaction. Digital touchscreen controllers and software enhancements are enabling one-touch-to-join video conferences, with significant reduction in joining time. Huddle rooms are all about simplicity and ease of use. There is an increasing focus among key vendors on improving the user experience which is leading to more robust feature sets and increased AI integration.

Given the buzz around huddle rooms, major device and cloud vendors have entered the market with a wide range of solutions. There are tremendous growth opportunities for vendors that can differentiate on better quality devices, robust cloud services, and managed services to ensure an optimal meeting room experience. This market insight covers huddle room definition and the main technology components that are required for seamless audio-video collaboration. It also assesses the associated growth opportunities available to collaboration vendors in this space.

Author: Roopam Jain