How long does it take your people to find a free meeting room? On a busy floor the honest answer is often "a lap of the building". Rooms show as booked but sit empty, and the one that is free is on the far side of the floor. In this blog, we'll look at the Cisco Spaces room finder: what the screen shows, where its data comes from, and what it takes to set one up.
It's one of the smart workspace applications in Cisco Spaces, and it uses data your Cisco network and Webex devices already collect.
The example below shows a room finder from a Cisco board at a floor entrance, shown straight-on (room and floor names changed).
The most useful thing a room finder shows is the difference between booked and occupied. A calendar can tell you a room is reserved, but only a sensor can tell you whether anyone turned up. The floor in our example has 15 meeting rooms: 2 available, 7 booked and 6 occupied.
That gap matters. Rooms that are booked but empty, often called ghost meetings, are a common reason people believe there aren't enough rooms. Cisco Spaces utilisation reporting shows which rooms and times it happens in, so you can fix the booking habit or change the room mix.
From the screen, staff can filter rooms by team size, capacity, equipment, air quality and noise level, and the best fits are highlighted on the map. A free room can also be put on a temporary hold while they walk to it.
The 3D floor map colour-codes each room and shows where you're standing.
Pro-Tip: Start with your busiest floor. A room finder delivers the most where demand for rooms is highest, and the utilisation data from that floor will tell you whether you need more rooms or just better booking habits.
Behind the scenes, Cisco Spaces turns your building's CAD floor plans into 3D maps and can use your Wi-Fi access points as location beacons. Cisco lists Catalyst 9100 access points (with a Catalyst 9800 wireless controller on 17.9.5 or later) and Meraki Wi-Fi 6/6E access points for this; older access points need separate BLE beacons.
A room finder isn't only about availability. Our example screen also shows floor occupancy, indoor air quality, CO2 level, temperature and humidity, so people can pick a comfortable room and facilities teams can spot rooms that run hot or stuffy.
That data comes from sensors you may already own. Supported Webex room devices report occupancy and, on select models, environmental readings. Catalyst 9136 access points have built-in temperature, humidity and TVOC sensors, and Meraki MT sensors add temperature, humidity, air quality and CO2.
The same data can greet people inside the room. In this example, the room's touch panel shows a welcome message with today's room utilisation, temperature, humidity and air quality.
It also depends on well-designed rooms. If you're planning new rooms at the same time, our post on meeting room design covers cameras, screens, audio and finish, and our Meeting Rooms as a Service looks after the room devices once they're live.
A Cisco Spaces room finder is an interactive screen that shows every meeting room on a floor on a live 3D map, with whether each room is available, booked or occupied. Staff can filter rooms, put a free one on hold and get directions to it.
Cisco Spaces uses data from devices already in the building: Webex room devices that detect people in the room, Wi-Fi access points that sense occupancy, and IoT sensors such as Meraki MT. It compares that with the room's calendar booking.
No. Staff scan a QR code on the screen and get turn-by-turn directions in a web app or an iOS App Clip, without downloading an app.
Yes. With supported sensors in place, the room finder can show indoor air quality, CO2, temperature and humidity for the floor, so people can choose a comfortable room and facilities teams can see where ventilation needs attention.
A Cisco Spaces room finder puts live room availability, wayfinding and room conditions on one screen at the entrance to every floor. It uses data from the Cisco network and Webex devices you may already own, separates booked rooms from occupied ones, and gets people to the right room faster.
If you're looking at a room finder or a wider Cisco Spaces deployment, we can help you plan the network, maps and devices it needs. Try our Collaboration Assessment, see Meeting Rooms as a Service, or get in touch with the IPTel team at sales@iptel.com.au.