I run a coworking space in Houston and I've found that often times our conference room is being used by just one person that needs a quiet place for a phone call or video call.
So I started shopping around for phone booths to convert into a semi-private single-person meeting booth. The final product will be equipped with a camera and monitor for Skype calls and sound-proofed for cell phone calls.
Beyond that, I want to maintain as much of the original look of the booth so it will also serve as an aesthetically pleasing conversation piece for our space.
I'm currently shopping around for an affordable booth. If you know where I can get one on the cheap, please let me know.
Details
Additional features being considered: charging station and retractable tabletop for laptops/tablets. If you have more suggestions please comment below!
Having first-hand experience of using the original UK Phone Booth shown in the photos, I can tell you how good they were while they were maintained. Their heyday was decades before mobile phones. The red phone booth was designed by architect. It's made of cast iron with small windows, the walls don't resonate and conduct outside noise. The door is very heavy. As soon as the door closes, almost all of outside noise stops and inside it became a safe haven from outside. Inside there were paper phone book directories , a writng surface and even a mirror and a room light. There was even a three-digit number you could call to hear playing the top ten chart singles through the telephone and the music was clear, we used to pass the receiver between us to take turns to listen. Can't do that over GSM with its aggressive digital compression that has now reduced mobile voice communication to just spoken words.... "What? Say again, you're breaking up", "Hello?" "No Honey!, we're not breaking up") .
Nice idea! Did you finally managed to procure a booth? I am working on European video exchange project ( https://hackaday.io/project/27790-window-on-the-world ) and I think those booth would be an interesting form factor to work with.
I'm thinking you should paint it blue, but that's just me... have you considered how to have the person be comfortable in this confined space for an extended time? I think comfortable seating is a must, and I'd suggest facing the monitors inward, and project simulated 360 degree scenes so you could feel as if you're somewhere interesting, and not "really" in a confined space. I think that people will find something more the size of an elevator to be more useful, or you could actually give your people real live offices, and every office becomes a conference room up to 4 to 6 people...just sayin' : )
Great idea, I'd love to see an old BT Phone Box back in use, but maybe with charger cables and fold out ledge/stands for laptop/tablets in case people want to use their own devices. These could also be really useful in bars or pubs.
Having first-hand experience of using the original UK Phone Booth shown in the photos, I can tell you how good they were while they were maintained. Their heyday was decades before mobile phones. The red phone booth was designed by architect. It's made of cast iron with small windows, the walls don't resonate and conduct outside noise. The door is very heavy. As soon as the door closes, almost all of outside noise stops and inside it became a safe haven from outside. Inside there were paper phone book directories , a writng surface and even a mirror and a room light. There was even a three-digit number you could call to hear playing the top ten chart singles through the telephone and the music was clear, we used to pass the receiver between us to take turns to listen. Can't do that over GSM with its aggressive digital compression that has now reduced mobile voice communication to just spoken words.... "What? Say again, you're breaking up", "Hello?" "No Honey!, we're not breaking up") .