Markus' office design works over here in Europe because [I'm fairly certain] his crowd invests heavily in a healthy social culture at work, as opposed to a nervously litigious (i.e. immediately defer to HR) culture as is so common in the US.
Personally, I think Markus' office design is excellent. What I would change however, is the television setup. I've been 100% remote for most of my career, so I'm always the guy on the television. I would much prefer to be on everyone's screens individually like a little StarCraft briefing room.
Some benefits:
- sound quality is better
- less chance of audio feedback
- visual cues (like when someone wants to interject) are easier to pick up on
- screen sharing is usually easier
- difference in latency is less pronounced