When Project Audio Visual completed a technology installation for Solera’s new EMEA HQ, it didn’t predict a pandemic that would shut down offices across the world. But, if it had, it couldn’t have positioned the company to navigate lockdown much better writes Anna Mitchell.
“We’ve moved on 10 years in the last year,” says Steve Hudson, COO of Project Audio Visual. The shift has been so dramatic that Hudson says he’d no longer class the UK company as an AV integrator, rather a workplace technology company.
It’s a comment borne out by the fact that the contracts Project Audio Visual fulfil today are largely based on an early bet on Microsoft Teams and a recognition that the platform would fuel hybrid workspaces. What they couldn’t have predicted was the pandemic that drove a demand for hybrid workspaces quicker and further than could have been imagined.
If you want to understand how that works from the point of view of a successful deployment, look no further than Solera adds Don Lambresa, CEO at Project Audio Visual.
Project Audio Visual has a long history working with Solera on projects across the world. Just before the pandemic struck it completed work for the software provider on Solera House, its new EMEA HQ in Bracknell, UK.
The systems delivered met the aims of an organisation that wanted to transform its workplaces into destinations; offer a seamless experience whether employees are working remotely, at a desk or in a meeting room; and had video communication at its heart.
“Our ethos prior to lockdown was to make the end user experience as seamless as possible; from small spaces to big spaces,” says Lambresa. “We already had that in place, lockdown just accelerated it.”
That ethos is clear in Solera House. The facility is built around Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTRs) and the HQ offers a range of spaces from huddle areas, collaboration spaces, meeting rooms and training rooms, to a boardroom and town hall meeting space. The look and feel of meeting spaces both large and small is deliberately designed to offer a continuous experience throughout not just Solera House, but Solera offices around the world.
Having Microsoft Teams at the heart of the organisation promotes simple and intuitive interaction with technology – whether alone on a laptop, in a collaboration space, meeting room or even the boardroom or town hall.
"Our ethos prior to lockdown was to make the end user experience as seamless as possible; from small spaces to big spaces." - Don Lambresa, Project Audio Visual
The digital experience starts as you walk in and are welcomed by a 4m by 1.5m LED display that greets employees and customers with content to reinforce the Solera brand and provide information.
Inside, open areas include a canteen and games room that lead off to a number of spaces that facilitate different ways of working, communicating and collaborating. Digital signage runs through these areas using around 40 Sharp 50-in LCDs mounted with a mixture of Peerless wall mounts and Unicol ceiling mounts and fed by BrightSign players. Table-style digital signage kiosks in the canteen offer further company information.
A large, glass training room features an 86-in Microsoft Surface Hub mounted with a Unicol Rhobus display stand. Audio is reinforced with a Crestron Saros Sound Bar 200 and Shure’s Microflex Advance ceiling array captures speech for videoconferencing with processing handled by Shure’s Intellimix P300 digital conferencing processor. The room’s status is easily visible via a wall-mounted Crestron room booking panel.
Elsewhere small group collaboration or individual work is supported by booths offering UC capability to connect hardwired using a cable or wirelessly via a Crestron AirMedia presentation system. Once connected, staff are linked to a Sharp 32-in display, mounted with a Peerless-AV bracket.
Similar setups of varying sizes are deployed for collaboration and breakout spaces throughout the building. Meeting rooms come in a range of sizes, with the small spaces designed for four, six or eight people. Like the training room, the spaces are managed by the Crestron room booking system.
In keeping with the seamless experience Solera and Project Audio Visual wanted to foster, the presentation system is a larger scale version of that on offer in the collaboration booths and spaces. The Sharp display is 55-, 65-, or 75-in, while a Saros Sound Bar 200, Huddly IQ videoconferencing camera and Shure MXA310 table array microphone boost the meeting experience. Crestron Flex units were also deployed in meeting rooms and some spaces offer a Creston Airboard whiteboard capture system that is seamlessly integrated into the MTR systems.
The template is followed but with a slightly more complex design to enhance both local and remote conferencing in the largest of the meeting rooms. This space has a larger Sharp display (86-in), Shure Microflex Advance ceiling array, Sonnance loudspeakers powered with an Audac amplifier, an Atlona soft codec conferencing system and more powerful Crestron DigitalMedia presentation system that supports 4K. The boardroom follows a similar technology specification with dual 86-in displays, a larger audio system and a Logitech Rally ultra HD videoconferencing camera.
A number of directors’ suites use the same style of kit. In these, 55-in Microsoft Surface Hubs integrated with the Shure Microflex microphone set ups support the company executives with Teams meetings and collaboration. Surface Hubs (55-in again) paired with Shure MXA310s are also deployed in stand up collaboration spaces throughout the building.
Solera’s dedicated NOC houses a two-by-two videowall made up of Philips X-line 49-in displays and mounted with Peerless-AV wall mounts.
The final distinct area is a dedicated town hall meeting space that can accommodate 200 people. Hudson notes that in a hybrid work scenario presentation spaces need to become areas that facilitate production with more engaging and dynamic broadcasts that, in addition to going out as live announcements, can be used to populate YouTube and other video channels.
The technology deployed in the Solera town hall includes a 5.5m x 5.5m LED display. Local audio output is handled by Audac column speakers and subwoofers powered by Audac amplifiers. Shure Speechline wireless handheld microphones are provided and a Yamaha TF1 console is used for audio mixing.
Again, a seamless experience was aimed for with wireless connection supported by Crestron Airmedia. Access to control functions is supported with a Crestron touchpanel and a Crestron DigitalMedia presentation system was deployed.
The setup links to remote locations using an Atlona soft codec conferencing system. An Inogeni camera switcher and Vaddio Roboshot cameras also help keep presentations dynamic.
Networked technology forms the heart of the installation with signal distribution and management all AV over IP with Dante audio connection. As workers return to offices flexibility is key to accommodating new requirements for social distancing and potentially new attitudes to work and collaboration. AV over IP and cloud control will help Solera in supporting those shifts and keeping flexible.
Cloud control supports centralised and remote management of the system. Digital dashboards were delivered across an AV over IP infrastructure using Wyrestorm NetworkHD integrated into the central Crestron control system. Crestron XiO cloud is used for deployment, management and reporting on the products and systems installed throughout the HQ.
“I think anyone that thinks they’re coming back after the pandemic and after everything that’s happened the same as they were is truly mistaken.” - Steve Hudson, Project Audio Visual
The Solera House installation positioned the company perfectly to deal with the pandemic. So perfectly in fact that the Project Audio Visual Team see it as a template for companies wanting to foster a hybrid working approach and capitalise on the post-pandemic work environment.
So why were the aims of Solera and systems designed for them by Project Audio Visual so well placed to deal with the pandemic? “I think we were already on this route two years prior to lockdown,” says Hudson. “We invested time, effort and resource into gaining the experience and understanding of what is required in modern workplace.
“What no one realised was going to happen was Covid and what’s happened to video as a result of that is everyone’s been forced to use it. Connecting a company via video isn’t about throwing some kit in a room that allows you to video conference. It’s about understanding the whole ecosystem that surrounds something like Teams, from the licensing to the back end set up. Then you have to take the ethos of a two person room, to a six person room, to a 12 or 20 person room, and a 400 seat auditorium. And the experience needs to be seamless.
“I think anyone that thinks they’re coming back after the pandemic and after everything that’s happened the same as they were is truly mistaken,” adds Hudson in a sharp reminder that workplaces need to be positioned differently to not just survive, but build and develop on what’s been learnt through the last year.
Tech-Spec
Audio
Audac WaveDynamics and EPA 152 amplifiers, design column speakers and NOBA8 subwoofers
Crestron Saros Sound Bar 200s and DSP-1283 processor
Shure MXA310 table array and MXA910 ceiling array microphones, Intellimix P300 digital conferencing processors and SpeechLine wireless microphone system
Sonance PS-C63RT loudspeakers
Yamaha TF1 digital mixing console
Video
BrightSign XT1143 and XT1144 players
Crestron Flex C160-T VC systems, AirMedia presentation systems and AirBoard whiteboard capture system
Huddly IQ conference cameras
Inogeni CAM300 camera switcher
Logitech Rally Ultra HD PTZ cameras
Microsoft 55-in and 86-in Surface Hubs
Peerless-AV SmartMount and DS-VW755S wall mounts
Philips 49-in X-line displays
Sharp PN-HW861 86-in, PN-HW751 75-in, PN-HW651 65-in, PN-HW551 55-in, N-HW501 50-in and PN-Y326 32-in LCDs
Unicol Rhobus display stands and ceiling mounts
Vaddio Roboshot 30 QCCU cameras
Control & Systems
Atlona HDVS-300-KIT soft codec conferencing systems
Crestron XiO Cloud, 3-Series 4K DigitalMedia presentation systems, CP3 control processor, room booking with wall indicators and TSW-1060-B-S 10.1-in touchpanel
Wyrestorm Network-HD AV over IP system