New showcase office and collaborative workspace for Arco
Training Rooms
Consultation
Multi-functional auditorium
Introduction
Established in 1884, Arco has a long history of keeping people safe. As the UK’s leading safety experts, they provide a unique mix of specialist expertise, services and practical real-life industry knowledge which is relied upon by many businesses and organisations across the UK.
Arco helps their customers monitor and reduce the risks associated with workplace hazards, including physical hazards, ergonomic hazards, chemical hazards and biological hazards.
Arco started planning their new office and collaborative workspace in 2019. After evaluating several companies, they chose Visavvi as their AV design, installation and support partner for their new Blackfriargate home in the centre of the vibrant city of Hull, in East Yorkshire.
Sharing our strong held philosophy that each client is unique, Arco was impressed with Visavvi’s extensive consultation process and the time taken to completely understand their needs.
“Visavvi were very good at coming up with numerous options, the technology and the knowledge that the Visavvi team brought to the table was excellent.” – Daniel Spurgeon, Head of IT
Following several detailed discovery meetings, six key technology pillars were identified and agreed upon. Visavvi then designed a range of environments to meet Arco’s aspirations to create an environment that empowered a new way of working.
New showcase office and collaborative workspace for Arco.
Digital signage
Information changes fast, especially for an organisation the size of Arco which has over 1,600 colleagues nationwide and up to 600 based or working from Blackfriargate. Any digital signage and content management solution needed to be equally agile and dynamic. With over 15 digital signage displays providing content internally to colleagues and externally to visiting customers, the solution needed to be capable of managing content to specific screens and site-wide. Crucially it needed to allow multiple content providers to independently create and provide content to the system.
After careful consideration of the clients’ requirements, whilst catering for future expansion capabilities, Visavvi specified ONELAN CMS. A sophisticated planning, design, distribution and management solution for enterprise-wide signage networks, CMS has the capability of managing and distributing content securely over the corporate LAN, providing ample scalability for future expansion to other offices.
CMS is full of powerful features yet designed around template-based layouts making it intuitive and easy to use for none technical contributors. Crucially, it allows multiple users to contribute and manage content based on role-specific permissions.
Room booking and monitoring
From the onset, the building was designed to support more flexible and agile ways of working. With multiple meeting and huddle spaces available, a reliable monitoring and booking facility was key.
Visavvi recommended the ONELAN Reserva Edge solution. With a vibrant and clear 10” display screen ergonomically designed for exceptional viewing, 33 Reserva’s panels were installed outside meeting rooms and shared collaboration spaces. It provides clear visibility of room availability, room capacity, room equipment capabilities and, when integrated to ONELAN CMS, can be used to display dynamic digital signage content.
Reserva integrates seamlessly into many diary, timetabling and room booking platforms, including Microsoft Outlook, so colleagues can instantly see room availability and reserve spaces.
In a busy and dynamic organisation, such as Arco, where meeting and collaboration rooms are in high demand, not utilising them efficiently could lead to frustration, reduce productivity and waste resources. Reserva helps Arco maximise room usage, improve productivity and increase their return on investment.
Communication and collaboration
Arco is a large, fast-moving, and dynamic organisation where communication and collaboration facilities are key. As an existing Ring Central user, Arco uses the platform extensively for their desktop telephony, messaging and video communications. To maximise the use and capabilities of the platform, Visavvi recommended a range of Poly video collaboration solutions that could be seamlessly used with the Ring Central ecosystem.
With their industry-leading capabilities and their intuitive, simple user interface, the Poly systems dramatically expand the functionally of the rooms and further increase the capabilities of the Ring Central platform.
Selected and deployed across several room configurations, the Poly solutions provide a premium quality video and audio experience to all meeting participants. In the larger boardroom, a Poly G7500, combined with a Poly EagleEye Director and Poly microphone array, were installed to further enhance the capabilities and experience.
The Poly solutions provide the natural feeling of a real face-to-face meeting. With patented NoiseBlock and Acoustic Fence technology, the solutions intelligently tune out distracting background noise that could otherwise interrupt the meeting. Poly’s High Definition cameras, with auto framing and speaker tracking, ensure remote participants can concentrate on the flow of the meeting as the cameras intelligently zoom and crop to frame speakers in real-time.
Formal and informal meeting spaces, collaboration hubs, huddle and breakout meeting spaces
With an extensive array of meeting spaces, Arco wanted to provide comprehensive audio visual, presentation and communication capabilities for their teams. It was important that each space was simple to use so that visiting colleagues were able to use the spaces quickly without the need for specialist training or instruction. Visavvi specified a range of solutions to deliver Arco’s vision, tailored across various room and space configurations.
Barco Clickshare Conference CX30’s were installed in each room. Clickshare is well known for providing wireless content sharing between a laptop and a display device. Simply by plugging in a USB puck, users can quickly, at the press of a button, share their content on a display screen, removing the inconvenience and confusion of connecting multiple cables and configuring laptop display outputs. Additionally, room users with IOS and Android tablets or smartphones can display their content on the screen with a free Barco app, providing similar functionality to the hardware puck and providing excellent content flexibility for meeting participants.
Beyond content sharing capabilities the Clickshare Conference range of products provides advanced capabilities for organisations looking to deploy communication and collaboration devices in their meeting spaces. CX devices, when connected with third-party video collaboration hardware, such as the Poly Studio, allow users to utilise the room’s camera, microphone and speaker, wirelessly, through the Clickshare puck to their laptop.
Multi-function boardroom/auditorium
Arco was keen to make a statement by creating a highly-flexible, technology-rich environment that was multipurpose. Seating 16 people in board room configuration and over 60 in auditorium layout, the room is a highly-capable meeting, presentation and video collaboration space.
Centered around an impressive 6 x 49” Philips Videowall, powered by a Datapath wall processer, the room is an inspiring space used for internal meetings and customer briefings.
In line with other spaces within the building, Visavvi provided a range of technology to empower room users and ensure the space was intuitive and easy to use.
With an array of technology hidden in a bespoke credenza, technology is almost invisible to the user, but the capabilities it provides are easily accessible via a bespoke programmed Extron matrix content switcher and touch screen control system.
Communication and collaboration capabilities are seamlessly integrated into the room with an industry-leading Poly G7500, plus Poly EagleEye Director providing a natural and engaging video collaboration space. The EagleEye Director provides innovative automatic camera tracking to provide the perfect touch-free meeting experience when in video calls. Working in pairs, the cameras follow conversations and provide a perfectly-framed image to remote participants without user intervention. This provides a more in-person, lifelike experience for all meeting participants, allowing them to concentrate on the discussion and forget the technology. An additional Angekis ceiling-mounted pan/tilt/zoom and autofocus camera is placed at the rear of the room and is used when delivering front-of-room training and briefing sessions.
Content sharing is once again supported via a Barco Clickshare CX30, with extra additional Clickshare pucks so that multiple participants can display their content simultaneously on the huge videowall.
Designed around a flexible AV matrix switching infrastructure, meeting participants can select any AV input and select where the content is displayed on the videowall.
With the movable dividing wall retracted, the space opens up to increase the capacity of the room creating a larger auditorium suitable for company briefings, training and large group presentations.
Showpiece reception and briefing area
Occupying a prime position in the building, the reception area needed to make a statement, which it certainly does.
The space was architecturally designed to impress, so the AV solution needed to complement the space and yet be practical to use and able to function in the large, bright, open space constructed with high ceilings.
Visavvi designed an impressive 12 x 55” video wall to provide the visual impact required to impress visitors. Our system architects got creative with the screen layouts and instead of the usual landscape videowall design, they created a visually stunning display combining vertical and horizontal screen positions. The result is a vibrant, impressive and eye-catching display which can be used for marketing content and corporate information.
“Visavvi helped bring the feature wall vision to life. It provides the wow factor we hoped for” – Daniel Spurgeon, Head of IT
To enable the space to be used for town hall meetings and announcements, Visavvi installed several Extron ceiling speakers and a Sennheiser wireless microphone system. Additional display devices were located in a coffee waiting area and the reception desk to provide further information points for visitors.
This reception space delivers on Arco’s vision to create an inspiring environment guaranteed to impress colleagues and visitors alike.
Project outcome
From the onset, this was very much a collaborative project with our team working hand-in-hand with Arco’s specialists. During the design phase, multiple discovery meetings were undertaken where the final system design specifications and concepts were discussed and agreed upon.
Offsite system build and testing ensured that the final installation was efficient and effective.
A workplace that puts Arco on the map
“All colleagues who come to work and visit the building absolutely love the lightness, airiness, and the cutting-edge technology; it is a big departure from our previous office. It puts us on the map” – Neil Griffiths, Divisional Director
The vision was to create a modern, bright space where technology-enabled a more flexible and agile way of working for the Arco team. Easy to use, with comprehensive functionality, premium quality, and ultra-reliability were Visavvi mantras for the project and we delivered on that 100+%.
“After months of collaboration, what Visavvi delivered has gone down really well with the Board and the wider business. The feedback that we have had has been excellent. Going from the old ways of working to the new, Visavvi have helped that transition seamlessly.” Daniel Spurgeon, Head of IT
Tech talk
6 Person meeting room
- Externally each room was equipped with a ONELAN Reserva Edge room booking display.
- Internally key devices included
- 55” LED Display screen
- Poly Studio
- Poly Studio array mic expansion
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- Unicol mounts
8 Person meeting room
- Externally each room was equipped with a ONELAN Reserva Edge room booking display.
- Internally key devices included
- 75” 4k LED Display screen
- Poly Studio
- Poly Studio array mic expansion
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- Unicol mounts
Huddle/breakout meeting booths
- 32” Display screens
- AV & laptop input plates
10 Person meeting room
- Dual 65” LED Display screen
- Poly Studio X50
- Poly Studio array mic expansion
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- Unicol mounts
Print Points
- 32” Display screens
- OneLan Digital Signage Player
Training room
- 75” Touch Screen
- Poly Studio X50
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- Unicol mounts
Breakout Spaces
- 75” Display Screen
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- OneLan Digital Signage
- Unicol mounts
Presentation Areas
- 75” Display Screen
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- Unicol mounts
Games Room
- 75” Display Screen
- Barco Clickshare CX30
- OneLan Digital Signage
- Unicol mounts
Reception Signage
- 65” Display Screen
- OneLan Digital Signage
- Unicol mounts
Reception Video Wall
- 12 x 49” Display Screens
- OneLan Digital Signage
- Extron Video Switching
- Datapath Video Wall Processing
- Saville Proflex Amp
- Extron Ceiling Speakers
- Sennheiser Microphones
- Extron Button Control Panel
- Barco Clickshare CSE-200
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