New collaboration facilities at the Centre for Process Innovation

The National Biologics Manufacturing Centre UK is a purpose-built building equipped with flexible laboratory and pilot plant areas. The contract to design and equip these rooms with flexible technology was awarded to experienced systems integrator Visavvi.

Design for collaboration

The Darlington facility is designed to conduct research on biologic products by promoting collaboration between universities, the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry. Visavvi was brought in to design and install a range of flexible, open-plan areas and offices, plus state-of-the-art meeting rooms and spaces for training and conferencing.

With Skype for Business a core part of their communications strategy, these new AV technologies have been a successful step in driving greater user adoption and a more collaborative way of working across the company and its industry partners.”

Videowall

Located in the heart of the centre, The Atrium provides a versatile meeting and presentation space, with an impressive nine-screen videowall featuring Panasonic 55” Full HD screens. Content on the videowall is controlled by a Future Software PIPview Blackbird controller, which includes a range of videowall layouts and preset options.

Visavvi installed a 10” AMX Touch Panel on the presentation lectern, with a 24” HD monitor screen and an AMX DVX all-in-one digital presentation switcher / scaler / controller providing intuitive system control.

Voice reinforcement audio and screen sound amplification is handled via an Extron Digital Sound Processor, with a K-Array amplifier and wall speakers. The system includes a lectern-mounted gooseneck microphone, plus Sennheiser wireless hand-held and tie-clip microphones.

Input sources include a resident PC, plus external laptop inputs and a wireless collaboration system, which allows a number of people to share content from their own portable device within the room.

Connected meeting rooms

For presentations in three of the smaller meeting rooms, a 65” C-Touch Leddura HD screen has been installed to provide interactive display facilities, accompanied by an AMX Sereno video conferencing camera. Recessed table inputs are provided using AMX Hydraport interfaces and the system is controlled from an AMX Massio 8-button control pad, installed on the wall in each room.

Wireless collaboration is also included in each room for easy screen-sharing connectivity. One of the smaller rooms is equipped with a Polycom RealPresence video conferencing system, including an automatic EagleEye four-camera package. The room has a ceiling mounted microphone array and an AMX Modero touch panel mounted on the wall, providing a high spec, multi-site conference facility.

Twin screen collaboration

In two larger meeting and collaboration rooms, twin 84” C-Touch Leddura HD interactive screens are fitted. These are also connected to AMX Hydraport connection interfaces, with wireless collaborative screen-sharing facilities. The systems are controlled via another AMX DVX all-in-one digital switcher / scaler / controller and AMX 7” Touch Panels.

These rooms feature high performance video conferencing facilities, with sophisticated Polycom Real Presence Group 500 videoconferencing systems, each with automatically controlled cameras and ceiling-mounted microphone systems. Connected via a touchscreen display, the RealPresence Group technology instantly transforms simple content sharing into an interactive and collaborative experience.