New digital home for Centrica Storage

Centrica Storage doesn’t do things on a small scale. It operates the Rough natural gas storage facility under the North Sea, two offshore platforms and a major gas processing terminal on the Yorkshire coast. A subsidiary of Centrica, the parent of British Gas, it had big plans when it moved to new premises a stone’s throw from the Humber Bridge. The company’s communication and operating capabilities needed to go to the next level – and Visavvi was asked to deliver.

Challenge

With Centrica Storage investing in a bold business-critical relocation to purpose-built high-tech premises, the stakes were high for our brief. The team at Centrica threw down the gauntlet when they awarded us the contract. They demanded a ‘major leap forward’ in their digital working environment.

Their business strategy insisted that the new collaborative surroundings be entirely future proof, and in-keeping with their status as a FTSE 100 company. They had to be sophisticated and state-of-the-art but – crucially – perfectly intuitive, easy to use and highly stable. We promised a solution that would be just that and more. Our plans focused on freeing Centrica Storage staff from the time-wasting constraints of restrictive technology – and empowering them to collaborate and flourish in a seamless ‘one-team’ environment.

Solution

Our number one priority was to really understand Centrica’s new digital direction and strategy, so we could do justice to it. That meant ensuring that a unified user experience was felt throughout the new building. Following detailed consultation, we focused on facilitating seamless collaboration as we equipped the 23 meeting rooms and impressive reception area.

Room control

A ‘RoomReserve’ booking system was placed outside the main meeting rooms. With the touch of a tablet screen, meetings can be booked, ended, extended and ‘no shows’ revealed to maximise occupancy. Impressive 55” commercial displays with HDMI and VGA meeting-table inputs ensure seamless screen sharing – enhanced by Barco ClickShare and bespoke floor connectivity. Most rooms are equipped with a one-touch four-way control system for easy operation of source, volume and system on/off.

Intuitive collaboration rooms

A key theme was to install interactive technology that would ease collaboration. Hence the multi-touch displays in 65” and 86” sizes. Installed in eight large meeting rooms, each screen includes a pair of wireless connection devices to enhance functionality and cater for all sorts of personal devices. The rooms also feature integrated ceiling mounted speakers and amps for crystal clear audio.

Flexible conference space

We delivered multi-function flexibility to the ground floor 60-seater conference space, which can be used whole or divided in two. For the former, content is displayed via a ceiling mounted HD laser projector onto a 2.5m fixed frame screen. Supported by two 43” HD Pro2 LCD repeater screens, no-one misses anything – no matter where they’re sitting.

A custom-built lectern houses data inputs, microphone and additional hand held and tie-clip radio mics. A Barco ClickShare provides wireless content connectivity for screen-sharing across all devices. Sound field amplification has been designed so that the two areas can be isolated. When the partition is in place, the secondary area has an 86” multi-touch screen with wireless connectivity, cable management and independent audio.

Global control

Features of the vast and impressive reception video wall include:

Four VW55” monitors in a bespoke housing and a dedicated digital content player
Centrally installed digital signage players feeding a number of strategically located 65” HD Pro2 ceiling mounted commercial displays
Real-time updates and company information

The matrix TV system incorporates:

A bank of five HD FreeSat boxes routed into a matrix switcher, allowing any of them to be relayed to any of the six building monitors as required
Networked AV distribution of the HD video signals via the structured cable network with discrete Bluestream encoders at source, and decoders at the displays – ensuring the highest quality visuals

Outcome

Centrica Storage were quick to appreciate the benefits of their new digital home. ‘One-team’ collaboration has been achieved, and the future-proofing inherent in our delivery will allow the company to grow and flourish.

As Centrica Storage managing director Greg McKenna put it: “We’re delighted with our new offices which represent a major leap forward in the quality of our working environment and our use of technology. We now have offices in-keeping with a division of a FTSE 100 company. This move has enabled us to bring all our teams into one place in a vibrant, highly-professional, collaborative environment surrounded by other successful companies.”