The Openwork Partnership has installed four Yamaha Adecia systems at its location in Swindon, UK, bringing flexible, hybrid working to the 4,200 financial advisers and 600 support staff at this major financial advice company.
The company’s structure means that hybrid working – part office-based, part at home – was already important before the Covid-19 pandemic. When the company moved in to its new premises, it refurbished the spaces to include the latest workplace technology.
‘The idea was to create a pleasant, user-friendly environment for people coming into the office, including various zones of open plan hot desking, drop-in areas, meeting spaces and facilities like a restaurant and wellness gym,’ explains Sussi Murphy, CEO of workplace technology specialists Visually Connected Worldwide. ‘It was designed to bring a new concept of working environment to staff in the financial advice sector.
The four Yamaha Adecia systems have been installed in separate meeting rooms, each comprising an RM-CG dynamic beamforming ceiling array microphone, an RM-CR conference processor and an SWP2311P-10G PoE+ switch. Using the RM-CG microphones, Yamaha’s Human Voice Activity Detection technology and advanced noise reduction algorithms, Adecia has given staff freedom to move around in meetings, clearly picking up individual voices, even when more than one person is speaking, as well as overcoming air conditioning noise.
‘The goal was to deliver top-quality video conferencing, while retaining a simple user experience,’ Murphy continues. ‘For the audio solution we worked with the Application Team at Audiologic. With the Adecia solution from Yamaha being new to the market, we went through a process of remote demonstrations with Audiologic and the client as a proof-of-concept exercise, which ultimately led to the installation.’
‘Both the use case scenarios and room requirements for this project were perfect for the Adecia family of products,’ says Audiologic Senior Technical Manager, Ben Spurgeon. ‘The ease of deployment, paired with top quality audio performance, meant that rooms could be commissioned in quick succession. We’ve had great success with our remote demos of the Adecia products and were very happy to see Visually Connected Worldwide pushing forward with this solution.’
Having installed the facility’s audiovisual, videoconferencing, integration automation for video and audio, access control and digital signage systems, Visually Connected Worldwide installed one-touch Crestron Teams panels for simple videoconferencing control, including the Adecia systems. In addition, Adecia was integrated into the support infrastructure, which includes a remote monitoring and repair system. All devices are monitored 24/7, with Visually Connected Worldwide giving the client a report on the entire system each day at 8am. Any issues with the technical systems can be fixed overnight, before the working day starts.
‘What we have delivered is the technology for a ‘next generation office’ – great quality and highly usable for external communication, which is as reliable and stress-free for the customer as possible,’ Murphy says. ‘With Adecia, we discovered that you can make a complex, high-quality installation for remote meeting sound more easily than with alternative solutions.
‘We are happy with the sound and the way Visually Connected Worldwide and Yamaha work,’ reports James Sansom, Head of Programme Delivery at The Openwork Partnership. ‘This project demonstrates how different communication technologies can deliver intelligent solutions and support to clients in the finance market.’
