The divisible boardroom with Teams and Zoom at either end
Law firm Lee & Thompson uses Teams as standard but needs Zoom for creative industry clients. MVS AV has equipped its boardroom with a Teams Room at one end and Zoom Room at the other.
Lee & Thompson is one of the UK’s leading law firms for the media, technology and creative industries with an international client base working across all creative sectors.
Previously based in an office that was dated, with four floors and segregated office space, the firm saw an opportunity, as its lease expired, to change and build an office space more suited to the way it works and interacts with clients. The aim was to create an office environment that is open and fosters better collaboration. The office also needed to reflect the creative nature of its clients while meeting the requirements of a law firm.
The space required excellent video conferencing facilities, so it could accommodate hybrid working and reduce the amount of travel, increasing work-life balance, reducing costs and contributing towards environmentally-friendly working practices. The video conferencing facilities must also enable the firm to host webinars and training sessions internationally, connecting clients and contacts.
Lee & Thompson uses Microsoft Teams as its core collaboration platform, but also wanted Zoom Rooms to accommodate external meetings with creative clients. The brief that it provided to integrator MVS Audio Visual was for a large, divisible boardroom, small Teams Rooms and a versatile Town Hall area.
Divisible boardroom
The flexible space that has become a divisible boardroom has many uses, including board meetings, client meetings, presentations and seminars. Typically all involve remote participants as well as those physically present. Whilst Zoom is heavily used in the creative industries, Lee & Thompson primarily uses Microsoft Teams.
The solution provides for both. When divided, the room comprises a separate 12-person Zoom Room and Teams Room. When opened up, it can be set up to face the Zoom or Teams end as required.
It sounds like an obvious solution, but the technical requirements posed an exciting challenge for MVS AV which was met using ceiling-mounted sensors which detect the room opening up. When Zoom or Teams meetings start, speakers and microphones in both parts of the room connect to provide a seamless experience.
Both rooms have 75” LG professional displays, Shure MXA710 ceiling microphones, Bose pendant ceiling speakers and wide-angle Huddly HD cameras installed. The Zoom Room has a Crestron Flex Zoom Integrator kit and The Teams Room a Yealink MVC400.
Three Teams meeting rooms
Lee & Thompson’s hybrid working practices mean that internal meetings invariably involve both office and remote participants, so small Teams Meeting Rooms are vital to productivity and there was a need to ensure users can start meetings simply and quickly.
Each room has an LG professional display. In one room a Crestron Flex Teams Kit was installed and in the additional two rooms Yealink MVC400 Microsoft Teams Room systems.
Town Hall area
The town hall area is a highly flexible space. It is regularly used as a space for staff to relax and eat lunch. But it is also used for parties and events, both social and formal, and for town hall meetings. Adjacent to the divisible boardroom, this area can be extended further by opening up the side walls of the boardroom.
Appropriate AV technology is therefore essential to maximise the value of this space. When the divisible wall is removed between the two boardrooms and town hall space, the AV systems can be combined, supplying a repeated image of the Zoom or Teams meeting to the Town Hall display, as well as routing of the audio to the Town Hall pendant speakers.
This large space has an 86” LG Commercial display, QSC pendant ceiling speakers and two subwoofers to extend audio range and increase volume. Handheld wireless microphones are enabled for use with audio conferencing apps if required. A SONOS Port is installed in the central AV rack, sitting on the client network, allowing users to connect to the device using the SONOS app for music playback.
The outcome
The office move was a key part of a change in working practices and culture for Lee & Thompson. The space has been beautifully designed to facilitate better productivity, and working with remote colleagues and clients all over the globe is now much easier.
Key AV brands used:
- Bose
- Crestron
- Huddly
- LG
- Microsoft Teams
- Shure
- Sonos
- Yealink
- Zoom
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Posted: 28th February 2022