Caledonia Investments, the prestigious self-managed investment trust based in central London, approached TenAV looking for an upgrade to their video conferencing systems.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Client: Caledonia Investments
Services: Video Conferencing
The Challenges
Caledonia has many connections to the wider investment industry as a London Stock Exchange-listed company; their current video conferencing setup was slowing them down and not making the best impression.
Much of their video conferencing tech support came from the office management team, who also had the busy job of handling the hospitality operations. Therefore, it was paramount that the solution be reliable and easy to use so that these professionals could easily navigate instructions for guests to get connected.
The hospitality services that Caledonia supplied made for another challenge to overcome, background noise. We made sure to do, what we fondly call the ‘teacup test’. This comprises a test video conferencing call where we make a variety of different noises including banging spoons on teacups and rustling packaging to ensure that voices are prioritised and that background noise is successfully filtered out for those joining the meeting remotely.
The solutions
We recommended a Yealink Microsoft Teams solution to replace their current Logitech MTRs running Crestron, to take advantage of the extra ‘wow’ factor Yealink provide with face-tracking cameras and a higher quality, simplified user experience.
Because Caledonia welcomes so many guests who are in the financial or banking sectors, many of their devices have extra security functionalities like USB blockers which prevent their USB ports from being used to limit cyber-attacks. To combat this but still provide a bring-your-own-device solution, we provided both wireless USB dongles and HDMI cables for visitors to screen share.
Caledonia made the fantastic decision to include support and maintenance, which means we can keep them up to date on any new opportunities for upgrades and give proactive management of software and devices to fix any problems.
Installation and Implementation
As with all AV installs, we had several minor challenges to overcome in the installation and optimisation of the meeting rooms. We always offer a free site survey and highly encourage our clients to take them up to reduce these as much as possible!
Unfortunately, though we were unaware upon installation that the ceiling structure behind the external casing did not allow for the wires from the Yamaha overhead microphones. We quickly pivoted to provide tabletop microphones instead, which the client was very happy with, as they helped provide extra flexibility to the space, which was paramount, as there were a number of uses for the room.
Sadly, the lift also wasn’t working on the day of the installation, but our team dug deep and (carefully) managed to negotiate the stairs instead!
Impact
“We really like the upgrade we have made; the new system is easier to use and more reliable. Everything works a lot smoother and there’s less impact on support staff to troubleshoot problems.”
Andy Grove, IT Director.
The facilities team were grateful for the reduced time spent on troubleshooting the tech and more time doing what they do best; customer service and hospitality to wow prestigious clients and guests. We look forward to hopefully working together again next year on another of their meeting rooms which is currently being refurbished.
