The shift to hybrid working has led one integrator to revamp a local UK council’s way of collaborating in an award-winning project. Paul Milligan speaks to the integrator involved.
Kirklees Council serves approximately half a million residents in the West Yorkshire region of the UK. Much as in the same way as the corporate world has had to respond post-pandemic to changing work habits, so have local authorities too. The shift to hybrid working required a new approach for the Council, who became all too aware it needed to make the office a desirable destination for workers to return to. It also had to facilitate easy-to-use collaboration with staff members who had chosen to spend some (or all) of their working week working remotely.
The integrator chosen for this task was Project Audio Visual (part of the AVPM Group), but its path to winning the job was not straightforward, as COO Steve Hudson explains. “We were recommended (for the job) by two different manufacturers which got us onto the tender process. We then lost the tender because somebody went in at half our cost. We’d had a long conversation with the Council about what needed to be done and why they should do it this particular way.”
Hudson had such a strong belief that his company’s approach would provide the best outcome for the client, he asked if the two competing AV companies could provide a proof-of-concept (POC) room before the final contract was signed.
“We put one of our rooms in because we knew what they were putting in and we knew what we were putting in. We put our room in free of charge and left it with the client for the same time as the other POC room was in, as we were convinced they would see why we didn’t take the same approach as them.” It clearly worked, because “after doing the POC, the client ripped up the tender, and awarded the contract to us,” Hudson adds.
What did the Council ask Project AV for in those first few meetings? They had a clear idea of what they were doing says Hudson. “We visited the site alongside Crestron and said this is what we think you should do, and these are the reasons why. One of the guys at the Council works in AV, and we were lucky that we had somebody who got the idea.”
The Council was looking to achieve consistency for those working at home, in the office or on the road, by moving to the
Microsoft Teams ecosystem on professional devices, in its 25 onsite meeting spaces (6 large meeting rooms and 19 small-medium rooms) and in its Council Chamber. The Council required support to adopt and launch the Teams platform, ensuring smooth connectivity as people move between home and office working locations and from laptops to meeting rooms, delivering the best experience for all participants.
Within the Council Chamber, the Council wanted to improve efficiency and intelligibility for both live and hybrid debates, making high quality recordings and live streams available to enhance transparency.
Kirklees Council required its new system to be up and running in just eight weeks, so the pressure was on Project AV, it managed to speed up the installation process by mapping out where the systems were going to be installed via a virtual site visit of the 25 Teams Rooms.
This had to be done whilst navigating the building’s restrictions, as it is a Grade II listed building, with concrete floors and thin walls.
Recognising there was no ‘one size fits all’ model applicable here, Project AV’s Microsoft accredited engineers conducted a site survey to understand the unique characteristics of each space to ensure the specification of the best solution, using hardware from Teams Certified manufacturers.
For the small and medium meeting spaces of up to 10 people, the hub of the Teams Rooms systems was facilitated by a Crestron Flex Video Conferencing platform. This delivers consistency across all meeting spaces, ensuring some participants don’t get favoured over others, and creates the same, quality, reliable experience for every user.
The Teams compute module sits at the heart of every space and allows meetings to start at the touch of a button with the One Touch Join feature. This console also synchronises with and allows control of all peripheral devices in each space, ensuring the optimum meeting experience for those in the room and hybrid participants, without needing to manually adjust any settings. This also includes integration with lighting and room blinds.
The Creston Flex is complemented by a Crestron AirMedia wireless presentation and conferencing system, eliminating cables from the meeting rooms and letting participants connect wirelessly from any Windows OS device. Switching between presenters is also streamlined with multiple connectivity and instant screen takeovers.
A single or dual Samsung display set up, ranging in screen size from 55-75-in, depending on the space, delivers visuals, including a Front Row 21:9 presentation format in the medium-sized spaces. A Jabra PanaCast 50 room system provides the audio and video camera element, it uses AI to track the speakers in the room to automatically frame them in the camera shot, ensuring everyone can be seen and heard at the same time.
In the six larger meeting spaces ranging from 10 – 20 participants, a Crestron Flex and AirMedia system ensure a consistency of experience for users.
To actively capture and represent all participants, these are integrated with Aver cameras featuring dual 4K lenses and lens switching technology to capture and transmit all participants as they join in conversations. The cameras were chosen because they have a 113-degree field of view, audio tracking and an 18x hybrid zoom, which ensures coverage of up to seven metres into a meeting space.
A 14-element microphone array also ensures that everyone joining remotely can follow the conversations. For extra audio enhancement in the largest of spaces, Shure Microflex microphones, Powersoft amplifiers and Audac speakers add more clarity.
The Council Chamber offered a very different challenge to the 25 meeting rooms for Project AV, with the installation of a bespoke camera tracking and broadcast system in the Council Chamber.
To enhance the AV and interactive aspects of the Council Chamber, PAV specified and installed a Televic conferencing system, with bespoke camera integration and Teams connection. The Televic system provides session agendas, live voting, discussion moderation, hybrid collaboration, meeting reports and accessible recordings to take place, all from the same platform.
The chairman can control active speakers, set speech timers for each participant, collect votes automatically and share results immediately. Each delegate also has their own individual microphone and built-in loudspeaker to ensure they get their chance to speak with clear video and audio. It’s all done from a touch screen explains Hudson. “They can then control the whole meeting, they can see the queue of people wanting to speak, if somebody jumps the queue they can even see that from there. And, of course, if somebody’s getting a little bit out of hand, they can also close that mic and move to the next person.”
Five Angekis cameras are positioned to strategically capture the whole Chamber, with one dedicated focus on the chairman and the rest ensuring they capture each participant. They have a wide-angle lens, complimented by a 12x Optical and 4x digital zoom to give a clear image of each speaker, enhancing the feeling of transparency for constituents following proceedings online. The cameras also track audio to automatically focus on the person speaking, negating the need for a manual operator.
The Televic system has been integrated within the Council’s Teams ecosystem, making session recordings and data from votes automatically available in a set location, so the data can be analysed and incorporated in follow up materials as required.
The kit for this installation was chosen for a few reasons, Project AV had used it before and it was reliable, but also “because of the monitoring and support around the systems provided,” says Hudson. “Everything we provided at that point was the best in class possible for those rooms within the budget they had.”
What were the biggest challenges for Project AV in this particular install? “The meeting rooms were straightforward, the client was really accommodating and absolutely lovely to work with. The challenges were around the Council Chamber because it is a listed building, so finding cable routes because we were retrofitting stuff into the Council Chamber was tough. We’re not allowed to screw nails into certain things, so that can be an issue.”
Another issue linked to working in a listed building was that Project AV had to be sure the technology it installed would blend in with the architecture. “We’ve got to be mindful in these type of environments about the colour of equipment, because they are heritage (venues). We have to mindful the colours of kit that we put in is subtle and not really on show, it has to be almost hidden, so you don’t notice it too much.”
How did Project AV get the approval from the on-site IT team to what it was doing? “Before any installation we send clients a 48-page document,” says Hudson. “It tells them what our responsibilities are, what their responsibilities are, what their IT’s responsibilities are, what they need from IT. We also give them links to where they can get that information from. It’s a very, very specific document for installing Microsoft teams rooms. The idea is we take them through that journey beforehand and give them all the information they need before we go to site and that gives us the buy-in.”
The client is understandably delighted with the final results, with the design and installation winning the Best Government Project at the 2024 Inavation Awards.
“We’ve encountered no technical hiccups, and it is clear that the technology upgrade has significantly enhanced our meeting experience. Small and medium-sized rooms now benefit from camera tracking that makes meetings more engaging, ensuring that every voice is heard clearly. In our 12-metre long boardroom, the addition of speaker microphones has bridged the gap between in-person and remote attendees thanks to the seamless audio quality, creating a consistently immersive meeting experience. Even within the constraints of a Grade 2 listed building, there was zero damage by the time Project AV left.
Additionally, they worked diligently to address GDPR concerns, ensuring that our network and security requirements were met with precision,” said Tom Bindon, IT events officer, Kirklees Council.