When Wokingham District Council took the decision to modernise the council chamber and adjoining meeting rooms at their headquarters, Facilities manager Peter Richardson looked for a solution by consulting Panasonic Business Systems, a one-time resident manufacturer in Wokingham.
With an enviable reputation as a market leader in top quality presentation systems, Panasonic called in one of their major southern UK distributors, First Choice Solutions, to come up with a turnkey solution for the design and installation of a display and presentation system that would fully meet the council's needs.
First Choice Solutions of Guildford has equipped and install similar bespoke systems for many of the U.K.'s leading universities and colleges already so they were well aware of the importance of providing clients with cost-effective installations that would be completed with the minimum of distribution, on time and within budget. Since the quality of one manufacturer’s display equipment and another's may be hard to differentiate, the difference between providing a winning solution or an "also-ran" can depend on the professionalism of its design and installation. This is where the First Choice Solutions team used its experience to really come into its own at Wokingham!
What the Wokingham management were looking for was an up-to-the-minute large screen display system that would (i) facilitate the latest in PC controlled audiovisual communication/display technologies and (ii) complement the grand and tidy interior of the council chamber. Since the offices have limited space and were in continual use for local government affairs and business meetings, it was important to the management that the daily activities of the chamber were not disturbed in any way so that business could carry on as usual. As Peter Richardson commented: “ Phil Dyer and his installation team at FCS were very flexible in their working arrangements and, while installing quite a sophisticated array of display and control equipment, allowed us to get on with our work undisturbed. We were impressed by the respect with which they treated the integrity of the building. Everything “slotted in” so well into the surroundings, both technically and aesthetically.”
A room with a view - the council chamber
in the main chamber, FCS provided an almost panoramic viewing chamber by fitting 2 x 50” plasma screens flanking the central stage area and mounting 2 more 50” screens on mobile stands which could be wheeled to other areas in the chamber. This was particularly significant for the occasions when attendance in the chamber was at its highest as this configuration gave uncluttered viewing right round the room.
With a comprehensive array of video/AV playback, databanks and graphic displays to select from, the key elements of the system was a 16-Channel console which controlled the output of a variety of live and recorded images to, not only the audience in the chamber itself but, at busy times when adjoining rooms had to be used, to those rooms as well.
The need to provide a multi-mix of signals and images to several rooms put considerable demands on the “installation creativity” of the first choice team! These demands were stretched even further by the need to ensure that the general look and quality of the existing wooden wall panels was not compromised. Here the installation team make sure that all cabling, connectors and sockets were discreetly hidden so that the clean lines of the room interior were maintained.
Up front with information - the reception areas
Once the council chamber was completed to Peter's satisfaction, First Choice Solutions were given the job to supply and install a 40” wall mounted flat LCD screen into each of the two main reception areas at the front of the building. Again the selection of equipment could not be compromised, since functionality and looks had to complement the reception in interior. Since both the type of information being provided and the image quality of these displays required a specification that could not be met by the screens being used in the chamber itself, FCS recommended and supplied 40” LCD panels made by NEC. Now, in the reception area, visitors can view at a glance, the complete day's proceedings on the screens. At the beginning of each day, via a bespoke PC software package, the full booking system for all meeting rooms, detailing the subject matter, content and location of each meeting, is transferred from the internal database onto an Excel-type spreadsheet format and displayed on the reception display screens. To ensure that only up-to-date information is shown, 30 minutes after a meeting ends, the information relating to that meeting is automatically deleted from the display.
As Peter Richardson, the facilities manager at Wokingham District Council said: “I've been very impressed by the care and attention that the First Choice team have taken in every aspect of the installations here. Now staff and visitors to the newly equipped offices cannot fail to be impressed by the facilities that are available to them.”
This has been a success story for Wokingham District Council - brought to them by First Choice Solutions. If you need the sort of help that first choice can give - to make your facilities a success, then give our team at Guildford a call and see how we can do it together.
Please install Flash to see the slideshow