Regus - Berkeley Square House

Regus, the world’s largest provider of innovative workplace solutions, has recently opened its new flagship business lounge in Berkeley Square, Mayfair. In keeping with the desirable location, the facility, designed by architects Barr Gazetas, challenges preconceived ideas about traditional business venues and features a number of meeting rooms, conference suites and refreshment areas with a deliberate boutique hotel feel. From visionary architecture to the latest technology, it’s something London and the UK should be proud of. The cutting-edge audio visual design and installation - complete with Crestron control system - was carried out by award-winning integrator, Smartcomm.

Regus operates over 1000 business centres across 450 cities in 75 countries, all fully furnished and equipped with world-class business support services. The Mayfair building is a resource every professional can easily and cost effectively access. It has been designed to cater for businesses of all types and sizes. Corporate clients and mobile workers can take full advantage of state-of-the-art conference and training facilities, get access to telephones, internet, print from blackberry capabilities, and IT and administrative support. Interior design was carried out by Barr Gazetas in conjunction with branding consultant Honour Branding. Morgan Lovell carried out the fit-out whilst Smartcomm were responsible for the complete audio visual installation in the basement conference suite, ground floor reception and refreshment areas, as well as in various meeting rooms on two floors.

Design for the project commenced in August 2008 following Smartcomm’s pre tender discussions with Regus as to what technologies were available and which would be suitable for their particular application. “During the design process,” says Mark Allen of Smartcomm, “we had to keep in mind that the meeting and conference rooms would have a different user every day. Furthermore it would be likely that these users would be visiting for their first time and have no previous experience of the AV systems. From our experience we knew that a Crestron system would make laptop connection simple, and when combined with a touch panel, would ensure simple functionality and allow the user to select the material they want to see displayed on the screen quickly and easily. We took Regus to the Crestron HQ in Cobham and also to one of our recent award winning installations so that they could see this in action and from there they bought into our ideas in a big way.”

The main part of the installation began in February 2009 with completion early summer. The biggest technical challenge for Smartcomm was controlling the electro ‘Privalite’ glass which is used across the four adjoining meeting rooms on the ground floor. The Privalite glass features a unique technology which allows it to be switched from standard clear glass to frosted for privacy – and in this installation it also double functions as a holographic projection material. Furthermore each room has a sliding door which also needed the Privalite glass within it controlled. All these are now Crestron controlled along with the timed corporate event show each evening which features holographic style projection through the Privalite glass from ceiling recessed projectors within each room. All of this can be viewed from street level as one large 12 meter wide panoramic projection screen.

Another impressive feature which can be viewed from street level is the wall mounted Infinite Video Wall in Reception on the ground floor. Consisting of nine 42” bezel-less plasma screens in a 3x3 configuration, the video wall has been programmed to automatically display a variety of channels in different screen combinations throughout the day. This can be overridden to display a single image across all nine screens by choosing an alternative video source such as TV, DVD or News Feeds via a Crestron MT-1000C handheld wireless touchpanel. The plasma screens feature a unique Burn-in Compensation (BIC) Technology which minimises the effects of burn-in when static or repetitive images are displayed, ensuring the images remains bright, colourful and legible for many thousands of hours of operation.

Lighting control for the installation is via Crestron’s Din Rail system which seamlessly integrate lighting control with the audio visual, security, and building management systems installed in the building. The DIN-Rail form is highly efficient and requires only a fraction of the space of a traditional equipment rack. The Din-Rail system also controls the repetitive cycle of colour changing lights inset into all front facing windows of the building creating a colourful and eye-catching effect for passers by.

An Omnivex Digital Signage solution was integrated within the system to allow distribution of content such as news, company data, instant messages and tickertapes to all display screens within the building. Furthermore, the Mayfair facility, as a central location, has the capability to control and manage the content distributed to remote display screens across the entire network thus allowing it to deliver standardized content and messages over IP and Ethernet to all Regus locations across the UK once all centres have been connected to the network. Interlinked with the Omnivex digital signage system is Crestron’s Roomview Remote Asset Management Software – a multi-user help desk software that delivers complete facility-wide network control of AV resources. Using the two interlinked systems, display screens in each meeting room can show when that particular meeting room has been booked and by whom.

The display screens also show Exterity IPTV which is distributed across the buildings IP network over a local area network (LAN). With IPTV, Regus can easily distribute terrestrial and satellite television and radio, videos/DVDs, digital videos on-demand (VoDs), digital signage, information boards, and web content throughout the facility. All of this multimedia content can be viewed on standard and high definition TVs and various kinds of AV display equipment, as well as PCs on every desktop.

The installation also features the Crestron TPS-6X touchpanel. Designed for speed, style and versatility, the TPS-6X features high-end aesthetics in a sleek, ergonomic design. While docked, the TPS-6X is a hard wired panel with full-motion video display and when undocked the panel automatically switches to a wireless RF device with long-range, high-speed two-way RF communication up to 200 feet. The TPS-6X touchpanels are used to easily and effectively control the functionality of all audio visual devices in the meeting rooms, together with environmental and lighting control.

The meeting rooms, both on the ground and first floor, have either a 50-inch or 60-inch wall mounted LG screen with an Exterity IPTV receiver, a floor box with video and audio inputs for guest laptops and sources, a Crestron TPS-6X touchpanel or a Crestron TPS4 desk mounted flip top touch panel and processor. Some of the meeting rooms also include 2m twin track sliding presentation systems with writing boards and flipcharts.

The Berkeley Video Conferencing Room features a Polycom VSX-7400e unit including a sound system and camera, two flush mounted 42-inch LG screens, in-ceiling speakers and a TPS-6X touchpanel. The twin screens allow the video image to be displayed on the left hand screen whilst the right hand screen can be used to easily share documents, presentations, images and more during a video conference. A 60-inch LG LCD screen in the Russell Room has an interactive Smartboard touch screen overlay integrated with it to enhance user presentations by enabling the presenter to control computer applications directly from the display.

The installation also features a PA and background music system with in-ceiling speakers throughout the bar and lounge areas.

Jessica Rentzos van Rozen, Senior Project Manager for UK Property at Regus comments, "Following Smartcomm’s installation of the AV in our latest Flagship Business Lounge / Conference Centre in Berkeley Square, London, we are very pleased with the end result. The majority of the installation took place during the refurbishment of the site and under very tight deadlines. The team onsite did a great job and were key in the development of the various solutions. The works that were undertaken during the set up of the site were done with minimal disruption to the business and all systems were fully operational before the launch of the Centre."