Syngenta is one of the world's leading companies with more than 25,000 employees in over 90 countries. 800 staff are employed at the Centre in Berkshire, which is the company's largest site for agrochemical R&D.
As part of an efficiency drive to increase productivity and site usage, Syngenta put into place a three part programme, which included improving communications, the main focus of which was on making The Elements Building a central hub of the site. Already home to the dining room and refreshments areas, as well as some little used meeting rooms, the Elements Building underwent a complete refurbishment incorporating eight meeting facilities plus informal meeting areas, all run by an on-site dedicated concierge.
For Syngenta, the key to getting staff to use the new facilities regularly was the combination of quality and ease of use of the meeting facilities. Clearly the concierge is an important contributor in that but the audio visual technology lay at the very heart.
Laurie Reynolds, one of the Infrastructure Projects Team at Syngenta, explains: "No pain - that's what we wanted. The AV equipment had to be easy to use and ready to go. We wanted to build staff confidence so it's important they can use the equipment from the very first time. We didn't want to have to go through a complex learning process, which people will quickly forget if they don't use the equipment regularly."
Following detailed discussions between PEL Services and Syngenta, the decision was made to use a Bose ESP digital system with touch panel control. As it's a digital system, all the work setting up the system was done by PEL during installation and commissioning.
The other important consideration for the AV system was simple connectivity, without lots of wires everywhere. PEL has designed the system to accommodate this requirement through, for example, the use of floor boxes embedded flush in the floor; equipment is simply plugged into the socket in the box without any sight of cables connecting to the power supply, says the company.
To achieve the quality of sound required, PEL installed Bose loudspeakers throughout the meeting rooms and in the dining room / auditorium. There is an extensive choice of feeds available including DAB radio, iPod, CD, DVD and Laptop, plus roving microphones.
In terms of the visual facilities in The Elements Building, the main dining room benefits from a large retractable screen and a projector. The meeting rooms also have projectors and 3M electronic whiteboard to enable staff to have technical meetings in real time with colleagues in other parts of Business worldwide.
The Elements Building is a truly impressive facility and shows what quality and flexibility can be achieved in an AV system, without frightening the users, states PEL.
(Claire Beeson)
