Hurrairah bin Sohail talks to an end user and an integrator about their combined efforts to implement an experience-led office design and the technology that enables it.
Commercial offices are evolving as we speak. The demand for change is being driven by the war for talent as companies look to
create engaging workplaces.
Jones Lang LaSalle [JLL], a
commercial real estate service
provider, embraced this shift
in the future of work when
establishing its new home in
Hong Kong. The project is a
step in the longer journey of
upgrading JLL’s technology
across its APAC offices.
Patrick Stewart-Blacker is a
specialist advisor on smart
buildings within JLL’s digital
solutions. He says: “Our CEO,
Christian Ulbrich, has made it
very clear to the market that JLL
believes that technology will play
an integral role in the future of all
businesses. As such we need to
evolve and change to meet the
needs of our clients.”
He continues: “Building
people-centric office spaces
requires us to deliver a frictionless
experience day to day, where
the technology enables a better
working environment without
teams even noticing. We set out
to deliver an agile working
environment where technology
supports this journey rather than
being the showpiece.”
JLL’s office in Hong Kong
features a variety of meeting
spaces ranging from collaboration
spaces, breakout areas, and an
interactive client suite, JLL NXT
Space. Principle One was chosen
as the integrator for the project.
Regarding the selection of the
integrator, Stewart-Blacker says:
“We wanted a partner who
understood what we were trying
to achieve and who could turn our
conceptual ideas into reality with
an understanding of how to build
an IoT centric space. Principle
One brought its experience
of building IT systems and
combining audio visual systems
to the table.”
As you enter the seventh floor,
the first thing that strikes the
visitor is a MultiTaction 5 by 1
videowall which is used to start
the journey around the JLL space.
Around the modern office you
find a mixture of Cisco Webex
enabled rooms and simple
presentation spaces powered by a
Creston ecosystem. Surprisingly,
there is little traditional video
switching in the JLL space as
it was just not required for the
business to operate. The simple
spaces use Crestron AM-300 units
which provide room booking
calendar information in the
meeting room, wireless and
wired connectivity without any
user control devises.
Stewart-Blacker details how
the separate AV products work
in tandem: “The way that the
MultiTaction solution has been
set up means that most of the
content is driven to this display.
It has a Crestron Air Media built
into the back and there is HDMI
connectivity to the server. There
is no videowall engine per se, the
display is driven by the server
which has a capture card built in.
The beauty of the system is that
the PC is doing the work and
generating the content providing
a smooth experience.”
The centrepiece of the JLL
office in Hong Kong is the JLL
NXT Space. Stewart-Blacker
details how the AV systems bring
it to life: “We use NXT Space to
engage with clients in a more
collaborative way. For instance,
our leasing team uses the space to
run client presentations in an
interactive environment using
live market data, allowing clients
to make faster, better informed
real estate decisions. NXT Space
also provides all of our teams
with a valuable collaboration
and workshopping tool built
around our design thinking
led engagement principle.
MultiTaction gives us a dynamic
tool that provides flexibility
and interactivity on a standard
platform without much need
for bespoke programming.”
Tying the AV systems together
is a Crestron control system and a
Crestron Fusion system. This
forms part of the technology
ecosystem that JLL has deployed
in the Hong Kong space and will
continue to develop moving
forwards.
Stewart-Blacker says: “We
bought into the Crestron
ecosystem because it is easy to
look at a lot of the data from AV
systems in silos, but we wanted
to look at data from the entire
installation and Crestron brings
that to the table. It gives us an
option, not just in Hong Kong, to
start looking across our complete
portfolio of real estate.”
He continues: “We wanted to
remotely access meeting rooms
and for our support engineers
to solve issues from anywhere
across the world. We wanted to
have a room booking system that
was adaptive and could help us
intelligently use our spaces.”
Krick Lau, executive director
of Principle One, talks about
the driving force behind the
conception and deployment of
every AV system: “AV is a tool
to enable the operation of the
rooms. In combination with the
sensors and the IT systems the
main aim is to make the lives of
the users as easy as possible and
enhance their experience.”
Lau continues: “JLL has a very
similar philosophy to Principle
One, where the journey of the
user and the user experience
comes first. The meeting spaces
are not small, so expecting a user
to set everything up themselves
or calling up the IT department
would mean wasted time. So, all
the meeting spaces have been
automated and are self-driven.”
However, delivering the desired
user experience was not always
easy. Stewart-Blacker says: “We
have a clear desk policy, even for
our large meeting spaces such as
the boardroom. You can spend a
fortune on such spaces and still
end up with wires scattered across
the table. We worked together
with Principle One to find a way
to avoid this.”
On the side of the integrator
making sure no wires were visible
or evident was a challenge. Lau
says: “We didn’t expect JLL to
use a lot of HDMI because by
definition that means you need to
plug in a HDMI cable. Everything
had to be wireless which meant
that users had to get access to the
internet network. This however
means that you need to have
internal access to the corporate
network as well as guest access
for the network because you
need to protect your information.
As you can imagine, this causes
firewall issues when external
devices try to connect to the
network. This is a known issue
and wireless presentation at
present cannot cater to this
situation. This is the reason a
single HDMI cable is provided
for when external devices need
to be used for presentation. A
boardroom is also present in case
you need further collaboration.”
Audio is provided by a range of
QSC speakers and picked up by
Shure ceiling microphones.
The Shure ceiling microphone
is a key product enabling the
desired user experience. StewartBlacker says: “You can conduct
a panel discussion with three to
four people in our meeting spaces
without a microphone because
of the Shure beamforming
microphones in the ceilings. They
can do audience voice pick-up if
you want and the system can
be configured to account for a
standing or seated audience. This
was perfect for us because we did
not want to make meetings any
more complicated for users and
reducing the clutter of technology
that you see in many spaces.”
To conclude Stewart-Blacker
says: “With the Hong Kong office,
we have continued to modernise
our workspaces across the world.
The next milestone on our
journey is the opening of our
new Singapore headquarters,
which harnesses robust and
well considered technology to
provide an exceptional working
environment for our staff to
engage with our clients in more
fruitful and innovative ways.”