Hurrairah bin Sohail delves into the MetLife project in Tokyo, Japan with PTS Consulting which demonstrates the value of an extensive and adaptable global AV standard. Find out how the global standard with local feedback led to the deployment of AV systems.
MetLife is one of the
largest global providers
of insurance, annuities,
and employee beneï¬t
programmes, with 90
million customers in over 60 countries. An
operation of that size necessitates a global
footprint and MetLife has ofï¬ ces in Tokyo to
serve its Japanese customers.
The company decided to undertake a
consolidation initiative to bring its Japanese
workforce together and operating from a central
space. The project was broken down into three
phases. The ï¬ rst phase was the construction of
a new head ofï¬ ce, Tokyo Garden Terrace. The
second and third phase involved consolidating
and restacking the existing MetLife ofï¬ces at
Olinas Tower in Kinshicho, Tokyo.
MetLife’s aim was not just to consolidate their
ofï¬ ces in a central location but to modernise its
workspaces across the board; from facilites to IT
and AV. The AV side of the project was helmed
by Metlife Multimedia overseen globally by a
head of multimedia engineering, who is based
in the United States of America.
PTS Consulting was brought on to perform
IT and AV project management. PTS Consulting
Japan’s AV multimedia team is bilingual and
expert in AV technology localisation - not only
in terms of product selection but also gathering
exact requirements of Japanese users matched
against global designs.
John Loving from PTS Consulting Japan talks
about the role: “MetLife is an international
company. But for this initiative, the project
team was largely Japanese, the majority of the
workforce in the Tokyo ofï¬ ce as well as the
building construction team and contractors
were Japanese. It goes without saying that
Japanese communication was essential and
part of our role was to provide that layer of
communication. The team in the US was not yet
engaged with the local team and facilitating the
communication was essential.”
PTS Consulting also provided local expertise
on culture and working customs as Loving
details: “The project was being driven from the
US and it was the ï¬ rst time key directives and
multimedia initiatives were being implemented
in Japan. The beneï¬ ts of these directives need
to be explained to the Japanese side and
communicating local feedback to the US was
essential.”
Schedule and budget management were also
a huge part of the role PTS Consulting Japan
performed. Loving says: “This was a huge
project spanning across two sites. We worked
with the project team and AV integrator to value
engineer the workspaces and optimise systems.
There were a total of 226 rooms including two
boardrooms, a three-way divisible training room,
a ï¬ ve-way divisible training room and a photo
studio.”
Set standards
Like most global corporate deployments, PTS
Consulting Japan and the AV contractors were
working off a standard. Loving goes into detail:
“The standards and designs for the AV system
at MetLife were the most comprehensive that
I have worked with. The reference schematics
were standardised to a degree that even the
equipment port assignments were specified. The
reason for the thoroughness is that MetLife uses
a single program globally.
“The program used in all the rooms and AV
systems is modular and allows changes via
the admin panel. So for example, if you want
to enable videoconferencing in a room that
previously did not have the capability, you just
have to bring in the videoconferencing system
specified by the standard. Plug it in according to
the standard and then just enable the relevant
program modules for the room via the touch
panel and the space has been upgraded. This
means all the rooms can be easily changed into
different configurations.”
One of the pitfalls of a global standard is that
you can end up with rooms and spaces that are
‘over-spec’d’ in terms of AV equipment. Loving
says: “When I looked at the designs they were
not grossly over-spec’d. What you could save on
the equipment cost, you would have to spend on
programming for an atypical project.
“If you have a loose standard and overkill,
then it might be wasteful. But at MetLife, real
thought has been put into making the standard,
the equipment, the design and the programming
for the AV systems.”
However, the standard was not the be all and
end all. Loving explains: “The global standard
is not static. When new equipment is brought
in the standard is upgraded. It is very forward
thinking. We had already taken into account the
type of equipment which would be necessary in
Japan and made adjustments to the program
to accommodate these changes. But no real
changes had to be made to the core of program.
“During the course of the installation, we also
found that there were certain features, interpretation
being a notable one, which had to be added to the
rooms. This was accommodated and the program
was upgraded so that now interpretation is part
of the global standard and if any other MetLife
office wants to deploy it they just need to add the
module and procure the equipment.”
With the design for the AV systems for the
MetLife project not an issue, PTS Consulting
Japan got to work. Loving says: “Multimedia
was behind schedule and getting the team
working on the project to understand the reality
of AV was the first thing we did. We can move
things around to fit the overall schedule of the
project but it is also imperative that everyone
understands that multimedia also needs time
and that some things can’t be rushed.
“We had great support to tackle the project
from the US while PTS Consulting Japan worked
on the ground. You don’t always get the level of
support from the client that we were lucky to get
on this project.”
Again, the global standard developed by
MetLife helped. Loving says: “The global
standard really cut down on project time. Our
main question for MetLife Japan was whether
there was anything about the standardised
rooms that didn’t meet their requirements. The
global standard cut down so much of the user
confirmation part of the project and a lot of the
back and forth that happens when designing AV
systems was eliminated”.
The rooms at MetLife are internally referred to
as Huddle rooms, Huddle-V, Connect rooms and
Convene rooms along with training rooms. These
are spaces with varying degrees of presentation and
videoconferencing capabilities able to accommodate
differing group sizes. In addition, there were special
boardrooms for high-level meetings.