Part of the Bosch Group, BBT (better known for its Worcester, Bosch Group brand) is the largest supplier of heating products in Europe, with an estimated turnover of approximately 2.5 billion. Around 1,800 personnel work for the UK division, many at the headquarters, based in Worcester.
Last year, as part of a £3.5m expansion project, the company commenced work on building an 'Energy Atrium' to showcase high efficiency and renewable energy products, as well as develop meeting room and conference facilities. By the time AAV Ltd were invited to take over the project at the start of the year, the AV fit out had become something of a fast track proposition. Tasked by BBT's IT and Network Project administrator, Gary Whenman with equipping three meeting rooms (including a lecture theatre) and creating dynamic media for both the contact centre and Energy Atrium, AAV's project manager Darren Scott designed a solution based largely round components from display company Paradigm AV and top-end projection company Christie.
AAV have been Christie partners since they set up five years ago and have generally specified the company's projectors at this level "because the service and back-up are so good - and I know the projectors will work straight out of the box".
Knowing how much natural daylight would be admitted in this galleria-like environment he knew he would need to combine high output projection with high-gain media - and this led him to Paradigm AV.
His decision to mount two of the Paradigm-distributed 40in dnp Holo Screens against each of the two contact centre windows - one displaying CNN television the other updated contact centre statistics - had been inspired by the managing director at BBT Thermotechnology UK, Richard Soper, who had seen the impact made by holographic glass screens while visiting a museum in Germany.
AAV managed to secure access to the roof void to insert a pair of Paradigm's Easy Erect Mirror Rigs, in which are cradled a pair of Christie LX40 4000 lumen LCD XGA projectors; these are fed from a bank of servers and the output deflected off the carefully-aligned mirrors.
"Paradigm was our first port of call because we know how reliable their holographic screens are," says Scott. "At he same time it was the correct decision to upgrade to a 4000 lumen projector because of the amount of daylight coming through the glass roof of the atrium. This has created a perfect, and highly popular solution for Bosch and is a real talking point for visitors."
The three Atrium lecture theatres are all front-screen projected onto drop-down screens using Christie LX series devices, fitted with standard lens and operating under AMX control. The smaller meeting rooms feature an LX34, the major lecture theatre, which seats 100, uses an LX50, fitted with standard lens, to project onto a 2.4m x 3m screen. AAV were also asked to equip the main 14-seat boardroom with a front-projected LX34.
The entire cabling infrastructure uses German spec Cat7 which streams 10 gigabit Ethernet over 100 metres of copper cabling. Onto this network AAV have also placed interactive LCD touch screens to showcase Worcester's Energy Houses. These houses are displayed on four screens and show how Worcester's high efficiency and renewable energy products are making a difference in people's homes. Visitors can touch the screens to navigate their lifestyles, property types, efficiency ratings (before and after installation) and how it has made a difference to their energy use.
Gary Whenman says: "As far as our AV requirements are concerned it is a constantly evolving process. Technology quickly becomes outdated while the requirement for new multimedia is endless."
(Chris Henry)
