The London Borough of Croydon Council

AV Consulting from initial visioning through to design, procurement and implementation sees London Borough of Croydon benefit from mobility and collaboration in 21C BREEAM certified HQ.

Technologies & Innovations

Meeting room and auditorium AV including interactive whiteboards, digital signage, IPTV video conferencing, remote management, wireless microphones and camera capture system for live event streaming.

The Client

With a workforce of about 10,500 staff, including teachers in schools, Croydon Council is the largest employer in the borough. Spending over £900 million per year, the council makes a significant contribution to the local economy. The council provides a large number of services for local people, businesses and visitors to the borough, including services for children and adults, and environmental, cultural, sports, housing, planning and benefits services.

The Team

EPR, AECOM

As well as its main office at Taberner House in the city centre, Croydon Council operated from a variety of other locations. As part of an efficiency drive, the Council decided to consolidate a number of these sites into one site, creating a new 230,000 sq ft environmentally-friendly civic centre complex called Bernard Weatherill House (BWH).

BWH would be a modern HQ for 3,800 members of staff and its partner organisations (the Met Police, NHS, Jobcentre Plus, Croydon Credit Union and Citizens Advice Bureau). The project would see 11 Council buildings close with all the services coming under one roof. With its new HQ, the Council was looking to set an example of fresh thinking, sustainability and efficiency in local Government, to meet the needs of residents in the 21st Century. To get even greater efficiency, the move to the new complex would see the Council adopt flexible working arrangements. The Council recognised that technology would be a key enabler of its new modern working environment, with AV being of particular importance for the new workspace.

Cordless Consultants (Cordless) was engaged by the Council to provide AV and Multimedia consultancy to help the Council envision and then deliver AV and Multimedia workplace solutions befitting of a modern, collaborative and flexible working environment.

Cordless worked with the Council to bring early AV focus and thinking to the planned build project to make sure that the Council’s collaboration and flexible working requirements were conceptualised and new AV technologies could be considered and built into the budget, design and implementation phases of the relocation programme.

Cordless was then retained to help the client procure and manage the implementation of the most appropriate AV and Multimedia workplace technology for the Council’s new premises. It was important to work within a strict 3 month programme timescale for the fit out and to follow a best practice procurement framework.

Cordless advised on and oversaw the procurement and implementation of AV and Multimedia technology for a 150 person divisible auditorium, a range of meeting rooms throughout the building as well as training facilities. The technology included interactive whiteboards, digital signage, IPTV video conferencing, remote management, wireless microphones and a camera capture system to record and stream live events.

Cordless also helped design a containment system that would fit with the modern design of the building, allowing the trunking to be built into the walls so that it was not visible.

Cordless supported the Client right through to training and handover on the new workplace AV technology.

The Client was delighted with its new Headquarters, which subsequently earned BREEAM certification for its recognition as a sustainable building.

The AV and Multimedia technology implemented with the help of Cordless has made a big difference to how people now work at the Council, increasing the use of hot-desking and allowing people to collaborate and work more flexibly as they move around the building.

Future planned improvements to the Council’s meeting room booking systems are expected to further increase workplace efficiency.

Paul Cohen, Senior ICT Project Manager for London Borough of Croydon said:

“AV functionality is an incredibly important component to the way that the Council works in our new Headquarters. Being able to work from anywhere in the building gives us the mobility and collaborative flexibility befitting of a 21st Century Council. Thanks to the innovative AV technology that Cordless helped to build into the fabric of Bernard Weatherill House, we no longer have to carry piles of paperwork into our meetings like we used to!  We were very happy with the work that Cordless did for us, we had a great working relationship – Cordless fitted very well into our team and were very hands-on throughout the project.”