AV Case Study: Kiwibank Meeting Rooms
Kiwibank has enhanced its meeting room spaces to further support its low-emission, hybrid working and flexible workplace ethos. Crestron Sightline helped create more adaptable, connected spaces designed to strengthen collaboration across the country.
24 August 2026
Kiwibank, New Zealand’s largest Kiwi-owned bank, has a clear purpose: making Kiwi better off. That ethos extends into its workplace culture, with a strong emphasis on employee wellbeing, hybrid working, and effective collaboration across offices, plus regional business hubs.
Product Lead Candice Barnard and Senior Product Manager Rachael Warrener led a multi-year transformation of the bank’s meeting spaces.
“We have a really strong ethos of our own employee wellbeing and hybrid working and flexible working,” explains Rachael. “We needed a solution that could support that.”
The result was an enhancement of around 60 meeting spaces across key Kiwibank sites in Aotearoa New Zealand, supported by Kiwibank’s AV technology partner, TenFour. The jewels in the crown are two reconfigurable training spaces cum boardrooms, featuring the first deployment of the Crestron Sightline platform in the NZ financial services sector.
The Auckland reconfigurable meeting space in various modes. Candice: “Crestron Sightline has allowed us to change the spaces from individual training rooms, to one large workshop space or one large boardroom space, and also opened out to the café for PD sessions, town halls, board meetings and everything in between.”
STRENGTHENING HYBRID COLLABORATION
As hybrid collaboration continues to be an important part of how Kiwibank teams work, the organisation saw an opportunity to enhance its meeting spaces and create a more consistent experience across its sites. Like many businesses, the covid lockdowns highlighted where hybrid meeting experiences could be strengthened. The decision was made to make a wholesale switch of the bank’s VC platform to Teams. A fresh start, effectively.
Rachael recalls: “People wanted meeting room technology that was simple, intuitive and consistent. They wanted to plug and play, and go into a meeting room without any fuss. It also helps team members joining remotely feel more involved and able to contribute.”
CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE NATIONWIDE
A core goal was delivering the same high-quality experience regardless of location. Around 60 meeting rooms were upgraded with Crestron Flex-enabled Microsoft Teams Rooms, Crestron AirMedia wireless presentation, soundbars, large screens, and occupancy sensors with illuminated Crestron room booking panels.
Candice emphasises: “It was important to create a familiar and intuitive experience across all our meeting rooms, for all our people, across sites. We pride ourselves as a hybrid workplace, so we want to make sure that everybody has the same experience everywhere.”
Rachael highlights the support benefits: “That promise of an improved and consistent experience isn’t only for our people but also the teams supporting the technology. We implemented Crestron’s XiO Cloud management software and set standards across our small, medium and large rooms. So that not only can our people just walk in and know what to expect, but the technology support teams know how to proactively troubleshoot and support.”
The Kairiki café can switch from lunch room to meeting and overflow space.
XIO CLOUD MANAGEMENT
XiO Cloud has become an important tool for proactive management. The platform provides remote access and analytics on room utilisation, helping Kiwibank make more informed decisions about workplace planning and enabling support teams to respond efficiently, including for regional sites without on-site IT.
Candice explains: “Crestron XiO Cloud helps us make data-driven decisions, so we can now see how meeting rooms are actually being utilised across all the Kiwibank offices.”
The platform has also supported a more proactive service experience. “From a support perspective, our meeting room incidents and the tickets with our support desk have dropped considerably,” says Candice. TenFour, the systems integrator, can now support regional offices remotely without site visits.
ONE-TOUCH SIMPLICITY
Crestron Flex with the promise of ‘one-touch join’ on Teams calls has helped make meetings simpler and more seamless. “One of the consistent themes we heard from team members was the importance of simplicity and ease of use when joining meetings,” says Candice. “Crestron Flex has made it a seamless experience for everyone.”
Another hit with team members: occupancy sensors, which automatically release no-shows (after seven minutes for standard rooms, with longer grace periods for priority or all-day bookings), improving utilisation. “Previously, we’d have to peer under the frosted glass to see if there were any legs in the room! So the Crestron room-booking system has been very well received,” notes Candice.
SIGHTLINE FLEXIBILITY IN MARQUEE SPACES
The flagship boardrooms in Auckland and Wellington received Crestron Sightline systems with VX Automate, multiple cameras for profile and room views, large multi-screen displays, and advanced automation. These spaces are no longer reserved for infrequent board meetings.
Candice describes the flexibility: “Giving our prime spaces real flexibility has been a game changer. For example, in Auckland, Crestron Sightline has allowed us to change the spaces from individual training rooms, to one large workshop space or one large boardroom space, and also opened out to the café for PD sessions, town halls, board meetings and everything in between.”
Rachael notes the equity impact between head offices: “We’ve got an Auckland and a Wellington head office. Historically, it could be more challenging for remote participants to pick up on visual cues and feel fully immersed in the discussion. Now, thanks to the Sightline multi-camera experience you can see people’s facial expressions and feel part of the room’s proceedings, not just be a spectator. It’s made for a far more inclusive and balanced experience, regardless of location.”
Automation simplifies reconfiguration. Operable walls in Auckland trigger automatic camera and system joining via sensors. A Crestron screen overlay (Intelligent Video Room Designer software) provides a map for precise furniture and camera positioning when layouts change – a major improvement over manual processes.
“The alternative was a much more manual process involving taped crosses on the floor,” notes Rachael. “Having this feature built into the system has made a real difference. My advice to anyone who’s moving furniture around: this is a feature you really need to consider.”
TEAMED UP: SENNHEISER TCC2
High-quality audio was critical in the large, glazed Sightline rooms. Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC2) microphones, paired with Q-SYS audio DSP, deliver clear voice capture across the space. Four ceiling mics work with the camera system to intelligently frame speakers. The sheer number of possible camera positions necessitated the greater TCC2 firepower.
Nathan Roche of TenFour confirms the microphones integrate seamlessly, with lobes configured for different camera positions and presentation areas. The result is natural, effortless conversations even in challenging acoustics.
SPECIALIST INTEGRATION WITH TENFOUR
Engaging AV specialist TenFour was pivotal. Nathan Roche, Director – Sales and Marketing, notes the long partnership dating back to 2011, evolving through digital signage, initial VC installs, and the full Teams migration.
Rachael explains the decision: “One of the key lessons learned from consulting with three large NZ companies in our discovery phase, was to use an AV specialist. We were already working with TenFour and its advice through selecting hardware and listening to what we wanted from a people experience point of view was incredibly useful.”
A pilot phase tested different cameras and configurations, helping refine the solution before full rollout. Microsoft sessions helped internal teams understand the solution.
“Having TenFour help us through that journey gave us confidence,” says Candice.
MEASURABLE STAFF BENEFITS
Post-rollout surveys highlighted words like ‘seamless’, ‘easy’, and ‘simplified’. Rachael and the team revisited discovery findings to ensure the new experience reflected what team members had said would make collaboration easier and more effective.
James Chapman, Kiwibank’s Head of Technology, reflects on the broader impact: “The new Crestron Flex-based MTRs, with each room persona featuring at least two large displays, have been quite a game changer. Hybrid participants now contribute more fully.”
“It is a whole different experience. Everyone now feels part of the meeting. In the large flexible space in Wellington, the all-day workshops are unquestionably more successful. Remote participants are now freely contributing when once they might have been more removed from the room experience. The other feedback we’re getting from the far end in these workshops: the Teams experience is more akin to watching a podcast rather than a session with a locked-off camera.”
The technology also supports Kiwibank’s B Corp status and carbon reduction goals by helping reduce the need for some travel between sites. Rooms are heavily utilised, with data from XiO Cloud informing future space planning.
LESSONS FOR THE INDUSTRY
Kiwibank’s meeting room upgrade demonstrates that thoughtful technology deployment, centred on user needs and supported by robust management platforms, can turn even the most prestigious spaces into everyday multipurpose assets while delivering genuine meeting equity across a dispersed organisation.
By taking a people-first approach to workplace technology, Kiwibank has created reliable, intuitive environments that teams trust and use. The result is stronger collaboration, greater meeting equity, improved utilisation, and a workplace experience that supports the bank’s modern, flexible and low-emission ethos.
TenFour: tenfour.nz
Crestron: crestron.com
Sennheiser: sennheiser.com
TAG (Q-SYS): tag.com.au
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