AV Case Study: KPMG Brisbane Office
KPMG sprinted ahead in the race to roll out Teams rooms across its Australian offices, with Rhona Duncanson running point. Rhona describes the challenge and the new Brisbane digs.
9 September 2024
Text:/ Christopher Holder
KPMG has been a Microsoft house for a long time. Prior to the covid shutdowns, every KPMG employee was running Teams, but audio-only. Then, with staff locked down at home, the decision was made to throw the ‘video switch’. All 10,000 Australian staff were instructed to log out at a preordained time then log back in with Teams video now activated. The network handled the load and the Big 4 professional services provider turned the page on a brand new chapter of working from home and hybrid meetings.
“These days, it’s very rare to have a meeting with everyone present in the room. Invariably there’s always someone off site.” Rhona Duncanson is the Workplace Portfolio Project Manager and oversees the roll out of KPMG Teams rooms.
TRAILBLAZER
KPMG was a covid-era trailblazer. When other big corporates took more of a wait-and-see approach, KPMG lost no time in upgrading spaces, transforming them all into Teams rooms.
“During 2020 and 2021, when all of our buildings were shut to staff, my main project was to Teams-enable every single meeting room. I refitted 250 meeting rooms while our offices were closed, and then put Crestron Teams panels in the all of them. Next in line were our PIPO (pop in/pop out) rooms, which previously had just a desk and a tabletop phone. We upgraded around 100 of those with a screen, a camera and a cable – no keyboard and mouse.
“Undertaking that work during lockdowns was opportune. We had to endure long lead times – they were excruciating during that period – but once you actually got the equipment on site, we were achieving in a two-week period what would have taken three months or more. We got the whole project done in six months – 250 rooms that would normally have taken two years. In normal circumstances, you could only work from six till nine in the morning, whereas we had installers in there from 9 to 5, drilling, making noise, dust, everything.”
3 x 3 Samsung video walls double as addressable screens for spillover content display and for use as corporate digital signage.
BRISBANE MOVE
Moving the Brisbane office to four floors of the new Suncorp building was a different proposition but Rhona and her team were ‘match fit’ and ready for the challenge.
“We already had our personas – our room designs – created in 2020. They were refined somewhat as people returned but they were well tested and engrained. For staff, it was mainly about becoming accustomed to the Crestron touchpanel on the meeting room table. It had the same calendar and same colours everyone was used to, and now it had a ‘Connect’ button.
“There are five or six room personas, then we’ve got bespoke rooms on top of that, which are all the large client-facing rooms, and will have more TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphones and more loudspeakers in the room. They’ll have a lectern in the room with additional Sennheiser wireless.”
The largest bespoke space is an open-kitchen, Connect space which doubles as a gathering place for town halls and events. It features a large dropdown projection screen for visuals. Sennheiser Speechline wireless microphones combine with QSC pendant and in-ceiling loudspeakers for sound reinforcement.
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with the level of AV and tech integration the calibre of our events are amazing and would not have been possible in the old office
Boardroom: The boardroom features two cameras, one for participants seated at the table and one for anyone presenting in front of the dual screens. The room can be controlled via the table-based Crestron touchpanel of via the wallpanel, if the table is removed to accommodate a function. Sennheiser TCC2 systems capture speech for the far end on the Teams calls as well as positional data for the PTZ cameras. Presenters can utilise Sennheiser Speechline wireless microphones. AV can be relayed to other spaces for overflow purposes.
Connect Space consists of a projection system recessed in the ceiling with a Crestron Flex conferencing solution running as Microsoft Teams Room. The system makes use of a Crestron 10-inch touchpanel located on the wall next to the brainstorm screen, to route video in the room and to run the MTR user interface application. The touchpanel is capable of both conferencing and room controls. The Connect Space also consists of a front and a rear camera for capturing the audience and presenter. Sennheiser Speechline handheld and lapel microphones in the room are used for audio pickup. At the rear of the space is the Barista screen, utilised for digital signage. The system also makes use of nearby Samsung screens and QSC loudspeakers to overflow content when required, including to the Client Connect video wall.
THE CEILING A HIT
If the Teams rooms, with the integration of Q-SYS DSP, Crestron control and the TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphone arrays, constitute the engine room of the KPMG fitout, the big LED ceiling is the showstopper.
Crowning the client floors, the LED ceiling is an absolute stunner and came about via conversations between KPMG and The Ci Group, the technology integrator for the project. The lobby of the Ann Street building is quite the calling card. The Ci Group installed 250sqm of LED in the building’s foyer (winning an AVIA for its efforts) – something KPMG execs walked past every day on their way up to work. “The LED ceiling has been an amazing feature,” confirms Rhona. “On one occasion we worked with a local university to display some artwork, using our Samsung video walls and the LED ceiling. We had accompanying music which worked beautifully. On another occasion we had a KPMG partners’ dinner, where we had 60 seated for dinner. We had stars of the nightsky displayed on the LED ceiling and it looked awesome. The Ci Group worked hard on the LED ceiling and has worked really well with the KPMG team on bedding it in.”
Any meeting space regardless of size includes a dedicated camera, soundbar, and Sennheiser TCC2 mic array, and can be accessed by remote participants.
CHOOSING SENNHEISER
For Rhona Duncanson choosing technology partners is an important part of ensuring consistent reproducible results: “Security features are a given and the usability piece is important,” confirms Rhona. “I sometimes get my 13 year old in to stress test the ease of use!
“What’s also very important from our technology partners is support. KPMG is a service provider and we understand good service, and it’s essential when you’re dealing with technology.
“All our microphone systems are from Sennheiser, including 44 TCC2 ceiling microphones in the new Brisbane office. The performance of the TCC2 is outstanding and they look beautiful.”
TRANSFORMED
Job done. But for Rhona Duncanson, there’s no time to smell the roses and bask in a job well done, she’s onto the next MTR challenge. But she has a couple of interesting reflections around the fact Brisbane (and Queensland at large) had a very different covid to, say, NSW and Victoria. There were only about four or so weeks of lockdowns, and workers aren’t quite so acclimated to working from home. “The new Brisbane office is full!” confirms Rhona. “In fact, aspects of the office design have made it even a more popular destination for KPMG staff. For example, the large kitchen on each of the floors are very popular among staff for having ad hoc meetings and connecting. Our ability to host events has also been transformed – with the level of AV and tech integration, the calibre of our events are amazing and would not have been possible in the old office.”
WHY NOT HAVE BOTH?
The Ci Group technical team speaks of their pride in what was accomplished with KPMG Brisbane workplace technology project: “KPMG is the most technologically complex system we have implemented to date in Brisbane, integrating and networking both Q-SYS and Crestron systems.
“Control and automation of KPMG’s rooms are equally split between the two (Crestron and Q-SYS) in order to utilise the strengths of both ecosystems, allowing for a high degree of customisation while maintaining simplified operation for users.
“The integration of both Q-SYS and Crestron systems offers a robust solution for a complex networked AV environment, combining the strengths of both systems to provide a seamless user experience.”
The Ci Group: thecigroup.com.au
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