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Case Study
01/10/2025
With its bracing mix of delicately restored period properties and modern new-build structures, London’s Norton Folgate redevelopment scheme on the edge of Spitalfields is getting a lot of attention.
In September, its Folgate Building development became the new headquarters for The Investment Association (IA), the trade body for the UK’s investment industry. Representing over 240 members and £9 trillion in assets, the IA accommodates around 90 staff and had a very clear vision for its new home. Demanding a range of flexible collaboration environments, it described the space as one “designed to better support its members, colleagues, and the wider investment management community.”
But staying sympathetic to the design of the building while encouraging the distributed and remote demands of modern business workflows – not to mention building in enough flexibility to adapt to changes in the future – meant totally rethinking its connectivity and AV spaces.
In order to deliver a fully integrated, intuitive, and futureproof AV network, IA appointed end-to-end project specialist Design AV Europe as the consultant and project lead. Along with audio technology experts Audiologic, Design AV configured a system that not only supports hybrid working and in-person events but overcomes the building’s significant architectural constraints.
The Folgate Building is a contemporary workspace with exposed finishes, slab to slab partitions, and – crucially – no ceiling voids. That meant every single element had to simultaneously be sympathetic with its environment and installed in plain sight.
Collaborating with Folgate’s interior designers to ensure every piece of technology blended with this aesthetic, Design AV’s specification was demanding. The installation covers three conference rooms; a primary boardroom with a 26-person table and remote participants, as well as two adaptable conference rooms that share an AV infrastructure and can be used independently or combined together. A further three Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) -capable meeting rooms are also on the network, while a multipurpose café and town hall provides a space for informal gatherings and larger staff events.
All speaker and microphone finishes needed to match their surrounding materials wherever possible, and all cable routing had to be carefully concealed in line with the venue’s interior design. Physically it was a big ask, but the ability to embrace a more hybrid workforce also requires a far more hybrid working environment, and IA’s challenges didn’t end at the building’s exposed brick and concrete ceilings. The IA needed their new headquarters to reflect the role it plays as the collective voice of the UK’s investment industry and deliver inclusivity across all its communications.
Working with Audiologic, Design AV created a fully integrated ecosystem built around Q-SYS, Shure, and Unilumin technologies to give IA the same experience whether they’re hosting a board meeting, an all-staff town hall, or working with clients outside of the building. The company was also keen to adopt Shure’s interpretation of voice lift, a sound reinforcement technology that combines ceiling array microphones, DSP, and loudspeakers located throughout a space to amplify voices enough for everyone to hear clearly. The boardroom required voice lift for all 26 seated participants, and for conference rooms two and three it needed to work whether they were being used independently or together. It was also required to deliver consistent coverage across the entire town hall space.
According to Design AV Europe Director Damian Orritt, its implementation took some working out, with microphones integrated into suspended acoustic rafts. Slab-mounted speakers were colour-matched and fitted with custom collars, and cable routes were carefully concealed.
“The lack of any ceiling voids forced us to rethink conventional installation methods” he says. “Hanging acoustic panels from the concrete slabs enabled us to drop the ceiling and embed the Shure MXA920 ceiling array microphones directly into the panels, which means they are accessible for service as well as sympathetic to the design of the building.
“Meanwhile, to fit the deeper Shure MXN5W PoE, we designed and 3D-printed custom housings and collars so they could be mounted directly to the slab yet still integrate seamlessly into the acoustic panels. We prototyped these on our own 3D printer and outsourced the final housings to an external CAD printer. They look beautiful and they work well alongside the lighting which is also surface mounted.”
Another requirement for the multipurpose town hall area was its ability to support Microsoft Teams streaming, which Design AV delivered by retaining PA/BGM through the ceiling speakers and routing all near- and far-end Teams audio through a pair of dedicated speakers on either side of the room’s display screen. It also repurposed IA’s existing Shure MicroFlex Wireless system, including an eight-channel wireless access point (WAP) and dock, to provide handheld, boundary and Belt Pack mics for events, presentations, and streaming, alongside Bluetooth audio, HDMI, RCA/XLR and Chromecast inputs.
Along with every Shure speaker and microphone on the network, and all Q-SYS PTZ cameras in the boardroom and divisible spaces, power to the WAP is delivered across PoE and is on an independent network. This not only helped ensure cable routes were easier to conceal in accordance with IA’s comprehensive design specs, but isolating AV traffic from corporate IT estate also created a stable backbone that is simple to manage and easy to scale. All spaces also support wireless HDMI and BYOD in both Teams and non-Teams scenarios, giving end-users maximum flexibility without compromising network integrity. Meanwhile, custom-designed Q-SYS user interfaces programmed to work with IA’s MTR touch panels gives users one-button access to source selection, town-hall presets, and instantaneous room-combine configuration using the Q-SYS Room Combiner.
“We also integrated broadcast-style streaming paths so town hall events could be streamed or recorded as simply as a Teams call,” says Orritt. “Q-SYS’s open architecture made it straightforward to accommodate these requests without compromising stability.”
In order to deliver such flexibility, functionality and ease-of-use, Design AV worked with commercial audio specialist and partner Audiologic for technical support.
“From the outset, the Audiologic team supported us with technical validation and even hosted a live voice-lift demo at Shure’s Rose Experience Centre in London for the IA stakeholders, which proved instrumental in securing buy-in,” says Orritt. “Order changes were turned around quickly, technical queries were resolved promptly, and the team were always available as a sounding board. Having a distributor and technology partner who was as committed to the project’s success as we were made all the difference and this is what sets Audiologic apart in our experience.”
• Shure MXA920 ceiling array microphones (embedded into suspended acoustic panels) • Shure MXN5W PoE speakers (slab-mounted using custom housing) • Shure MicroFlex Wireless system for open-area mic use • Voice lift DSP configuration for all major rooms
• QSC NC12x80 PTZ cameras for Boardroom and divisible spaces • Control & Distribution • QSC Q-SYS Core with NV21/NV32 AV-over-IP endpoints • Custom control GUI embedded into MTR panels • Crestron partition sensors integrated into Q-SYS logic • All AV devices managed and monitored via Q-SYS
• Microsoft Teams Room kits (Yealink and Logitech) • All rooms to support Teams-native meetings, plus HDMI input for BYOD • Optional room extensions via Q-SYS interface (beyond Teams native capabilities)
What we say...
Working with Damian and the Design AV Europe team to support them with the successful delivery of this project was a pleasure. We could always count on clear and timely communication and professionalism which made it easy for us to meet their expectations, to provide advice and supply product exactly when needed. We value the trust they placed in us to help deliver outstanding results for their client.
Jessica RaratyBusiness Manager, Audiologic
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