Product
Yamaha ADECIA V3.0: Smarter Voice Lift, Greater Scale and Advanced Noise Reduction
28/01/2026
Case Study
Yamaha ADECIA plays part in creating consistent meeting experience across Autotrader's new Manchester HQ
20/08/2026
When Autotrader relocated to its new Manchester headquarters, the ambition extended far beyond creating a modern office. The new workplace needed to support more than 1,300 employees while providing a seamless technology experience across a wide variety of meeting and collaboration spaces.
Working alongside Autotrader and principal contractor Oktra, ClearVC designed and delivered a connected workplace technology ecosystem spanning 86 AV-enabled spaces, including meeting rooms, collaboration areas, meeting pods, a flagship reception, and a multi-purpose auditorium. Audiologic, the UK’s leading integrator-focused AV distributor, supplied the audio technology for the project - with Yamaha’s ADECIA ecosystem at its core.
From the outset, the focus was on creating technology that employees wouldn't need to think about. Whether joining a quick internal meeting or presenting to a larger audience, every space needed to feel familiar, intuitive, and reliable.
Designing Around the User
ClearVC became involved early in the project, working closely with Autotrader throughout discovery and proof-of-concept testing to understand how teams would use the new workplace.
As Andrew Ormrod, Head of Technical at ClearVC, explains:
"Our involvement began early in the journey, which was critical. It allowed us to shape how technology integrates into the building rather than being applied to it later. We worked through a detailed discovery process, including proof-of-concept testing and real-world demonstrations. That process gave us the confidence that the final solution would be simple, reliable, and aligned with how Auto Trader teams actually work."
That collaborative approach established a clear design philosophy that would underpin every collaboration space throughout the headquarters. "At the core of the design was a simple principle: technology should be effortless to use. Auto Trader were very clear - they didn't want complex meeting room systems. They wanted users to walk into a room, connect via USB-C, and start collaborating immediately."
Rather than creating different user experiences across the building, the objective was to make every room feel consistent, regardless of its size or purpose.
Delivering Performance at Scale
Achieving that level of simplicity across such a diverse workplace required careful technical design. Meeting pods, standard meeting rooms, boardrooms, collaboration spaces, and presentation environments each had different performance requirements while still needing to deliver a familiar experience for employees moving between them.
As Andrew explains: "One of the biggest technical challenges was balancing simplicity for users with the level of performance required across such a diverse environment. With spaces ranging from meeting pods through to large presentation environments, the experience still needed to feel consistent throughout."
While simplicity drove the user experience, delivering high-quality audio across larger collaboration spaces required a more considered approach. Meeting rooms designed for leadership presentations, training sessions, and hybrid collaboration place very different demands on audio than smaller meeting spaces. As room size and occupancy increase, clear speech intelligibility, consistent microphone coverage, and reliable audio distribution become essential to ensuring everyone in the room, and those joining remotely, can participate effectively.
The choice wasn’t made in isolation. ClearVC had previously deployed Yamaha’s ADECIA platform for Autotrader at an earlier site, where the results spoke for themselves.
ClearVC ran proof-of-concept sessions across competing solutions before committing - and ADECIA came out ahead on both performance and ease of deployment.
“We determined that they really liked and preferred the Yamaha solution, as did we - for ease of installation and overall performance,” says Ormrod. “It’s a well-balanced product ecosystem.”
Built around a Dante networking backbone, the ADECIA ecosystem combines ceiling-array and tabletop microphones, DSP processors, loudspeakers, and Yamaha’s own optimised network switches. The system automatically measures and tunes itself to each room, while built-in AI suppresses background noise - delivering consistent speech clarity for everyone in the room and those joining remotely.
For a client that takes hybrid collaboration seriously, audio quality was never a nice-to-have.
The ADECIA systems, supplied to ClearVC by Audiologic, provided the performance required across the building’s most demanding spaces, while remaining straightforward to manage and support throughout all 86 AV-enabled environments.
As Paul Stephenson, who oversaw the technical design and implementation on behalf of Autotrader, explains: "Consistency across all spaces was absolutely critical. We wanted users to be able to move between rooms without having to think about how the technology works or adapt to different setups. So, whether it's a small meeting room or a larger space, the experience is the same - simple, predictable, and reliable."
A Workplace Built for Collaboration
Today, Autotrader's Manchester headquarters provides a connected workplace that supports everything from everyday meetings to company-wide presentations and hybrid events.
By combining a standardised collaboration strategy with Yamaha's ADECIA audio ecosystem in larger spaces, ClearVC delivered a workplace that balances enterprise-level performance with the effortless user experience Autotrader set out to achieve.
Reflecting on the completed project, David Grierson, Workplace Project Manager at Autotrader, says:
"Overall, the new headquarters has transformed how we operate. We now have a modern, technology-led environment that brings people together, supports different ways of working, and enables better collaboration across the business. Compared to our previous office, it's a significant step forward - not just in terms of technology, but in the overall experience."
Audiologic would like to thank our customer ClearVC for the support and assistance in covering this project as a case reference and permissions to use their project photography. Also to congratulate them on this project being nominated in the 2026 AV Awards, as well as ClearVC being a finalist in the prestigious Integrator of the Year category!
A link to their own case study is HERE - recommended viewing.
We'd also recommend ClearVC's excellent project video on their youtube channel, below.
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