The Government Property Agency (GPA) is responsible for leading the transformation of the UK Civil Service office estate, consolidating and modernising government buildings nationwide. With a focus on reducing office footprint, improving sustainability and user experience and ultimately, saving taxpayer money.
Lightware’s signal management solutions have proved to be a key feature in the GPA’s toolkit as the agency rolls out new technology standards across government offices nationwide.
On a project of this scale, the GPA found standardisation of technology to be the most efficient route, compatible with their longer-term technology strategy and overall scalability. Following an 18-month research and development phase, Edward Williamson, Senior Technical Architect at the GPA, and the wider GPA team settled on Lightware’s Taurus solutions as their preferred technology standard for enabling hybrid-ready, multi-use meeting environments for a multi-tenant user base.
“As we reduce the size of the government office estate, it’s imperative that all our meeting spaces can be shared across departments,” confirms Williamson. “We don’t control the end-user computer standards, so Lightware’s technology-agnostic solutions stood out as something that would work across departments and buildings, and could be iterated and added to over time, giving us the longevity we need.”
Designed with the GPA’s core principles of user experience, accessibility, security, supportability and sustainability in mind, a technology standard based around Lightware’s Taurus TPX transmitter and receiver bundle (TPX-2×1-TX20-RX107 Bundle), in conjunction with Sony Bravia displays, a Logitech Rally video conferencing solution and presence sensor, was established. Smaller, non-video conference solutions use the Taurus Smart Dock (UCX-1×1-C40) for a simplified Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) experience. Across any of the UK Government offices with GPA AV installed, the user experience remains the same.
Upon entering any standard meeting room, a presence sensor, integrated with the Lightware switchers, powers on the screen to display a custom welcome screen, which includes handy instructions for starting a meeting, connecting to centralised Wifi (GovWifi) and IT support contact details. The custom welcome screen is a useful feature of the Taurus product range. Users then connect their laptops via USB-C to the Taurus unit, giving them a true BYOD experience and full control of the meeting room peripherals. As all rooms differ in size and device placement, the Taurus TPX bundles enable high-resolution signal transmission over longer distances of up to 100 metres.
With vastly reduced conference table clutter and no more multi cable solutions to navigate, users enjoy a simplified yet functional experience, and through minimising excess hardware, the potential points of failure are also reduced. Room screens and peripherals automatically power down after 15 minutes of inactivity, key for energy savings and equipment longevity.
The versatile yet easy-to-implement technology of Lightware’s solutions has given the GPA the tools to roll out a truly consistent technology standard that is simple to support, secure and encourages reduced energy consumption, in line with the team’s overall mission.
“As a small team working on a national scale, it’s been important to work with a strong partner who can help and support us throughout the project,” says Williamson. “From providing loan stock and proof-of-concept support, through to ongoing training sessions and monthly check-ins, the support from both Lightware UK and HQ teams has been instrumental in scaling this technology deployment.”
With hundreds of Lightware solutions already in place across the UK Government office estate, the GPA team is confident in the benefits gained from switching to a USB-C-based solution built on Lightware’s TPX bundles.
