The heart of Conde Nast’s new HQ

The challenge

When Condé Nast made the decision to move to new offices in London due to the expansion of its digital team, they wanted to create a cultural change and improve the way teams worked together. Focus 21, now part of Kinly, worked with MiX Consultancy to create a media wall in the stairwell of the new office space to showcase clients digital imagery and provide a simple to control collaborative space.

What the ‘move team’ initially thought would be a space for large company meetings and to showcase their digital imagery, has evolved into a fully immersive space for the entire organisation with its own outlook calendar. The client brief was to create an office environment that showcased its digital imagery, supported collaborative working and removed the silos often created within a working environment.

The solution

Conde Nast needed a product that would provide photo-like quality, fit into the restricted space they had to work with as well as enabling ease of use and maintenance. To achieve this, the technology solution needed to be intuitive, open, approachable and reactive, with interactive support for all, across all functions. The space included IT Infrastructure, wireless network and audio visual designs, developed using the British standard of design known as the RIBA stages and the AVIXA ANSI/INFOCOMM V202.01:2016 standards.

The heart of the new CN office is the LED media wall located on both level 8/9. As this solution is such a focal point ofthe office, it was imperative that the users experience the best possible solution with no downtime.

Christie was chosen as the LED manufacturer for the LED media wall located across 2 floors, due to their flexibility to provide design, support and installation services to CN.

Crestron was used throughout the office to provide best-in-breed video distribution and control which helped keep the user experience the same across all spaces including, meeting rooms, the reception and the break out area. The easy to use icon control panel meant that anyone, be it staff, guest or the cleaners could operate the screens throughout the building.

The result

What the ‘move team’ initially thought would be a space for large company meetings and to showcase their digital imagery, has evolved into a fully immersive space for the entire organisation.

"The change has been amazing. It used to take me at least 20 minutes to set up company meetings, now it happens instantly. We’ve also used the area for company events and it’s so easy to put music on through Airmedia from someone’s phone or drop some images into the Dropbox. It makes company events more fun. The other thing I’ve noticed is how much closer its brought everyone. Often as you walk past a meeting on the stairs someone will ask your opinion on something they are showing on the screen, I love that I can get more involved which in turn has meant I have got to know more of my colleagues."