Kansas Sartin
The office is still one place currently lagging behind the “smart” trend. Our coffee makers can wake up before we do in order to get us our coffee quickly. Our cars can steer themselves. But the same kind of technology that would make offices more efficient and automated seems to be missing. Not to be harsh, but our offices can be a little, well…dumb.
Raising Your Office’s IQ
Before you permanently affix a dunce cap on top of your workplace, we have a few examples of how offices are “going back to school” and improving their technology IQ. At McCoy-Rockford, we began exploring how technology physically interacts with the workplace.
Technology physically interacts with the workplace
In our recently remodeled workspace/showroom, our architectural solutions team installed numerous devices within Steelcase VIA walls for messaging, client presentations, and more interactive features. By enhancing the hosting capabilities of VIA, we are able to leverage the often overlooked vertical plane of the workplace.
Seamless Integration
6 individual technology products deliver media to 7 monitors. Users can switch to any of the 6 content sources, including an Apple TV, two 7” x 7” computers, a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter (MWDA), and two different cable television feeds. The two computers and the Apple TV allow users to connect with mobile devices, leverage the corporate network, or even tap into the nearly unlimited capability of the Internet to expand the potential of this media hub. Additionally, the Microsoft wireless display adapter provides quick wireless connection of a laptop to the displays.
It is hard to believe the amount of content that is served and hosted in the small area. Equally impressive is how the VIA media shrouds seamlessly integrate technology to the aesthetic and function of our space. All of this was accomplished at one-fifth the cost provided to us by a third party estimate.
All of this was accomplished at 1/5th the cost provided to us by a third party estimate
Another new development we just unveiled in our Houston office is our virtual reality viewer. This enables us to open client project files in Virtual Reality for a higher level interaction with the designed environment. This is a game changer for our clients. Rather than viewing 2D or even 3D renderings that still leave aspects of the plan to the imagination, our clients can now walk through their space virtually and get a realistic understanding of what it will be like to walk through their new space when it’s completed.
Now you can view site lines from proposed desks and workstations or view the orientation of a new conference room from a public space, all while getting a true sense of what it feels like to walk wall-to-wall inside your new space.
Moving On Up
We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. The rapid advancement of technology will continue to change the way people interact with their vertical planes, and their virtual places! The rest of that technology iceberg is starting to emerge though. Our primary manufacturing partner Steelcase has some examples of that we will share in Smart Phone, Smart Home, Smart Office, Part 2. This includes some products currently available that are changing how people create privacy in open offices and improve wellness and wellbeing in the office. We’ll also talk about some innovations that are on the horizon.
However you look at it, the office no longer has an excuse for being dumb. It now has every opportunity to be at the head of the class.