Aotea Meeting Room Upgrade

Integrating Video Conferencing into a Nationwide Business

Aotea Electric Auckland Ltd are part of the Aotea Group who design and install electrical, communications and security systems nationwide. The Auckland office sought to upgrade an existing meeting room to integrate video conferencing. Aotea Electric management saw video conferencing as a means of enhancing Aotea Electric's service model for clients and strengthening links with suppliers. With staff spread throughout Auckland and 19 branches in the Aotea Group nationwide, video conferencing would also provide a cost and time effective tool for internal communications.
Ian Williams, Commercial Manager - Auckland, led the project for Aotea Electric. With a strong relationship going back a number of years, Ian went directly to Australasian Audio Engineering, I trust them completely and I know that control systems are what they do

The Design

Ian met with Steve Smith, AAE's Sales & Technology Engineer, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, and Steve kept to the brief and gave us a couple of options. Ian was particularly impressed with Steve's proposed video conferencing package, Zoom, I hadn't heard of it before but it offered us everything we needed.
Steve presented his proposed designs onsite using the awesome Kramer augmented reality app to explain how everything looks and works. This made it very easy for us to get an idea of what all the components would look like, for example we could see the table top box we would use to connect everything.

The Installation

Ian was very impressed with the installation, It was seamless and met every deadline. There was one lead that AAE had to wait on, but Steve kept us informed and it ended up not being an issue at all, a minor teething problem that AAE kept on top of.
Being a firm of tech-savvy electrical contractors, it didn't take Aotea long to get up and running, Steve gave us a demonstration and that was all we needed, but it is actually very straightforward for anyone to use.
In terms of ongoing support, Ian cannot comment, It has been fine ever since. There have been no technical issues at all.

Benefits for Staff, Suppliers and Clients

Re-visiting Aotea Electric's original objective of integrating video conferencing into how they do business, Ian believes the project has been a complete success, We're using Zoom to run internal sales meetings, sharing spreadsheets and information with each other on screen. Even in the few months since installation, the company has seen cost benefits, saving money on accommodation and flights, Our business partners used to fly up for a three-hour meeting but now they think "What's the point of that"? We all use Zoom.
Communicating with suppliers is also being transformed, Recently we had a demonstration of a CAD Tool via video link, saving a trip to or from Australia.
And lastly and perhaps most importantly, the Auckland office has improved their service offering to clients, We can video conference with clients, or we can bring clients to the office and link to a number of our team using the multiple screen feature in Zoom.
Ian would highly recommend using AAE for any meeting room upgrade, Steve is a really knowledgeable guy with incredible product knowledge. I'd use AAE again anytime - there were no problems or issues throughout the whole process.