Avitecture Upgrades AV-IT for Steptoe & Johnson LLP
STERLING, Va. (PRWEB) February 21, 2018 -- Avitecture, an innovator of integrated AV-IT systems, has upgraded AV-IT systems for Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s Washington, DC office to provide enhanced, state-of-the-art technology with minimal user-interaction as well as video teleconferencing (VTC) and digital signage.
The upgrade was conducted as part of Steptoe’s complete renovation of its flagship Washington, DC office. The renovation of the 230,000 square-foot building on Connecticut Avenue began in December 2015 and was completed in January 2018. As part of the extensive project, the building’s interior was gutted and rebuilt in a more modern configuration with many amenities. Highlights of the resulting building, which is LEED Silver compliant, include a new, two-story lobby with three living green walls, open staircases leading up to the second floor reception and new client conference center and down to the expanded fitness center, streamlined office space featuring mechanical desks and clear glass on front walls, and a large, multipurpose room on the eighth floor with open staircase access to the ninth floor café and terrace.
Avitecture designed the systems, worked closely with the project’s architect, Studios Architecture, and produced architectural drawings and connected Avitecture’s own AV network to Steptoe’s newly installed fiber optic GPON network.
“Avitecture proved to be a very effective partner throughout the project,” said Don Sternfeld, Steptoe’s Chief Information Officer. “They worked with us on the entire design and build process and managed to deliver on time and within budget, even given the changes that inevitably happen in projects of this size. Not only are they technically proficient, but also they are truly nice people to work with. And the end result is light years ahead of what we used to have and represents the firm both internally and externally in very, very good ways.”
The renovation was completed through phases. During each phase, offices on two or three floors were moved to temporary “swing space” locations. Avitecture renovated and upgraded several standard conference rooms and specialty rooms, digital signage, room scheduling displays as well as the building’s café and terrace AV system.
The upgrades included enhanced capabilities for every room in the building. Each room now includes integrated building services with lighting, shades, occupancy sensors and room scheduling panels at every door. The building’s AV systems are conveniently tied into Steptoe’s room and event scheduling system, allowing users to easily search for and book conference rooms through Microsoft Outlook.
“Steptoe asked us to provide meeting technology that was future-proof. We designed and integrated systems that will see them through the next decade,” said Bruce Pittman, Avitecture’s Vice-President of Sales. “The upgrades will provide Steptoe with superior system capability and communication worldwide.”
Upgrades include wired or wireless connection to a 55-inch flat panel display and in-room control through a 7-inch touch panel. Enhanced rooms include web conferencing capabilities by way of a dedicated fixed mount USB camera and a 65-inch flat panel display. Full videoconference rooms include dual displays from 65 to 90 inches, web conferencing hardware and software, audio conferencing capabilities, multiple laptop inputs, voice reinforcement and a full AV control system.
The new, multipurpose room at Steptoe is a two-section, divisible conference room. Each section has been upgraded to include several 90-inch and mobile 43-inch displays as well as video and web conferencing capabilities. Each section of the room provides several display options and 10 floor boxes to provide power and AV connectivity for a variety of uses. The room includes wireless microphones, a Taiden IR conference system, and touch-screens that enable complete control of the AV system. Ceiling speakers in the hallways make it possible for audio from meetings to be played in hallways.
The ninth-floor café includes a number of displays to support cable TV viewing and digital signage such as menus and other user-created content. Loudspeakers mounted in the ceiling and surface-mounted speakers provide audio for the café and terrace, while a network audio player is available for background music and to support audio playback from digital signage.
Interactive displays make collaboration easy in the area by allowing users to conduct electronic white boarding sessions. Steptoe has completely eliminated the use of projectors by installing appropriately-sized displays in all conference rooms and meeting areas, including Extron’s ShareLink solution which allows both Steptoe’s personnel and guests to simply and easily display from any computer to the screen. One 60-inch touch-sensitive interactive display allows users to annotate over content or operate source computers through the touchscreen. State-of-the-art interactive collaboration spaces are essential to the increasing demand for Steptoe’s litigation and arbitration services.
About Avitecture
Avitecture designs, builds, installs and supports integrated AV-IT systems. By integrating audiovisual, videoconferencing, lighting, structured cabling and digital signage, Avitecture delivers systems that allow organizations to effectively communicate, share information, reduce energy costs and improve productivity.
For more information about Avitecture, Inc., please visit https://avitecture.com.
About Steptoe
Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm widely recognized for vigorous advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, successful representation of clients before governmental agencies, and creative and practical advice in guiding business transactions. The firm has more than 500 lawyers and other professionals in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit http://www.steptoe.com.
Greg Boyd, Avitecture, Inc., http://www.avitecture.com, +1 703-639-1643, [email protected]
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