-OCTOBER 2020
Fusing Technology with The Arts | Innovative Ideas On A Budget | Charitable & Community-Focused Projects
Combination Dance Company create impactful, emotive dance performances to interest and entertain based on themes they are passionate about.
They try to reach audiences who may not usually see dance performance in traditional performance venues, and work with people of all ages to provide opportunities to enjoy dance and to develop their knowledge, skills and creativity.
Combination Dance was established in 2001, registered charity (no. 1123954) and company limited by guarantee (no.4326359). They are based in the London Borough of Richmond, South West London and work locally in the borough, across the capital and the UK. Their work is led by their Artistic Director, Anne-Marie Smalldon and supported by a team of performers, production creatives and a producer.
As part of Combination Dance Company’s focus on wellbeing and supporting the arts, especially in such challenging times, CARBON IT SERVICES were engaged to support a new project funded by the London Borough of Richmond’s Civic Pride Fund, called “BIODance”.
The requirements were to:
Given the budgetary constraints of this type of community project vs. the project requirements, we were keen to find a way to leverage as much as possible from existing and re-usable functionality. We therefore proposed the following:
The platform, biodance.uk, was delivered on time, within budget, and exceeded initial specification.
Feedback from Combination Dance Company and the public taking part in BIODance has been very positive. At the launch, the Mayor of Richmond described the project as “innovative” and “a grand idea”, indicating the importance of these types of community wellbeing projects.
Furthermore, the technical foundations laid by the BIODance project will support Combination Dance Company’s new website, due for release later this year, and other subsequent projects which require this type of solution.
-AUGUST 2020
Audio-Visual Technologies | Enhancing And Improving Upon Existing Systems | COVID-19 Safe On-Site Installations | Enabling New Business Ideas
Boxgrove is an Academy co-educational school for children aged 4 – 11 years old and is situated on the east side of Guildford (between Burpham and Merrow). They are a 3 form entry school with a Published Admittance Number (PAN) of 90 in each year group.
Given the austerity measures imposed on the academic sector since 2010, and further impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the early part of 2020, Boxgrove have found themselves in a financial situation similar to many, if not all, academic establishments across the UK in the reduction of their budgets. Boxgrove decided they would be creative with the way they spend and fund raise to keep their most important goal of providing an excellent teaching standard to the children who pass through their care, and have looked to monetise their facilities outside of school hours and help reduce the impact.
CARBON IT SERVICES were engaged to advise on, procure and realise solutions for the following business critical goals:
CARBON IT SERVICES carefully considered the challenges and the budgetary constraints, and engaged in a diagnosis and verification activity on site, fully testing and documenting the existing environment and equipment in use, including viewpoints, lighting and acoustics, before researching the best available solutions for Boxgrove’s budget.
Following an open, friendly discussion between both parties, the following solutions were agreed upon and deployed:
An LED HD projector was ceiling mounted through the suspended ceiling, and a motorised 84″ wall mounted projector screen installed to produce a crisp 84″ picture.
The existing aged amplifier was replaced with a suitable alternative, and installed into their existing AV cupboard nearby.
2 suitably positioned speakers were wall mounted on their side of the project screen, and connected via carefully hidden cabling back to both the AV cupboard and acoustically tested, to produce pass-through audio for any visual presentations.
2 handheld wireless microphones were installed, configured and fully tested to work together with the setup to aid the presenters.
The 6 existing wireless receivers for the microphones were mounted-at-height to avoid interference on ground level, and boost the range of their transmissions. The channels were tested, and then reconfigured, to avoid any interference or overlap with other installations elsewhere on the premises. This was supplemented with 2 additional wearable microphone headsets and 2 additional handheld wireless microphones.
The existing wall mounted speakers were corrected in their alignment within the acoustic setup, and a new physical mixer console, driven by an iPad app interface (so they could leverage an existing iPad and avoid unnecessary cost) was installed.
The whole piece of work was delivered on time, under budget and in a clean and efficient manner, whilst adhering to strict COVID-19 health & safety measures, using our team of DBS & NPPV-3 certified engineers.
The completion of this work has allowed Boxgrove to offer both professional Visual and Audio presentation services for hire with the small hall space, ideal for their target audience of seminars, classes or community gatherings that require the sharing of information.
The large hall space now offers a much more flexible mixing desk setup, with easy-to-select preset profiles for repeated use patterns (such as school use assemblies, sports days, etc) and greatly reducing the complexity for users of the setup. The existing wireless receiver setup also demonstrates a much-improved experience, with a stronger reception and an extended coverage distance, including now being able to reach the outside sports field immediately adjacent to the hall, allowing the system to also be used for outdoor events too.
We would like to thank Boxgrove Primary School for offering us the opportunity to collaborate on this project, and are just as pleased as they are with the outcome!
-MARCH 2020
Office 365 Migration and Deployment | Wi-Fi Deployment | UX Standardisation
John Brown and Mark Youll (JBMY), are an independent estate agent based in Old Coulsdon, boasting considerable knowledge and expertise of over 90 years in successfully selling Properties in Purley, Coulsdon, Old Coulsdon, Kenley, Caterham and surrounding areas.
They are a highly professional, proudly independent and friendly agent fully understanding the emotional experience of buying, selling and letting properties with a track record of success.
Following the amalgamation of originally separate John Brown and Mark Youll estate agent businesses, their combined team were left with multiple disparate systems for email, file sharing, and an inconsistent configuration across their aging desktop estate. They had no real ability to work remotely from home or other locations, meaning BCP was an issue. Finally, they had no segregated Wi-Fi for clients or 3rd parties visiting the office, creating an unnecessary security risk.
CARBON IT SERVICES were engaged to provide and enact solutions for the following business critical goals:
CARBON IT SERVICES approached the challenges above holistically, considering both the operating and technical requirements of the business. A discovery phase was conducted, spending a day in JBMY’s office to observe their existing working practices, engagement with their customers and speak to the staff first-hand regarding their experiences, pain points and aspirations, with a number of costed recommendations then presented back to the management team.
Following a further discussion, the following solutions were agreed upon and deployed:
The existing 3rd party POP/IMAP email solution, and an incumbent Office 365 tenant that only covered a few members of staff, were migrated in to a new JBMY Office 365 tenant. With security best practice in mind, we deployed Office 365 Secure licenses which in addition to the standard office SKU’s provide best in class email security with Vade Secure and unlimited backup via Acronis for mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint. Given the user base, the Business Premium SKU was selected to ensure all users would have the latest (and a consistent) version of Microsoft Office. This also allowed the users to access their documents remotely through the use of the Microsoft Office mobile apps, which was not previously possible.
JBMY chose to replace half of their desktop estate at this time, hence the poorest performing units were replaced. Based on the usage case, which is light office use with the rest of their toolset being SaaS, we selected a “Dell Vostro SFF i3” base unit to which we added an additional SSD for the OS and applications to ensure the best possible experience for the user without excessive cost. The legacy desktops not replaced had the same application set deployed as the new ones, including the latest version of Microsoft Office, to ensure the most consistent user experience possible until the remaining legacy desktops are replaced.
A single “Ubiquiti UniFi” AP AC Lite Indoor Access Point was deployed to replace the existing in-router wireless, placed in an optimised position for best coverage, which we configured to provide 2 networks (one customer, one internal use only) both isolated from the LAN as no wireless to wired connectivity requirements were identified in the discovery phase.
JBMY now have an easy, holistic view of their data, providing them the peace of mind that sensitive information (whether company or customer sensitive) can be easily tracked, audited and controlled.
Immediate improvement in working practices in terms of both collaboration and mobile working, which has as one of the owners has said made the business “Corona-proof” (referring to the COVID-19 pandemic) as far as remote working is concerned.
With all email moved in to one single Office 365 tenant location, all users and shared mailboxes are now properly synchronised and permissioned as required to ensure the right people have access to the right, live information on any of their devices. By setting users up with Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, they have been able to work in the office, on the move or from home without interruption to their usual working practices.
Of the desktops replaced, all users noted a considerable improvement in performance and their user experience. Switching between desktops when necessary has been made easier by the unification (where possible) of applications and shortcuts.
With the users’ document stores and SharePoint being uniformly configured, JBMY now have an easy, holistic view of their data, providing them the peace of mind that sensitive information (whether company or customer sensitive) can be easily tracked, audited and controlled. With the addition of Vade Secure, email integrity can be assured, and the security of their devices and work environment protected.
The new Wi-Fi is faster and the signal stronger than the legacy Wi-Fi and being able to give customers Wi-Fi access has been well received. The owners also have the peace of mind that neither guest nor corporate Wi-Fi can compromise their LAN where confidential documentation is stored.
Like most markets, the housing sector is under incredible stress at this time, so JBMY will continue to leverage the tools we have put in place to help them succeed, regardless of where they are working.
Subsequent to the successful implementations mentioned above, JBMY will be replacing the rest of their desktop estate in the future and working with us to improve the rest of their end point security and IT support.
Please feel free to drop us a line at hello@carbonitservices.co.uk
or on 0333 577 3573