Our Norwich design studio workspace is now open for clients to visit after the relaxing of all the covid restrictions.
We’re looking forward to having clients sit in with again in our newly updated work space. Taking advantage of the restrictions during the Covid lockdown our design studio was overhauled to with in an inch of it life. Networking, coms, hardware and software was all upgraded to allow us to bring you the best of design results.
Stripped back
Taking advantage of other work going on in the building it was the perfect time to run all the cables (and a few spear for good measure) Data cables were run throughout allow hardware to be deployed wherever needed. More plug sockets were installed than the average house. A massive thank you goes out to Critten Electrical for advising and wiring up. All the surround sound wires were hidden away and sockets installed for easy installation.
Covid stopped play
Covid hitting hard in early 2020 put the kibosh on wall building work going ahead… time to learn a new trade. Jumping online and tracking down sound barrier plasterboard and all the bits to put it up with I turned my had to labouring… and I enjoyed it. The plasterboard went up quickly and as most of the sockets were going into hollow walls cutting them in was a breeze. The special tool (or bread knife as everyone else calls it) made short work of the cleaning up of the edges. Nigel’s labelling of the cables made it an easy job to get all the wires going to the right places ready for his second fix as we call it in the trade. I even learnt to keep a pencil behind me ear, although I drew the line at drinking tea.
Time to get plastered
The only I… I mean Teresa wasn’t happy with me doing was the plastering. So with a referral from a good friend Aaron was booked up to get me plastered. Drying time seemed to take ages but soon the walls were ready to a few coats of paint. Painting done and business starting to pick up we got Callum back from another building project to put the floor down in the studio and entrance.
Upgrade time
Whilst all this was going on the studio hardware was overdue an upgrade. New design and editing suite was spec’ed and built. A 32 processor Intel i9 stacked with ram and more video ports you could throw a stick at with two new 4K monitors, a preview HD screen and a spear port I’m sure we’ll find something to plug into it. We did the usual loading up old scenes and do re renders. Frames that took hours to render were now down to seconds…
Not normally a fan of light up cases but configured this one to a COG media teal that got brighter the harder the system is running, all adds to the look, that’s what I’m telling myself.
Ready for business
New desks and drawers where all in place, time to make this a pleasant work environment. Extending our use of Philips Hue and Google Assistant the studio is completely voice controlled. Lighting settings depending on time of day screens, external devices and smart plugs all set with a couple of commands.
Its behind you!
With us all used to video chats and Zoom meeting these days its becoming more important to consider what’s going on behind you, Lets face it it we’ve all seen shots on the news of with embarrassing items in the background or found ourselves studying at the book titles on interviewees libraries. Some goes for our studio. Really must get round to replacing the door to the data cupboard! Fingers crossed the PowerPoint slides running on, yes you guessed it another screen will take your gaze away from it.
The pièce de résistance
The finishing touch to the user / client experience was to get the preview screen as part of the design system so looking over shoulders at 4K screens to preview designs and websites. Mark from Relax Mobility was the first to get the full impact of seeing his new website coming to life… on the big screen.
