An oil field services company, employing personnel working across 120 countries, selected Barco to assist with the development of an internal meeting space and experience centre within its UK office. The brief was to create an environment that would inspire and nurture creative thinking and idea sharing in a collaborative and engaging setting, aided by state-of-the-art audio-visual technology.
To complete the complex installation to the highest standard, Barco commandeered the expertise of three leading design and technology companies. The alliance included Urben, a tech innovator in delivering all-in-one meeting room and video conferencing solutions; CCOMM, specialists in defining the optimum furnishing and layout for productive work environments, and U-Touch, a leading innovator of multi-touch screen technology.
The customer wanted the space to provide intimate meeting areas where colleagues could break away to run brainstorming sessions and collaborate on team projects, while delivering a larger seated area where audiences could interact with visual content and on-screen presentations.
Despite challenging building restrictions, an existing space was transformed by CCOMM to create a calming sanctuary, designed to encourage productive interaction between peers within intimate huddle areas. An open area at the front of the building was re-configured by Barco and Urben to facilitate the installation of a giant, multi-tiled, HD video wall and supporting audio-visual equipment.
As the focal point of the multi-purpose space, the video wall needed to allow for various usages (including collaborative software, video conferencing, and town hall presentations) and a high-spec system was required to translate the images with little-to-no latency. It also needed to be freestanding with touch screen capabilities to enable real-time ‘swipe, pinch and zoom’ interaction.
Barco realised that its UniSee 800 was the best solution to deliver the rich depth of colour and image clarity required by the customer, added with a near seamless canvas most suited to accommodate a touch screen overlay. As a result, Barco mounted a freestanding 6 x 3 55 inch tiled video wall with Barco IP, complemented by a touch screen overlay solution installed by U-Touch. Urben’s expertise ensured that a free-standing structure was designed to house the equipment, not only taking the weight of the half-tonne custom overlay, but also ensuring an extremely true installation; an exceptionally flat surface to enable a flawless touch screen experience.
The video wall was able to fulfil the customer’s criteria as it presents a uniformity across its bezel-less panels resulting in almost imperceptible gaps between each tile to deliver a greater flexibility and clarity of visual content. It also enables superior functionality of the U-Touch technology as the user is able to swipe from one tile to the next with ease to fully utilise the touch screen capability. In addition, Barco’s SenseX calibration technology ensures that the entire 18-panel wall is consistently calibrated to a uniform quality, colour and brightness. The near seamless design ensures that regardless of the configuration, the uniformity of the images remain the same.
“We now have a fantastic, flexible meeting space that reflects the quality of our brand. The state-of-the-art video wall has not only improved our own employee engagement; the stylish, collaborative environment helps foster creativity and attract the new talent. We’re delighted with transformation; from the innovative solution design and seamless installation, to the capabilities of the touchscreen technology itself.” - oil field services company
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
