Overview & challenge
C Spire, an American telecommunications and technology company, provides its customers a gamut of services including wireless communications, multi-gigabit consumer internet access, and managed IT solutions, among others. The company’s goal was to use the latest in smart building technology to create an intelligent, connected and sustainable workplace that worked both for their business and employees. According to Chris Hoscheid, Senior VP of Infrastructure, C Spire, the long term goal was not just to reduce the power bill, but also create a workplace that was in every sense, future-proofed.
Converting an office into a smart space
Using Cisco Spaces to build on their existing Cisco network hardware, C Spire was able to use Collaboration Devices (Webex) and deploy solutions like Space Explorer, Meeting Room Finder, Smart Rooms and more. Smart building technology is front and center from the moment employees walk into the office. Interactive displays are used to give users detailed location context on three dimensional floor maps, including occupancy levels and availability of spaces at a room level. Employees can also use these displays to book/hold available meeting rooms before a meeting, significantly improving the workplace experience and the efficiency of the workforce.
Inside these smart meeting rooms, the journey of smart building technology continues. Cisco Spaces uses Collaboration Devices embedded with sensors to monitor occupancy and environmental metrics, automatically adjusting ventilation, temperature and lighting to maintain an ideal, productive environment based on the number of occupants.
“The cameras inside the room can identify the number of users that are in the room. IoT sensors built into the Collaboration Devices allow us to understand – at a granular level – the temperature, air quality, humidity and utilization of the spaces. Is there too much light coming in from the windows, is the sun hitting the table in the right way, etc.”
– Chris Hoscheid, Senior VP of Infrastructure, C Spire
Understanding utilization of space and how employees are using it is also imperative, according to the senior VP of infrastructure at C Spire. Cisco Spaces steps up to this task by providing detailed space occupancy analytics at a floor, zone and room-level, both real-time as well as historical. This data is also vital to real estate teams for space planning and consolidation.
C Spire hopes that their smart building, built on Cisco hardware, Collaboration Devices and the Cisco Spaces cloud platform, acts as a showcase of smart building technology to their customers, while being an efficient and comfortable space for employees.
