Places, Spaces & Tech

Real world experience.

Prior to the pandemic "unified communications" was a still a bit of an esoteric concept. I'm proud to have been a part of a small integrations team that was one of the first in Canada to have executed a complete overhaul of an enterprise communication and collaborative platform, using a novel technology. The technology deployed was from a partnership between Crestron and Microsoft called "FLEX" (alongside Crestron's NVX line of systems and UC engine hardware) its main purpose was for an immersive, streamlined Microsoft Teams experience as well as high quality and low latency content distribution. It could be provisioned and monitored at scale via Crestron's XiO cloud management system, it was to be integrated into 20 breakout rooms, and 3 large boardrooms, spanning across 3 separate floors in a bustling commercial high-rise building in the core of Toronto. It was a massive operation that required a lot of diligence and planning on many levels to execute.

The vast scope of work comprised not only of systems for media presentation & real-time collaborative teleconferencing features that connected local and international satellite offices, but we were also commissioned to integrate a room scheduling system that was to be streamlined with everything else.

This was done by locally hosting the Crestron Fusion suite of software as scheduling server, in conjunction with interactive scheduling panels mounted outside of every meeting room.

The amount of endpoints, data drops and bandwidth that everything used, considering most A/V devices such as cameras and microphones are now also communicating over the network, was unlike anything I've ever experienced!

Before anything was even brought in the door, we had to discuss and facilitate appropriate networking infrastructure such as switching and routing in the server room, SFP uplinks to connect the network closets on each of the three floors as well as data drops in specific locations of each room for our endpoints, which required consulting with a structured cabling company.

It was quite the feat, and one of the most extensive learning opportunities I've had to this date!

I always advocate for reading the literature and studying theory, but there's definitely no replacement for real world experience.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the photos!