Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire is owned and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and has a global reputation for excellence. Rutherford Appleton is one of the foremost laboratories of its kind.
RAL co-operate with international scientific laboratories and support research in many scientific disciplines including materials and structures, light sources, astronomy and particle physics.
Every year about 10,000 scientists and engineers use the laboratory’s facilities to advance their research. Around 1,200 of STFC’s own scientific and support staff work at RAL.
Why Video Conferencing?
In 1994 RAL first started to investigate video conferencing as a means of international communication.
They soon realised the huge time and cost benefits of utilising video conferencing and have been expanding their video conferencing facilities ever since.
In the late 90’s RAL were spending approximately £6m a year on travel and faced with the need to cut this spend, they turned to video conferencing. RAL calculated that every new video conferencing facility saved them £400k in travel costs.
Choosing AuDeo
“RAL realised the benefits of video conferencing when they installed their first systems in 2001. However, with savings of over £400k per installed system, video conferencing has quickly become a major part of their communication strategy in less than 5 years” explains Kevin Wilson, Managing Director of AuDeo Systems.
RAL consulted AuDeo during their initial investigation of video conferencing and were impressed by the knowledge of the AuDeo representatives, the solutions recommended and the equipment demonstrated. Following on from the first successful installations the relationship between RAL and AuDeo has continued to grow over the years. AuDeo were there to help RAL with their video conferencing expansion from just 3 systems in 2001 to 23 video conferencing rooms today.
“The installations have been successful and I have always been impressed with the back up and response times to any queries I’ve ever had” comments Andy Wells, Video Conference Facility Technician who is RAL’s first point of contact for booking video conferencing and trouble shooting.
The Video Conferencing Solution
RAL currently have 23 video conferencing rooms and around 200 desktop video conferencing solutions. The 23 rooms vary in size and functionality from small meeting rooms containing Polycom VSX7000s solutions on stands to Boardrooms and Conference Rooms containing wall-mounted Polycom VSX7800e systems with Plasma screens, Crestron room controllers and AV equipment.
Video conferencing is an important part of everyday business communications for RAL. The vast majority of RAL’s video conferencing rooms are open to everyone and are used at every level from Head’s of Department through to HR staff conducting interviews by video conference.
The Benefits
- Remote collaboration between scientists & engineers
- Education with local & international schools
- Reduced cost of travel
- Time saving
- Health & Safety benefits
- Reduced impact on the environment
90% of RAL’s video conferences today are used for scientific collaboration and administrative project team meetings with the STFC’s other UK laboratories. This significantly reduces the need for staff and scientists to travel up the M6 to the Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington.
Video conferencing not only saves on RAL’s travel costs but also reduces the amount of scientists’ time wasted through travel, making their working day more effective and improving their work/life balance.
The Health & Safety benefits of video conferencing are also important to RAL. The use of video conferencing potentially avoids staff being involved in accidents on the road.
RAL also utilise video conferencing for educational purposes across the UK and internationally, keeping school children up to date with information about current research stories and giving them the opportunity to talk to RAL’s expert scientists.
With today’s emphasis on environmental issues, one of the added benefits of video conferencing for RAL has been its environmentally friendliness.
To find out if Video Conferencing could help your organisation, call AuDeo now on +44(0) 1256 891700.