Kirklees Council

United Kingdom

25

Teams Rooms deployed

8wks

From brief to fully operational

6

Boardrooms integrated

24/7

Remote support coverage

Overview

Kirklees Council needed hybrid working to actually work

Kirklees Council was looking to transform its existing office environment into a modern workplace destination that facilitates hybrid meetings and true collaboration. The brief was to achieve consistency for those working at home, in the office, or on the road, moving to the Microsoft Teams ecosystem across 25 onsite meeting spaces and the Council Chamber.

IUF was brought in to deliver a fully integrated solution across all 25 meeting spaces, from compact rooms to six large boardrooms, alongside a bespoke AV and broadcast solution for the Council Chamber. The brief came with a hard deadline: eight weeks from contract to go-live.

Within the Council Chamber, housed in a Grade II listed building, the requirement went beyond connectivity. The Council needed to improve efficiency and intelligibility for both live and hybrid debates, making high-quality recordings and live streams available to enhance transparency and strengthen its relationship with the public.

The result: a fully operational estate delivered on time, recognised as Best Government Project of the Year at the InAVation Awards.

Journey & Experience

Every space needed to work the same way

For hybrid working to succeed at scale, consistency is everything. Staff moving between a home setup and a large boardroom needed identical functionality. The experience had to be predictable, reliable, and simple to use.

The format ecosystem is built for the estate:

Crestron Flex Video Conferencing, deployed across all small and medium meeting rooms for up to ten people, standardising Teams Rooms functionality throughout the estate
Microsoft Teams Rooms: 25 spaces fully integrated, ranging from compact meeting rooms to six large boardrooms
Televic Conferencing System, specified and installed in the Council Chamber, enabling session agendas, live voting, discussion moderation, hybrid collaboration, meeting reports, and accessible recordings from a single platform
Bespoke camera integration, custom-configured for the Council Chamber with automated tracking for live and hybrid debates
Live streaming and broadcast capability, enabling public access to Council sessions in real time, supporting democratic transparency

The Council Chamber installation required careful pre-planning. A virtual site visit was conducted before any on-site work began, allowing the team to account for architectural constraints, including concrete floors and thin walls in the Grade II listed building, without compromising the design or the deadline.

Technology Architecture

A Grade II listed building, an eight-week deadline, and a single integrated system that had to perform from day one.

Core Infrastructure

Microsoft Teams: the single ecosystem unifying all 25 meeting spaces and the Council Chamber, enabling consistent hybrid functionality across home, office, and mobile working
Televic Conferencing Platform: managing session agendas, live voting, discussion moderation, hybrid collaboration, and meeting reporting for the Council Chamber from a unified interface
Bespoke Teams Integration: custom-configured connection between the Televic system and Microsoft Teams, enabling full hybrid Council Chamber sessions with broadcast capability

Hardware Ecosystem

Crestron Flex Video Conferencing: deployed across small and medium meeting rooms, providing standardised AV control and Teams Rooms operation at scale
Camera tracking system: installed in the Council Chamber for speaker-following functionality during live and hybrid debates
Display and audio infrastructure: specified and installed across all 25 meeting spaces, with audio solutions tailored to room size and use case

Support Model

24/7 remote support: ongoing monitoring and helpdesk coverage post-deployment
Tiered training programme: delivered across two tiers at launch: end-user sessions for Council staff and technical training for the IT department
Virtual site assessment: conducted pre-installation to map architectural constraints and plan infrastructure before any on-site works began

Implementation

Eight weeks, one listed building, no tolerance for disruption to live Council operations. Every phase was sequenced to maintain continuity while delivering at pace.

Phase 1 – Assessment & Design

Virtual site visit conducted to identify architectural constraints including concrete floors and thin internal walls in the Grade II listed building
Room-by-room specification developed across all 25 meeting spaces and the Council Chamber
Technology stack confirmed: Crestron Flex for standard rooms, Televic for the Chamber, with bespoke Teams integration

Phase 2 – Integration & Installation

Full estate installation completed across 25 Teams Rooms, from small meeting spaces to six large boardrooms
Council Chamber AV system installed: Televic conferencing, camera tracking, live voting display, and broadcast infrastructure
End-to-end testing completed across all spaces, with hybrid sessions validated before handover

Phase 3 – Training & Launch

Tiered training programme delivered to Council staff and IT teams ahead of go-live
IT department trained to manage and maintain the full estate independently post-deployment
Full estate signed off and operational within the eight-week project window

Outcomes

Democratic process, modernised

Council Chamber sessions are now live-streamed, recorded, and publicly accessible. Votes appear on screen in real time for both in-room and remote participants, reducing time-to-vote and increasing transparency in how decisions are made and represented.

Consistent hybrid working at scale

Staff move between home and office without a change in experience. All 25 meeting spaces operate identically within the Microsoft Teams ecosystem, removing friction across the full Council estate.