When Insight Enterprises set out to build a new 200,000-square-foot headquarters in Chandler, AZ, the company’s leaders seized on the opportunity to design workspaces and common areas that deliver immersive technological experiences and demonstrate the firm’s capabilities to employees and visitors. Officially named Insight Way, the company’s new Gensler-designed headquarters showcases its own installation and design prowess with help from LG digital displays that outfit one of the building’s most unique and public tech areas.
“The moment someone enters this building, they are surrounded by innovative technologies,” said Matt Skaff, Insight's director of information technology. “From the rotating displays and touchscreen tables in the lobby to the digital smartboards found in various meeting spaces, the building’s design offers everything needed for efficient meetings and communication, while also displaying our own systems design knowledge. One of the most unique ideas is the three 'Boulevards,' which are hallway installations that feature multiple LG 88-inch UltraStretch displays that brighten when approached.”
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The main Boulevard is an entrance hallway just past the lobby, making it one of the most high-traffic areas in the entire building. Knowing this, the company uses the space to highlight employee stories, company successes, value statements, and messages welcoming honored guests.
All three Boulevard hallways feature vertically mounted LG UltraStretch displays that are angled slightly off the wall in a custom cabinet solution, which Insight calls a Prism, giving the space a professional aesthetic. The Prisms are designed to mimic the letter I in Insight’s logo to further the feeling of a branded environment.
Each Prism unit includes a motion sensor that detects a viewer’s distance, enabling automatic adjustment of the screen’s brightness and contrast to optimize visibility when viewers approach. The special feature ensures the displays aren’t overly distracting to those who pass by, while providing meaningful experiences for anyone who approaches to learn more. For content reproduction, a picture-by-picture feature can divide the screen into four sub-screens, each with its own individual video input, allowing Insight to display multiple different messages at one time.
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“These installations are in view all day, every day, so it is critical that we utilize reliable digital displays that will last for years and can be tied in with content systems for easy, rapid content delivery,” Skaff added. “The new drag-and-drop content system we set up is vastly more efficient than prior office signage solutions, and the technologies have advanced so far that we now have hundreds of displays throughout the building with different sizes tied into a single content system.”
When new internal teams or clients visit the office for the first time, Skaff said they consistently rave about the architecture and the technology, including the "wow" factor when walking by the Prism displays. According to Tom Carroll, director, commercial displays, at LG Business Solutions USA, Insight’s use of technology demonstrates the exciting possibilities that can be achieved by designing creative and unique experiences in virtually any setting.
"In many ways, Insight’s new global headquarters resets standard expectations to include novel technology interactions and a variety of collaborative spaces equipped with remote communications technologies,” Carroll said. “The custom-designed Prisms are both a proof-of-concept and an advertising mechanism that we can easily envision hanging on the walls of corporate HQs, retail spaces, transportation hubs, and other high-traffic pedestrian locations. We’re thrilled that our displays are part of this forward-thinking project and are excited to see what Insight will do next.”
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As an added benefit, the auto-brightness function can also reduce total energy costs and extend the working life of the displays. Insight Way was designed to achieve Gold LEED certification and utilizes sustainable technologies to reduce impact, including solar panels, sensor-based automatic window shutters, an HVAC ionization system, and smart temperature and lighting control.
LG’s Stretch displays deliver a unique ultra-wide or ultra-tall HD display that can be installed in any orientation to turn columns, doorway overhangs, and other non-standard locations into attractive and profitable digital signage endpoints. The displays’ 32:9 aspect ratio and 700 nits of brightness help deliver eye-catching moments in each of the three Boulevard hallways.
