The Customer Experience Centre (CEC) at the Vodafone Headquarters in Newbury offers an interactive presentation of the Vodafone brand, projecting information about past, present and future capabilities and aspirations of the business. The project utilised an existing office space within the ground floor of Vodafone House and was challenged to work around the existing chilled beam, heating and cooling system which was required to be fully accessible.

dpa lighting consultants worked closely with Vodafone and Platform (interior designers) to produce an exciting, energetic, dynamic and energy conscious lighting scheme, to complement the cutting edge interiors. Of prime importance was the interface between the lighting scheme and the lighting controls, so as to provide a user friendly scene set solution that would relate to the various audio visual presentations. The interaction of the audio visual and lighting aspects of the project were controlled via the I-Pad tablet, which interfaced with the AV’s Crestron system and the architectural lighting control system. dpa ensured that the lighting scheme facilitated full dimming of the luminaires, to ensure a smooth transition from one particular zone to another within the CEC.

Lighting Scheme

A strong graphic concept, known as the ‘ribbon wall’, characterises the interior surfaces. This is evident from the moment that the customer enters the centre and the lighting scheme responds to this by projecting a linear wash of light downwards to bathe the graphic. Guests are then offered to relax in the Lounge prior to moving into the main CEC presentation suite. Concealed warm white LED lighting is used to float the organic shaped suspended raft as well as the top and lower sections of the black glass clad wall which houses the TV screen, coffee station and laptop bar. Pools of downward light appropriately highlight the colourful chairs while floor standing lamps provide a more localised residential feel to the interiors.

The I-PAD tablet is then utilised to change the lighting state and guide guests down the entrance tunnel, flanked by the ribbon wall to the right and towards the AV screen, which is floated with LED warm white light. Then the dynamic lighting techniques combine with the AV presentation within Zone 1 of the CEC where there is an interplay between the downlights, RGB colour change LED linear luminaires and black glass screen lighting. This theme is continued to Zone 2 and then finally within Zone 3. A separate Conference Room has been characterised by large bespoke linear luminaires.