Leeds-based software company Opencast were struggling with a problem we’ve come across before: how to create a private, quiet meeting space within a large, open-plan office.

The Brief

Opencast Software was founded ten years ago and over the last decade the company has enjoyed impressive growth. Although their headquarters are based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Opencast have branched out and now have offices throughout the UK, including Leeds and London.

The design of Opencast’s Leeds office can be summed up in one word: impressive!  Featuring a 1000 square foot open-plan co-working space to seat 12, the spacious room is designed to suit the requirements of a fast-growing IT company.

However, one important element was missing and without a private space in which to hold meetings or take calls, their existing co-working space wasn’t quite working for Opencast. Ellen Russell, Opencast’s Workplace Experience Manager, explained what they needed: “The office we’ve got is lovely but it’s not private. There’s nowhere to take a private call and nowhere to dampen the sound down a little bit. If we were going to take another office to have as a meeting room, we could potentially end up with something the same size as we’ve already got, which is not only a waste of money, but we don’t need a space that big.”

Opencast were looking for a small acoustic office pod that would still be part of the workspace, but also provide somewhere private to make a phone call without disturbing everyone else

The Solution

The team here at AgileAcoustics knew straight away that one of our AgilePODs would provide the perfect solution for Opencast. Designed to seat one or two people (depending on the size of the pod), an AgilePod is a highly accessible, portable, soundproofed meeting pod.

Opencast opted for an AgilePOD#10 which comfortably seats two within a compact footprint. In addition, thanks to the AgilePOD#10’s customisable design, it was possible to deliver a solution which complemented the design aesthetic of Opencast’s existing premises.

An AgilePOD#10 ticks all the boxes for Opencast, offering a portable, cost-effective, soundproofed solution to the problem of creating a private space within a busy, open-plan office.

As Ellen herself said: “There are so many benefits to the AgilePOD: we’ve now got a private, quiet space to make calls and the feedback from the team has been great. A major selling point for us was that as we’re growing so fast, we were concerned that we’d eventually need more space and this allows us to take the office pod with us if we move.  Also, another big factor was lead time as the pod was installed just three weeks after we ordered it, and we haven’t lost any time for build work; AgileAcoustics did it all in a morning!”