Local Londoners were excited when the news hit in 2020 that the historic (and then vacant) Arding & Hobbs department store was to be renovated and brought back to life. Following a year of careful planning and construction that began in 2022, it’s now been transformed into a versatile venue, featuring refurbished offices with high-end, hotel-style amenities, new retail, and restaurants.
Among the highlights of the iconic systems integration project, the third floor of the 116-year-old building has been re-imagined as a members-only (WeWork) multi-use facility, complete with the latest Pro AV smart technology and IP signal distribution.
An Iconic Integration
Assessing the unique challenges of the project, the installation needed to reflect the building’s rich heritage while making it relevant for modern users. The space had to be flexible, supporting everything from co-working, business meetings, and videoconferencing to hospitality, social events, and private parties.
Perhaps most importantly, the technology infrastructure needed to be unobtrusive, simple to operate, and powerful, enhancing the user experience without detracting from the building’s period details and aesthetic. In particular, the AV systems had to be flexible to enable the various rooms to operate efficiently and with total freedom.
Commercial hospitality operator x+why, a London-based provider of “flexible, purpose-driven workspaces,” was tasked with overseeing the renovation of the space. The company is known for creating places where work, leisure, and community naturally overlap. At Arding & Hobbs, x+why operates and manages the Arding Rooms on the third floor as a private members’ club, alongside coworking space, private offices, meeting rooms, and event spaces.
Understanding the challenges and workarounds of creating something new from an existing space, x+why brought in Harlow, Essex, U.K.-based systems integrator the SCCI Group, which was responsible for the overall design and installation of the technology for the Arding Rooms. The SCCI Group designs and completes about 50 Pro AV projects each year.
The new venue was finished in June 2024, with the final interior spaces opening through 2025. Jack Collins, general manager overseeing the Arding Rooms for x+why, said this project marked the end of a journey from single-use department store to a flexible building designed to change with how people live and work today.
“The design was led by the idea that old and new should sit comfortably together,” said Collins. “Historic features were restored and celebrated, while reclaimed materials, local makers and sustainable finishes were used throughout. The vision was to create a warm, characterful space that feels rooted in history but designed for contemporary life—somewhere people want to work, meet, relax, and connect.”
Collins added that all the spaces they work on, including the A&B project, are designed to be as sustainable and “green” as possible, "from the chair you sit on, to the living roofs and energy-efficient lighting.”
Different Rooms, Different Uses
Richard Reid, director of business development for SCCI Group, led the team for the equipment installation and systems design within the rooms. He said that each meeting room has a Sony Bravia Pro display at the front with Control4 speakers, Yamaha subwoofers, and a Polycom camera linked to a Lightware box. The setup uses a standard junction box and a matching cover to mount the camera, ensuring the wiring is secure and unobtrusive while the camera has sufficient PoE. A Nureva HDX series soundbar offers omnidirectional mic pickup, so voices are heard clearly no matter where people sit, face, or move in the room.
“So basically, we are coming out of it as a USB-C cable,” Reid said. “When anyone wants to use hook up, you plug the USB-C cable into your laptop, and everything is on the Sony screen as if it is on your laptop. Your camera and microphone get activated automatically.”
The audio speakers have been set up and commissioned to work in a room with a high ceiling, reducing echoes while providing a warm sound experience. In the venue’s “Club Room," which is designed as an elegant yet flexible event space, there is a dedicated L-Acoustics audio system, with seven X6i loudspeakers, two SYVA subwoofers, and two SUB10i compact subwoofers, all powered by an LA4X and LA2Xi amplified controller.
“From the initial brief, we envisioned the Club Room as a place for informal business lunches,” said Reid. “In reality, it’s also become very popular for parties, watching sports, and other group activities. It’s a multi-functional destination for members, and Control4 helps us shift the technology quickly and efficiently so it can adapt to these different room uses, while the quality of the AV experience is exceptional.”
At the end of the day, Reid said that understanding what the client wants also helps him select the equipment, set the look, and define what needs to be controlled. “Look, anyone can throw any equipment in and just say, it's done, but every project we do has got our name on it,” he noted. “So, it must be right. And we get our projects right by talking to the client and understanding exactly what they want. All our devices must communicate with each other for the user experience to be a good one, so picking compatible technology that makes controlling the devices easy is critical.”
Centralized Control
The centerpiece of the installation is ADI's Control4 automation platform, which manages audio and video control throughout the building and is accessed by a control panel. All the AV devices in the event spaces can be operated independently; a Control4 CORE 5 controller serves as the central automation engine for the A&B building, managing audio and video experiences across the multi-use spaces. It enables seamless control of AV systems, allowing rooms to quickly shift between different use cases—such as business meetings, videoconferencing, and large-scale social events—while keeping the technology intuitive and hidden within the historic surroundings.
The Control4 CORE 5 software platform controls distributed audio systems, video displays, and a virtually unlimited number of sources. User interaction is handled through Control4 interfaces, including Halo handheld remotes. Key features include signal processing for large-scale projects, support for multiple audio and video zones, native integration with a wide range of third-party AV devices, and a customizable user interface. Its reliability and scalability make it well suited for complex, multi-room environments like the third floor of the A&B building, which require consistent performance and simple day-to-day operation.
Eric Fritz, senior product manager at Control4, said the Control4 CORE 5 control system supports IP-based control, allowing it to communicate seamlessly with networked AV devices across the building. In the Arding & Hobbs project, this is supported by a robust Wi-Fi infrastructure built using Araknis Networks equipment, ensuring dependable system performance throughout the property.
“The Control4 CORE 5 is an ideal fit for Arding & Hobbs because it combines power, flexibility, and ease of use, essential qualities for a historic building that now serves a wide range of modern functions,” said Fritz. “It allows technology to adapt quickly to changing room configurations and event types while remaining discreet within the interior design, enabling operators and users to focus on experience, well-being, and community engagement, rather than on managing complex technology.”
SCCI’s Reid added the Control4 system is also used to control the monitor and the audio system in the "Silk Room," one of the larger meeting rooms, and a smaller “Draper Room” event space, all from a handheld remote. The Draper Room is large enough to host product launches, conferences and other activities for up to 500 attendees. The room features a 16:9 drop-down screen and Epson 3LCD projector, with an audio system supported by a Yamaha multi-channel amplifier.
The Vision Realized
There were several challenges to the install, such as hiding wiring inside pre-existing, 116-year-old brick walls that needed to be moved in some cases to add extra space for an equipment room and other things. “You're trying to figure out, how you can get equipment in an area that's not designed to have equipment, how you get speakers in spaces not designed for that and subwoofers that couldn't be hidden,” Reid explained. “So, what do you do? Well, there's no point trying to hide something you can't hide, so let's make a feature of it. So, creativity in how you install is also very much an important part of this."
While Reid said it's always a "sprint to the finish at the end," he went to the launch party and thought everything looked and sounded great. "Ultimately, everything just fell into place, which was always the plan," he added. "Because it's not as if we were reinventing the wheel, we were just putting technology together for the benefit of the spaces. The client was extremely pleased with the outcome and that’s really want we’re after.”
Phil Nevin, a co-founder at x+why, said SCCI’s AV installation has helped create a great experience for its members. "With SCCI’s expertise and support from Control4 and other ADI brands, we have a system that enhances enjoyment, well-being, and connection, rather than just delivering the important technical features that we require,” he added. “The discretion the system offers within the interior of the building is also a huge part of its appeal. It gives us everything that we asked for and so much more."
