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Leicestershire Fire & Rescue HQ gets Intelligent Meeting Room

Switchable Glass is a great tool for creating versatile interior spaces, ideal for fast-paced environments like Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service’s headquarters where we completed an installation this week. Whilst firefighting is their main responsibility, Leicestershire Fire & Rescue also respond to a wide range of incidents as well as organising events/open days and education programs for the local communities. With so many responsibilities in this demanding environment, it’s important that their HQ had a multifunctional space that staff could use to meet, plan and train away from day-to-day business.

To bring this vision to life, the Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service reached out to Intelligent Glass to provide a smart privacy solution that suited their needs. The large suite had a boardroom-style setup, with two entrances and nine panels of glass between the room and the hallway and also featured a foldable partition so that the suite could be split into one larger and smaller room if necessary.

Wishing to grant privacy on demand to the users of the room, we supplied and installed nine pieces of our Switchable Self-Adhesive Film to the existing glass panels, offering not only a quicker turnaround but a more sustainable and budget-friendly option to replacing the glass completely. With one of the entrances and 3 panels of glass on one side of the partition, the Fire & Rescue Service wanted these panels to be able to be switched separately, so there would be no disruption to the other room when the partition was in use. To make this possible two transformers and remotes were used to control the partition, with one switching six panels and the other controlling the remaining three.

 
By wiring the film to two different transformers, staff can use the partitions to signal when a space is free without worry of disruption if either room is occupied. This type of privacy on demand is simply not possible with standard glass and frosted partitions, offering a minimalist style interior feature that stays opaque when turned off, and switching to clear when a current is applied. Working perfectly in a room of this size, our RF Remote Controls can operate our Smart Film from up to 25 meters away, however, we also offer the option for wall switches or integration with smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa for voice automated control.

The installation took place over two days with a team installing the retrofit film to the glass on day one, followed by our electrical engineers wiring up the film and connecting the pieces to the transformers on day two. We were able to integrate the Switchable Film and Transformers into the space seamlessly, firstly by using trims to hide the wiring that was custom sprayed to match the existing framework. The transformers were then hidden up in the suspended ceiling out of eyesight, with the potential to be located up to 10 meters away from the partition if necessary.

 
Whilst standard glass partitions are still a firm favourite in office & corporate interior design, Switchable Glass and Film are the only products on the market offering a flexible privacy solution that maintains natural light flow. In both it’s on and off states, large amounts of natural light can pass through our Switchable Film to brighten a room, whilst offering the option to appear transparent at any given time unlike competing integrated blinds. Installing Switchable Film to an existing partition also offers a quick privacy solution with little to no disruption to the surrounding environment; no renovating or mess!

 
As well as our Switchable Film, we also offer a range of Smart Glass solutions more suited to high-traffic applications like our Laminated Smart Glass and in specialist applications our Curved Smart Glass Partitions. These solutions are ideal for complete fit-outs as our panels are manufactured to fit standard glass tracks, and environments with a high footfall as they are designed to withstand more wear and tear as the film is protected between two glass panels.

Interested?

If you’d like to learn more about our Switchable Glass solutions or would like to enquire about fitting our Self-Adhesive Smart Film in your next project, get in touch via the form below or call +44(0)1226 361 306.