Senior Aerospace Weston

The situation

Senior Aerospace Weston, a division of Senior plc, manufactures airfoils and air structures for single-aisle aircraft. The facility in Lancashire employs engineers, technicians and support staff. They design components, test them, troubleshoot issues, and iterate designs until they meet aircraft manufacturer specifications. That work happens in design offices, in labs and in meeting rooms where teams gather around problems.

COVID-19 forced a rapid shift to remote working. The company adapted quickly. But when people returned to the office, it became clear that some things wouldn’t go back to how they were. Some engineers wanted to keep working from home part-time. Teams needed to coordinate across office and remote participants. But the meeting room infrastructure hadn’t changed. It was the same setup from 2019: a video camera pointing at the room, audio that didn’t work well, a laptop someone had to plug in and fiddle with.

Lee Corns, IT Manager, faced a choice. The company could accept that meetings would continue to be friction-filled. Or it could upgrade the meeting infrastructure to support the way work actually happened post-COVID. Teams needed spaces where an engineer in Lancashire and one at home could collaborate as if they were in the same room.

What SCC did

SCC’s Visavvi division was brought in to design and install Microsoft Teams Rooms across Senior Aerospace Weston’s meeting spaces. The approach wasn’t to add a webcam and hope for the best. It was to rethink meeting rooms from the ground up.

Visavvi assessed the existing spaces. Which rooms were used for what? How many people typically gathered? What kind of work happened there? Some rooms were design reviews where detailed technical drawings needed to be visible. Others were quick syncs where the camera just needed to capture the room’s occupants. The design had to serve multiple purposes.

The installation included cameras, microphones and displays chosen for the specific function of each room. For design review spaces, larger displays and better camera positioning. For smaller meeting rooms, more compact solutions. The common element was that any remote participant would have parity with the person in the room. They could see what was on the whiteboard. They could hear the conversation without asking for repetition. They could contribute without feeling like a second-class participant.

Lee Corns reflected on the engagement: “SCC were able to come in, immediately assured us that they understood what the problem we had was. Immediately provided a solution for us, which worked fantastically.”

What changed

Meetings became more efficient. The friction that had characterised the ad-hoc video conferencing setup disappeared. Teams stopped wasting time getting technology working and started using that time for actual collaboration. Engineers working from home felt included in technical discussions rather than having to ask “what are you looking at?” repeatedly.

The company also gained flexibility. With proper Teams Rooms throughout the facility, more collaboration could happen asynchronously. A design review could be recorded and shared with someone who couldn’t attend the live session. Decisions didn’t have to be delayed waiting for everyone to gather in person.

What the client learned

Senior Aerospace Weston learned that hybrid working isn’t about technology. It’s about removing the friction that hybrid working exposes. With everyone in a room, a poorly set-up video system is a minor annoyance. With half the team remote, it becomes a productivity blocker. With the technology working properly, hybrid meetings became productive rather than frustrating. The company learned that the right infrastructure doesn’t just support how people work today. It enables new ways of working that weren’t possible before.