Investment Bank Enhances Hybrid Workflows with Lightware and Cisco Integration

A prominent international investment bank, located at Two International Finance Centre in Hong Kong, has collaborated with systems integrators Global Vision Engineering (GVE) to upgrade its meeting-room AV infrastructure.

The project was designed to better facilitate the organisation's hybrid working models through enhanced signal management. Following a review of various technology providers, the bank chose Lightware as its primary solution, noting the brand's dependable USB-C performance and its ability to integrate seamlessly with the bank's existing global Cisco conferencing standards.

"The bank appointed us to design and implement the system architecture, using their preferred Lightware products," said Chris, Project Manager at GVE. "The bank needed rock-solid USB-C signal transmission and flawless Cisco integration, and Lightware delivered both without compromise." 

The main focus of the project was to create a unified experience built around bring-your-own-meeting (BYOM) usage while adhering to the bank's strict corporate security standards. Users needed to walk into a room, plug in a single USB-C cable, and be able to instantly share content easily whilst also powering their device. In addition to BYOM, the bank required native Cisco Webex functionality. Employees needed to switch effortlessly between a laptop-driven meeting and a Webex call, without navigating complex controls. Lightware's integration partnership with Cisco ensured this interoperability worked smoothly. 

Finally, the system also needed to be intuitive for everyday users whilst offering enough customisation to meet sophisticated corporate standards. For example, Lightware's Advanced Room Automation (LARA) platform allowed GVE to create a tailored user interface for the in-room Cisco Navigator touch panels, enabling manual source selection to meet a specific internal requirement. "The ability to customise the control UI directly through LARA was a game-changer for the client," explains Chris. "It gave them the simplicity they wanted without sacrificing the importance of having a high level of control." 

In total, the project encompassed 14 rooms, ranging from small and large meeting rooms to a multifunctional room, which acts as a subdivisible meeting space. Lightware's partnership with Cisco enhances the use of the bank's Cisco room devices by expanding connectivity and control. With Lightware, users gain greater flexibility, enabling simplified source switching, reliable AV transmission and comprehensive room control, all managed through the Cisco Room Navigator panel in each room. 

The six small meeting rooms use the Taurus UCX (UCX-4x2-HC40), selected for its compact footprint and ability to support the bank's Type-C BYOM standard. Here, USB-C and HDMI inputs from BYOM users connect them instantly to the room peripherals, including the Cisco Room Bar Pro, a 55" display and other devices such as wireless keyboards and mice. Thanks to LARA's custom programming tools, the on-table Cisco Navigator panels include a custom user interface, programmed by GVE to provide a simple one-touch option for source selection (USB-C, HDMI or President PC). The Navigator panel, connected to the other devices via the Client LAN (PoE), acts as the single point of interaction in the room, providing true plug-and-play efficiency.

Seven large meeting rooms are equipped with Taurus TPX bundles (UCX-4x3-TPX-TX20 and UCX3x3-TPX-RX20), enabling USB-C signal transmission up to 100 meters without compromising quality. Enjoying the same ease of use via the Cisco Navigator panels, these rooms have an additional USB-C input option and the addition of a professional audio system, comprised of a Shure ceiling array microphone, four ceiling loudspeakers and a larger 75" screen for an even higher quality meeting experience.

The UCX-4x3-TPX-TX20 and UCX-3X3-TPX-RX20 transmitter and receiver pair allows multiple HDMI and USB host connections directly at the display's side - such as a room PC, wireless presentation system, webcam, or speakerphone - while still supporting long-distance signal transmission over a single CAT6 cable. This provides simplicity and flexibility for sophisticated working environments.

"For the large rooms, the extended distance capability was essential," confirms Chris. "Lightware's products allowed us to preserve the same user experience across every room size, providing a consistent user experience for bank employees."

The multi-functional space is a divisible zone that can be configured as a combined room or two separate rooms combining smaller rooms. This required a more robust switching architecture capable of supporting a wide range of use cases while maintaining full USB-C BYOM compatibility. 

GVE deployed a 24×24 MX2M-FR24R-RFP modular matrix. The system uses TPX input cards connected to Taurus UCX-2x1-TPX-TX20 transmitters, while TPX output cards connect to HDMI-TPX-RX107A-SR receivers at each room's display. This architecture effectively creates a large, flexible matrix where Taurus transmitters act as inputs and TPX receivers as outputs, enabling USB-C signal extension of up to 100 metres across the space.

Using UCX transmitters with MX2M TPX cards and HDMI TPX receivers reduces the number of extenders required, ensuring efficiency and reliability, whilst MX2M's built-in redundancy features ensure high levels of reliability for the bank's most important meetings and events.

"The MX2M gave the bank the stability they were missing for this space," said Chris. "It's flexible, dependable and perfectly suited for a complex, multi-use space such as this."

Today, the investment bank has a unified and secure AV environment that supports modern hybrid workflows across all meeting spaces. "The result is a system that just works," concludes Chris. "Many of Lightware's features have been put to good use on this project, such as LARA for creating custom UIs. All of this could only be achieved thanks to the collaboration between Lightware and Cisco."

www.lightware.com/en