Fortum Head Office

Fortum moved to a new address in Keilaniemi, Espoo. The building was refurbished in half a year. In the final stages, Audico Systems installed AV systems in the energy company's magnificent showroom and dozens of meeting rooms.

From the outside, the house is all glass and steel. Its wing facing the Westerwelle has been rebuilt for Fortum. This is Nokia's former main building from its glory days.

The atmosphere becomes electric and my vision sharpens as I move from the bright lobby into the dim oval space. The brand new arched room is called the Showroom.

"In this room, we tell the story of the company. Using videos and new technological tools, we'll demonstrate different forms of energy production and show somefeed on LED screens. The constant feed tells you where we are in everything and what people are talking about us around the world," says Fortum's brand manager Tarja Hänninen.

The interior of the showroom is eye-catching with all its technology. Hänninen shows how the colour of the ceiling can change from one mood to another in an instant. The company's production data runs along the walls. The main display - 12 square metres in size - shows megatrends in the energy sector and provides information on topics such as digitalisation, urbanisation and climate change.

Next to the waterfall wall, I snap on my virtual glasses and immerse myself in stunning 360° videos. I'll be in a solar power plant in India, a wind farm in Norway and a hydroelectric power plant in Sweden. An interactive PufferSphere sphere comes to life when I touch it. The colourful map globe shows you where on Earth electricity is used and how ocean currents and winds travel.

"Visitors to the house can take a tour of the room on their own or we can arrange a guided tour. We hold a wide range of events in the Showroom. People are impressed because the technology here is spectacular and the sounds are loud and come from different directions. When our in-house staff or our guests give a presentation here, they can easily connect their own equipment to the room's sound and image systems," says Tarja Hänninen.

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Fortum's service manager Kari Juhani Innanen says the teamwork between the three companies worked seamlessly in the large-scale AV operation. Granlund Oy designed the AV upgrade and then put the contract out to tender. Audico Systems then supplied and installed most of the equipment in Keilaniemi.

The new technology - including large screens, LED walls, touch screens, wireless imaging systems, speakers and microphones - was needed not only for the showroom but also for more than 50 meeting rooms, boardrooms, the CEO's boardroom, auditorium, co-creation space and many other locations.

"Audico had a clear vision of the technology that could meet our requirements and they knew the latest trends in the industry. Audico was proactive and eager to offer alternatives when needed. We ended up giving the responsible operator a bigger slice of the supply than we had originally intended," says Innanen.

"A good AV supplier does what is agreed, sticks to the schedule and sticks to the budget. Audico did exactly that, so we chose the right partner," concludes Kari Juhani Innanen.

"The world is going wireless. For example, wireless chargers are already commonplace in neukaries and workstations. We are looking forward to the next evolution of wireless imaging. Then the image will be transferred from the laptop to the big screen conveniently and there will no longer be a need for many different standard connection cables."

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The completion of the headquarters was on a tight schedule: the whole project was completed in just over six months. At the same time, Fortum has also implemented a major change in corporate culture and learned new ways of working. For the people in the building, the move meant moving into about a third of the former square footage, and at the same time giving up personal workstations.

Marko Hyvärinen, project manager at Audico, says that the Fortum job was a good demonstration of how they can get the job done in style, even under pressure and pressure.

"The whole chain from equipment delivery to transport and final installation went off without a hitch. On construction sites, there is almost always a rush at the end because everything piles up at the tail end. We only get down to business when the last pieces of furniture are in place. But we are used to it and know how to work accordingly," says Hyvärinen.

PHOTOS: Kuvio Oy, Fortum Oyj and Audico Systems.

TEXT BY Tom Nyman