Norwich Design Studio Workspace open after Covid

Design Studio Workstation

Our Norwich design studio workspace is now open for clients to visit after the relaxing of all the covid restrictions. 

We’re looking forward to having clients sit in with again in our newly updated work space. Taking advantage of the restrictions during the Covid lockdown our design studio was overhauled to with in an inch of it life. Networking, coms, hardware and software was all upgraded to allow us to bring you the best of design results.

COG media Studio Before

Stripped back 

Taking advantage of other work going on in the building it was the perfect time to run all the cables (and a few spear for good measure) Data cables were run throughout allow hardware to be deployed wherever needed. More plug sockets were installed than the average house. A massive thank you goes out to Critten Electrical for advising and wiring up. All the surround sound wires were hidden away and sockets installed for easy installation. 

Covid stopped play

Covid hitting hard in early 2020 put the kibosh on wall building work going ahead… time to learn a new trade. Jumping online and tracking down sound barrier plasterboard and all the bits to put it up with I turned my had to labouring… and I enjoyed it. The plasterboard went up quickly and as most of the sockets were going into hollow walls cutting them in was a breeze. The special tool (or bread knife as everyone else calls it) made short work of the cleaning up of the edges. Nigel’s labelling of the cables made it an easy job to get all the wires going to the right places ready for his second fix as we call it in the trade. I even learnt to keep a pencil behind me ear, although I drew the line at drinking tea.

COG media Studio Ready for Plastering

Time to get plastered

The only I… I mean Teresa wasn’t happy with me doing was the plastering. So with a referral from a good friend Aaron was booked up to get me plastered. Drying time seemed to take ages but soon the walls were ready to a few coats of paint. Painting done and business starting to pick up we got Callum back from another building project to put the floor down in the studio and entrance.

Upgrade time

Whilst all this was going on the studio hardware was overdue an upgrade. New design and editing suite was spec’ed and built. A 32 processor Intel i9 stacked with ram and more video ports you could throw a stick at with two new 4K monitors, a preview HD screen and a spear port I’m sure we’ll find something to plug into it. We did the usual loading up old scenes and do re renders. Frames that took hours to render were now down to seconds… 

Not normally a fan of light up cases but configured this one to a COG media teal that got brighter the harder the system is running, all adds to the look, that’s what I’m telling myself. 

COG media Studio i9 Design System

Ready for business

New desks and drawers where all in place, time to make this a pleasant work environment. Extending our use of Philips Hue and Google Assistant the studio is completely voice controlled. Lighting settings depending on time of day screens, external devices and smart plugs all set with a couple of commands.

COG media Studio Open for business

Its behind you!

With us all used to video chats and Zoom meeting these days its becoming more important to consider what’s going on behind you, Lets face it it we’ve all seen shots on the news of with embarrassing items in the background or found ourselves studying at the book titles on  interviewees libraries. Some goes for our studio. Really must get round to replacing the door to the data cupboard! Fingers crossed the PowerPoint slides running on, yes you guessed it another screen will take your gaze away from it.

Cog Media Social Zesh Zoom Call
Cog Media on a Social Zesh Zoom Call | Sign up for effective social media training

The pièce de résistance 

The finishing touch to the user / client experience was to get the preview screen as part of the design system so looking over shoulders at 4K screens to preview designs and websites. Mark from Relax Mobility was the first to get the full impact of seeing his new website coming to life… on the big screen.  

Design Studio Workstation

Belmont Roofing Commercial Photo Shoot

Roofing Commercial Photo shoot

Office and Staff photo shoot

With COG media designing the new Belmont Roofing website it as an obvious choice for us to do all the photography.  The Belmont Roofing commercial photo shoot was to capture office scenes and head shots to complete the website update.  One by one all the staff members filed in ready for their close up. We had all the usual banter about photoshopping this and air brushing that. Then it was time to get all the department photography. Belmont Roofing draw on the  old and new when it comes to their design department. With Doug not wanting the head and shoulder shots we finally got him in front of the camera. It was  a delightful insight into his years of experience having him explain how he make to be a drafts-man. There is still a place for his skills in this day high tech and computers.c

Photo Editing and final images

Back from the Belmont Roofing commercial photo shoot and in the studio photographs were all downloaded and ready to be processing. Firstly all the head shots were made ready for background removal and fine tuning. A uniform backdrop was placed behind all the staff… Except Doug… With all the photographs cropped, compress and made ready for the website revamp all the imagery was ready to upload. 

As an extension of the website photography project Belmont Roofing had COG media update and give all their portfolio PDF’s and spec sheets a visual update. These can now be found on the Belmont Roofing website.

Are you ready for your close-up?

Contact us today and we’ll talk you through our full photograph services. Whether it’s corporate head shots, that awesome new product or conference coverage we got you covered.