Snellings to participate in Royal Visit to Norwich Cathedral
Managing Director of Snelling Business Systems will present to the Queen
On Tuesday 4th May, the Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will make her first official visit to Norwich in almost eight years. During the visit, she will open the Hostry Visitor Centre and Refectory Restaurant and Coffee Shop at Norwich Cathedral.
The construction of this new development at Norwich Cathedral has taken eleven years and the ten million pound cost has been funded by generous donations from both local and national trusts, businesses and individuals, and a grant from the National Lottery Fund.
The new development is a fusion of old and new, with cutting-edge design techniques and materials blending effortlessly with the tradition and history in which the 900 year old building is steeped. The modern Hostry matches exactly the footprint of the old monastic hostry and the principles behind its purpose echo the original use: to welcome visitors to the cathedral.
For the last nine months, Snelling Business Systems have been involved in this momentous event in the cathedral's history working with architects, engineers, mechanics and electricians on drawings and plans for the audio visual requirements of the new building. Their brief was to give the building flexibility in its functionality, by installing state-of-the-art audio visual technology which blended seamlessly into the fabric of the building. It was important to support the cathedral in its goal to meet the existing, changing and growing needs of visitors, whilst broadening access and increasing the quality and value of educational visits.
This has been achieved with the installation of hi-tech plasma screens, projectors, voice reinforcement technology and directional speakers. Incorporating the equipment into the structure of the new development has allowed designers to retain the integrity of the original building, whilst improving facilities and addressing Health and Safety issues, by removing any future need for exposed cables.
Snelling Business Systems is part of R C Snelling Limited, which was founded by Roy Snelling in 1954, supplying audio visual equipment to homes throughout Norfolk for over half a century. The sister companies, Snelling Business Systems and Snellings Retail share the original location at Blofield Heath. New visitors to the site will find a hidden gem, with a museum depicting technology through the ages and a showroom offering a vast array of the latest in home entertainment technology.
Snelling Business Systems was established nearly 10 years ago to meet an increasing demand in the market for business systems integration. Their goal, to combine audio visual excellence with operational simplicity for companies throughout Norfolk and the UK, delivered with the outstanding customer service which has become synonymous with the Snelling name, has seen the company grow year on year. High profile clients include Shell, Lotus, the Police, the NHS and colleges and universities all over the country, but in terms of installation they say the project at Norwich Cathedral has been one of the most challenging contracts.
Toby Wise, Managing Director for Snelling Business Systems, said :
"Snelling Business Systems were honoured to win this prestigious contract and it was a pleasure to work with the whole team on the Norwich Cathedral development. Working with a building of that age certainly presented its challenges, due to the unusual building materials, which are just not found in today's construction techniques. However, all of our clients have unique requirements and we specialise in finding bespoke solutions for them."
At Tuesday's ceremony, Mr Wise will be conducting a brief presentation for Her Majesty, to demonstrate the extensive audio visual capability that Snelling Business Systems have installed at the Cathedral.