How we rebuilt a broken training room at Perth without losing a single scheduled course — and phased the design so nothing installed on day one has to be ripped out to reach the national training hub the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is building towards.
SFRS wants Perth to be more than a regional facility — a centre of excellence and learning hub for all of Scotland’s fire and rescue services, serving personnel from around 350 stations and supporting the modernisation objectives in its Training Vision and Strategy 2023–2028.
In 2025 the room fell well short of that. The AMX control system had been disconnected entirely and no longer functioned, leaving instructors to operate the projector by handheld remote. The projection screen was physically damaged and deteriorating. Cabling in the equipment cabinet was unsecured. There was no interactive capability at all — and courses were due to resume, leaving a short window for intervention.
SFRS needed a first phase that made the room reliable again, and a credible path to the interactive and hybrid capability Perth’s national role requires. The immediate priorities were clear:
Two constraints shaped everything: the work had to happen inside a live training programme, around courses that could not be moved, and it had to be designed for what comes later — a full Microsoft Teams Room, BYOM switching, PTZ cameras, wireless content sharing, streaming and recording all had to be an addition, not a rip-and-replace.
EIS had already attended site before the formal proposal, tidying the equipment cabinet, securing cabling and assessing what could be salvaged. By the time the proposal was written we understood the room’s condition, its operational use, and the direction SFRS wanted to take.
The result was a phased design, chosen rather than settled for. Phase 1 restores reliability and core capability. Phase 2 adds hybrid conferencing. Phase 3 delivers the full national picture. Each phase builds cleanly on the last, with no redundant spend at any stage — and phasing let SFRS procure at pace and take each stage as budget allowed, without a lengthy tender process under the Scotland Excel framework.
“Perth has real national ambition behind it. When SFRS talks about a centre of excellence for all of Scotland’s fire service, that is not a minor upgrade brief. Our job in Phase 1 was to take the room from broken to genuinely capable, without costing them a single course, and to leave nothing in the way of what comes next.”
Karl O’Connor · Head of Sales · Efficient IS
EIS designed, supplied, installed and commissioned Phase 1 of the Perth Training Centre upgrade. All equipment was sourced, staged and configured from our 6,300 sq ft bonded warehouse in East Kilbride prior to despatch.
A new large-format projection screen replaced the damaged original, restoring presentation quality across the room.
Wall-mounted smart displays give whole-room repeater mode for single-session teaching, or independent breakout mode, each connected to its own PC or laptop for a separate session alongside the main presentation.
The failed AMX controller was replaced with a push-button wall panel matching the standard SFRS runs at its other sites, handling projector power and input switching — usable by any instructor from day one.
A surface-mount speaker at the front of the room, ceiling speakers for even coverage, and a 100V amplifier driving zoned output, so speech carries in both whole-room and breakout layouts.
Instructors can whiteboard, annotate directly onto slides or images, and save and share notes with trainees from the smartboards.
The equipment cabinet was tidied and cabling secured as part of Phase 1, ahead of the wider system refresh.
Perth trains continuously, so the constraint was never the technical work — it was fitting the technical work into a calendar that could not move. Phase 1 was confirmed in late February 2026, with equipment delivered in early March and installation commencing the week of 17 March. On-site installation took three and a half days, followed by a full day of programming and commissioning, all sequenced around the course timetable. No scheduled course was cancelled, moved or interrupted.
The failed AMX controller has been replaced. The room now operates predictably for any instructor, with no technical knowledge required.
Smart interactive displays give whiteboarding, annotation and dual-mode operation, whole-room or independent breakout.
A new large-format projection screen replaces the damaged original.
Ceiling speakers plus front-of-room coverage carry speech in every layout.
Delivered inside a live programme with no disruption to scheduled courses.
Everything installed in Phase 1 accepts the Phase 2 and Phase 3 additions without rework.
“The installation of two Smart Boards, a new projector screen, and an upgraded operating system has made the room far more user-friendly and enhanced the overall learning experience for both facilitators and delegates. A particular positive was the way the installation team planned and delivered the work around our training commitments. The upgrades were completed with no disruption to scheduled courses, which was greatly appreciated and ensured continuity of service throughout the project.”
Sarah Robertson · Group Commander, Training Safety & Assurance, NSDA · Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
Teams conferencing is currently being set up using a Logitech Rally Bar redeployed from SFRS’s own stock, combining microphone, speaker and camera in one unit with an IP control unit for one-touch joining — without disturbing the primary training setup.
PTZ cameras front and rear, ceiling microphone arrays with acoustic echo cancellation, BYOM switching for visiting multi-agency laptops, wireless content sharing, and a dedicated streaming and recording device for one-touch session capture — plus a tabletop touch panel giving instructors one interface for the whole room.
Phase 3 turns Perth into a room that can deliver live training to remote personnel anywhere in Scotland, record and review sessions for continuous improvement, and host multi-agency exercises with visiting participants on their own devices.
Yes — a phased design, planned from the outset so no equipment installed in an earlier phase needs replacing later, lets an organisation take each stage as budget allows without paying for the same capability twice.
By sequencing installation and commissioning around the existing timetable rather than the other way round, and pre-staging as much as possible off-site so on-site time is kept to a minimum. Perth’s Phase 1 took three and a half days on site with no course cancelled or moved.
Typically: Phase 1 fixes core reliability and adds interactive displays; Phase 2 introduces conferencing hardware, often redeploying existing stock; Phase 3 adds full PTZ camera coverage, BYOM switching, wireless sharing and streaming/recording — each phase building on infrastructure already in place rather than replacing it.
Tell us the room, the programme running through it, and the budget you’re working to — we’ll tell you what a phased path looks like.
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