A mission to build consistency at scale

As Australia’s leading independent data center operator, NEXTDC is responsible for some of the country’s most critical digital infrastructure. The ASX 100-listed company operates a nationwide network of world-class data centers supporting enterprises, cloud providers, government agencies, and some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Known for its iconic facilities, customer-centric approach, and continued innovation, NEXTDC has built a reputation for delivering exceptional experiences alongside industry-leading infrastructure. As the company continues to expand across Australia and into international markets, including Malaysia, maintaining consistency across every customer and employee interaction has become increasingly important.

For Program Delivery Manager, Jarrod Thompson, that challenge extended well beyond the data center floor. Meeting rooms, boardrooms, training facilities, and customer collaboration spaces all needed to provide a seamless experience—regardless of location, platform, or user.

We don’t have IT teams on-site, so simplicity was the name of the game.

Jarrod Thompson, Program Delivery Manager, NEXTDC.

That philosophy ultimately led NEXTDC to standardize on Neat across its growing network of facilities.

Creating spaces customers want to use time and time again

While most people associate data centers with servers and infrastructure, NEXTDC has invested heavily in creating welcoming, customer-focused environments.

Across its facilities, customers have access to meeting rooms, training spaces, boardrooms, and auditoriums designed to support collaboration and engagement. These spaces form an important part of NEXTDC’s value proposition, giving customers places to meet, learn, and work while onsite.

The challenge was that every customer uses technology differently.

NEXTDC is a Microsoft Teams organization internally, but customer-facing spaces must accommodate a wide range of platforms and devices. Some visitors use Teams, others Zoom or Google Meet. Any solution needed to be flexible enough to support them all.

We’re a Microsoft Teams place, but the customer rooms are all BYOD. You might have a customer who’s used to using Google Meet coming in one day, then someone more familiar with Zoom the next. It had to be completely agnostic.

Jarrod Thompson

Neat’s BYOD capabilities gave NEXTDC the flexibility to support any platform while maintaining a consistent experience across every location.

Replacing complexity with simplicity

Before adopting Neat, NEXTDC relied on traditional Audio Visual (AV) systems in many of its larger spaces. These environments included multiple DSPs, amplifiers, ceiling microphones, ceiling speakers, extenders, and a significant amount of supporting infrastructure.

The result was complexity, high deployment costs, and too many opportunities for something to go wrong.

In some executive boardrooms, AV fit-outs were in the six figure range (AUD). Despite the investment, reliability remained a challenge. 

It was diabolically complicated.

Jarrod Thompson

Even minor component failures could require lengthy troubleshooting and costly service visits. Bearing in mind, NEXTDC operates without dedicated on-site IT support, the approach simply wasn’t sustainable.

After evaluating multiple vendors and conducting extensive proof-of-concept testing, NEXTDC selected Neat.

What stood out wasn’t simply the reduction in hardware. Devices such as Neat Bar Pro combined advanced audio, video, and processing capabilities into a single device, eliminating much of the infrastructure traditionally required in large meeting spaces. With intelligent camera technology, powerful integrated audio, and built-in processing, NEXTDC could deliver a premium meeting experience without relying on numerous external components and complicated signal chains.

For a company focused on reducing points of failure, the all-in-one approach aligned perfectly with its operational philosophy.

Standardizing every room across the network

What started with a handful of deployments quickly evolved into a company-wide standard.

Today, NEXTDC uses Neat Bar Pro, Neat Bar 2, Neat Board 50, Neat Board Pro, Neat Center, and Neat Frame devices across customer-facing and internal spaces. As new facilities are built, collaboration technology is incorporated into standardized room designs that can be replicated across locations.

Whether someone walks into a meeting room in Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, or Kuala Lumpur, the experience is intentionally consistent.

The approach has delivered significant operational benefits. Standardized room configurations simplify planning and deployment, reduce support requirements, and create a familiar experience for both employees and customers.

Intelligent meeting experiences without the complexity

One of the biggest advantages for NEXTDC has been Neat’s ability to automate the meeting experience.

Neat devices continuously adapt to what’s happening in the room, intelligently framing participants and optimizing audio pickup without requiring manual adjustments. Features such as Neat Symmetry and advanced camera intelligence help ensure everyone remains visible and engaged, regardless of where they are seated.

For customer-facing spaces, this is particularly valuable. Visitors don’t need to learn a complicated room system before joining a meeting. They simply connect their device and start collaborating.

The technology stays in the background, allowing users to focus on the conversation rather than the equipment.

Extending coverage with Neat Center

For larger boardrooms and executive spaces, NEXTDC also deploys Neat Center to create a more inclusive meeting experience.

Placed in the center of the room, Neat Center uses additional cameras and microphones to capture participants who may be farther away from the front-of-room display. This ensures remote attendees can clearly see and hear everyone involved in the conversation.

The result is a more equitable meeting experience, particularly in larger rooms with high ceilings where traditional front-of-room technology can struggle to capture every participant effectively.

Managing devices remotely with Neat Pulse

Remote management was another critical factor in NEXTDC’s decision. The team needed visibility into device health, room status, and performance from anywhere. Neat Pulse provided that capability.

Your remote capabilities, being able to see literally what’s on the touchscreen and the device itself, have been fantastic.

Jarrod Thompson

Using Neat Pulse, NEXTDC can remotely monitor devices, manage software updates, deploy standardized room profiles, troubleshoot issues, and gain real-time visibility into room technology from a single platform.

The team has also created standardized deployment profiles for customer rooms and internal spaces, making it easy to roll out new devices consistently across the organization.

If it’s a customer space, we use consistent settings in every single room. We reset a boardroom in Sydney last week and it probably only took five to ten minutes.

Jarrod Thompson

For an organization managing collaboration technology across multiple cities and international locations, that level of control has become a significant advantage.

Looking ahead, NEXTDC is also exploring opportunities to leverage room occupancy and utilization data collected through Neat Sense to better understand how collaboration spaces are being used.

Supporting a growing global workforce

As NEXTDC expands internationally, collaboration technology is helping connect teams across regions.

In Kuala Lumpur, where the company recently commissioned its first international data center, Neat Board 50 has become a valuable tool for company-wide town halls and cross-functional collaboration.

Combining a large multi-touch display, integrated audio and video, whiteboarding, and content sharing in a single device, Neat Board 50 offers the flexibility needed in dynamic work environments. Teams can easily move devices between spaces as requirements change while maintaining a familiar user experience.

For operational teams managing critical infrastructure, the devices make it easy to connect with colleagues across locations. For company-wide meetings, they provide an engaging way to bring teams together regardless of geography.

The flexibility of the platform has also sparked new ideas around innovation spaces, interactive customer experiences, and future AI-powered workflows.

Better experiences for customers and executives

The benefits haven’t just been operational. Feedback from employees, executives, and customers has been overwhelmingly positive.

In the past, complex AV environments sometimes struggled with reliability, audio performance, or support issues. Today, those complaints have largely disappeared. Instead, the feedback is about the experience itself.

People on the other end were saying, ‘Wow, what system are you using?’

Jarrod Thompson

Jarrod notes that camera intelligence, framing capabilities, and audio quality have all contributed to a more natural meeting experience.

Perhaps most tellingly, despite replacing traditional boardroom systems that relied on multiple speakers, microphones, amplifiers, and processors, the company has received zero complaints about audio performance.

The technology simply works.

Looking ahead

As NEXTDC continues expanding across Australia and into new international markets, the company now has a collaboration standard it can confidently replicate anywhere.

For Jarrod, the value of Neat comes down to three simple principles.

Simplicity, elegance, and it just works.

Jarrod Thompson

By replacing complexity with simplicity, standardizing meeting experiences, and enabling centralized management at scale, Neat has become an integral part of how NEXTDC connects employees, customers, and leadership teams across Australia’s largest data center network.

Discover Neat’s pioneering devices or book a demo and experience them for yourself.