By Rebecca Gibson |
Located in the grounds of a former manor house in the UK, Drayton Manor Resort is home to more than 50 family-friendly rollercoasters and rides, as well as a hotel, a 15-acre conservation zoo and Europe’s only Thomas Land. The attraction, which opened in 1950, is now owned by pan-European leisure park operator Looping Group and hosts more than 1.5 million guests per year on average, making it one of the most-visited theme parks in the UK.
Following its acquisition by Looping Group, the theme park struggled with internal planning and international collaboration due to its aging and complex audiovisual (AV) system, which comprised disparate technologies from multiple vendors. Every meeting room was set up differently, which meant users didn’t understand or trust the technology.
“Drayton Manor Resort had reached the point where the main meeting room just wasn’t working anymore,” says James Hill, UK director of sales at Shure. “It was a mix of different AV kits from multiple vendors, which made it complicated to use. People had lost confidence in it: meetings were slow to start, audio was hit and miss, and hybrid collaboration, especially with teams across Europe, was often disrupted. In fact, people had stopped using the room altogether.”
To overcome this challenge, Drayton Manor Resort opted to replace the AV infrastructure in its main meeting room with a secure, all-in-one Microsoft Teams Rooms conferencing kit from Shure.
Fully integrated with Microsoft Teams, the plug-and-play Shure IntelliMix Room Kit features an intuitive touch panel and AI-powered cameras from Huddly, which automatically frame participants. It also has a MXA902 ceiling array microphone and loudspeaker to provide consistent full room coverage, while Shure’s IntelliMix Room DSP software to remove distracting sounds and enhance speech. The solution was implemented in the main meeting room by Shure’s AV partner, Project Audio Visual.
The IntelliMix Room Kit “simplified everything”, says Hill. “It replaced that patchwork setup with one consistent solution that is predictable and easy for IT teams to manage, and works as it should for users,” he explains. “The built-in IntelliMix DSP means they get reliable, high-quality audio every time, which was a big part of the brief. In practical terms, it’s a much smoother experience. One-touch join, no guesswork and clear audio, whether participants are in the room or joining remotely. Meetings start on time and run as they should, which is exactly what was missing before.”
Shure
According to Drayton Manor Resort, the “transformation was immediate” and Shure’s solution has turned the meeting space into a “high-performing hub for collaboration” between its UK- and Europe-based teams. Internal planning meetings now run more smoothly too.
“No one’s frightened of using the rooms anymore; they just work,” said Andrew Davies, the head of resorts maintenance.
Hill attributes the success of the project to the strong collaboration between Shure, Project Audio Visual and Drayton Manor Resort.
“It was a close, aligned approach from the start, which kept things moving quickly and avoided unnecessary complexity,” he says. “As it was a fully Shure-based solution, the design and deployment were straightforward. Project Audio Visual focused on getting the setup right for how the room is used, and we supported them to ensure it performed well from day one.”
Shure will continue to support Drayton Manor Resort as its AV needs evolve.
“This project gives Drayton Manor Resort a clear starting point for standardising other spaces – it has now seen what a reliable, easy-to-use setup looks like,” says Hill. “Naturally, there’s an opportunity to roll this out into other rooms, and potentially across the wider Looping Group. As more teams collaborate across locations, consistency becomes increasingly important. From our side, it’s about supporting that with something that scales easily and keeps the experience the same wherever employees are working. I see us building on what’s already working and expanding it in a way that supports the group’s long-term collaboration strategy.”
Discover more insights from experts at Microsoft Partner businesses in the Summer 2026 issue of Technology Record. To get content like this on a regular basis, subscribe to the print edition or free digital edition of the quarterly Technology Record magazine.