Words by Gillian Serisier with interview by Alice Blackwood

Founding Framery in 2010, CEO and founder, Samu Hällfors, recalls the lightbulb moment when he and then-colleague Vesa-Matti Marjamäki reached boiling point with their then-boss constantly talking on the phone: “He was walking around the office of a hundred people, who were all being disturbed at a critical time in the software development of the firm. My friend and colleague stood up and asked him to take the phone call elsewhere,” recalls Hällfors, who suggests the language may have been more colourful! The boss’s response – “You should get me a phonebooth” – triggered what has become one of Finland’s great success stories.

Rather than rejecting the idea, Hällfors with Marjamäki immediately started looking for a phonebooth online. Fifteen minutes later they realised there was nothing currently available and they quickly formulated a plan. “We looked at each other and the bell rang, we went to our boss and said: ‘We have good news and bad news. The good news is that you will have your phone booth. The bad news is that we are quitting.’ And that was the discussion that started our company,” says Hällfors, who true to his promise sold his first product to his former boss.

Framery provided the perfect vehicle for Hällfors technology-led drive for solutions. Indeed, his entrepreneurial spirit and futuristic outlook for solving common everyday challenges was met by Framery. As such, whether workplace, education, healthcare, or judiciary, wherever privacy for meetings or consultation is required Framery meets the need.

Key to the development of Framery’s earliest pod iterations was his understanding of what would make the pod comfortable. The primary challenge being the mismatch of ventilation and soundproofing as Hällfors explains: “To have ventilation you need a hole, which is going to let out sound, our design’s biggest innovation back in the day, was finding a way to build a sound insulative ventilation hole.”

Changing the face of virtual meetings: Framery One

With this technology forming the starting point, all other aesthetics and tech innovations – including the first-to-market Framery Connect workplace management tool – were layered into Framery’s headline product: Framery One. Framery One features a high-resolution touchscreen and seamless user interface allowing the user to control reservations, airflow, and lighting, the pod is comfortable, movable (on wheels), interactive, and self-monitoring for maintenance and additional needs. With the addition of Framery Connect, users and businesses can also harness the full power of their workplace through analysis and optimisation of their Framery One pods.

Growing to a million-dollar company in its first five years, Framery leapt ahead to a 100 million-dollar company in the following five years. “We were lucky enough to know good people around us and some entrepreneurs that could help us in the beginning,” says Hällfors. Indeed, with great take-up in Australia, this is a company of significant global impact with 70 per cent of Forbes 100 companies (including Microsoft, Puma, Vodafone, and Deloitte), specifying Framery One for its superior acoustics, 4G technology and digital ecosystem.

Meeting time revolutionised: Framery Contact

In this spirit of innovation and advanced focus, Framery’s latest ground-breaking Neocon 2023 release, Framery Contact, is set to revolutionise the way we meet – virtually. “Framery Contact is a revolutionary new videoconferencing pod that maximises social and spatial presence,” explains Hällfors.

Framery Contact streams a virtual image that negates the pitfalls of conventional video conferencing such as lack of eye contact and body language cues. Instead Framery Contact projects an unaltered image, while strategic mirror placement provides eye contact to ensure a “high degree of social presence and prevents adverse effects caused by computer-generated imagery”. Moreover, sound is controlled via a cardioid microphone that blocks leaks and undesired sounds while being broadcast to accurately match the radiation pattern and frequency response of a human speaker. In short, the virtual meeting experience of Framery Contact is as close to a real-life human interaction as possible.

“The convenience of bringing remote video conferencing closer to face-to-face meetings also helps companies cut down on unnecessarily costly and environmentally adverse business travel,” says Hällfors.

This article originally appeared in Indesign Issue #90 – The City Future’s Issue.

Framery
frameryacoustics.com

Photography
Courtesy Of Framery

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