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Business Wire
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
ROOM Launches The Room Collection: Flexible Architecture for Today's Hybrid Workplace
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ROOM, the leading modular architecture company behind the award-winning Phone Booth and pioneer in flexible workplace design, today introduces The Room Collection: a new series of scalable and adaptable rooms, designed to provide privacy in open floorplans and meet the dynamic needs of today's businesses and office workers. A major pain point for employees is working in an office that hasn't yet been optimized for hybrid work. Simultaneously, businesses may find it difficult to swiftly adapt to changing workplace needs. While insufficient meeting spaces, poor acoustics and back-to-back virtual meetings plague workers, inflexible leases and hefty construction costs prevent business leaders from adapting accordingly. The Room Collection helps solve this through its easy-to-assemble, soundproof modular office system that can evolve to meet the needs of businesses at any stage. 'We started ROOM based on a simple observation,' said Thierry Ondet, ROOM's Managing Director. 'In open-plan offices, excessive noise and lack of private spaces reduce productivity and morale. Once distracted, it can take 20 minutes or more to refocus, affecting both output and employee retention. Our system creates flexible, comfortable spaces people actually want to be in - spaces that foster both concentration and connection.' The Room Collection marks ROOM's evolution to a full-floor solutions provider, enabling companies to reconfigure spaces quickly and sustainably, without the waste, cost, or permanence of traditional construction. Unlike a traditional conference room build-out, which can take months, Room Collection units can be installed in as little as three hours, and easily reconfigured as company and team needs evolve. This approach delivers up to 30% cost savings and reduces down-time with minimal disruption when compared to traditional construction, plus it supports sustainable office design through replaceable parts and recycled materials, including PET from plastic bottles and 100% wool acoustic walls. The Room Collection includes ADA-compliant models and has been awarded the Certified Autism Resource (CAR) badge by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES). This certification indicates that ROOM pods are designed to support individuals with autism, and other sensory sensitivities, by providing environments that minimize sensory overload. The Room Collection also earned the SCS Indoor Advantage Gold certification for indoor air quality. Each pod in The Collection is designed with ROOM's signature attention to acoustic performance, air quality, climate-control, Scandinavian design and plug-and-play simplicity, ensuring connection, comfort, productivity, privacy and wellbeing in the workplace. The Room Collection is available in three sizes: Small (S), Medium (M) and Large (L). Customers can opt for various interior configurations including: The Frame: A clean architectural structure that serves as a canvas for organizations to imagine spaces distinct to their needs. The Focus Room: A turnkey setup for private, heads-down work, designed to support deep concentration and individual productivity. The Focus Room comes equipped with a height-adjustable desk, large whiteboard and custom credenza for storage. The Meeting Room: A complete space for team meetings and group collaboration, able to accommodate anywhere from two to six people depending on the size. Meeting Room configurations are available with a video conference add-on featuring a monitor, webcam and speaker integration for seamless video-conferencing. 'We like to think of hybrid workplaces as flexible by design, but the reality is they often come with their own limitations,' added Justin Dollinger, VP, Product Engineering at ROOM. 'The Room Collection embraces the idea that workplaces are iterative—spaces should grow with teams and allow people to ebb and flow through different modes of work, without being locked into a static floor plan.' Since 2018, ROOM has sold more than 35,000 Phone Booths globally, proving the demand for modular solutions that enhance privacy, focus, and collaboration. The Room Collection extends that vision, providing a complete architectural system designed for today's hybrid workplace. The Room Collection is available now on and dealer sales channels in collaboration with OFS. ### About ROOM ROOM is reshaping the modern workplace to create the offices of the future around the world. Offering modular and creative architectural office solutions that seamlessly transition a stagnant floorplan to one that is adaptive and dynamic, ROOM's series of purpose-built products foster productivity, team collaboration, focused individual work, and everything in between. All without the hassle, expense and negative environmental effects of traditional construction. With over 8,000 unique customers ranging from budding startups to Fortune 500 companies including Google, Samsung, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and NASA, ROOM is inspiring a better way to work for all. ROOM is now part of OFS, one of the largest independent office furniture manufacturers and workspace innovators in the country. Learn more at
Extra.ie
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Colin Farrell receives high praise following sweet moment with young fan
Colin Farrell has been lauded for being a 'gentleman doing us Irish proud,' after a sweet moment when he met a young fan went viral. The interaction came during the week with the young fan, Nino, and his mum meeting Colin 'up close and personal' while he was filming his latest movie. Nino's mum shared the interaction online, with the video accumulating more than 300,000 views in just two days. Colin Farrell has been lauded for being a 'gentleman doing us Irish proud,' after a sweet moment when he met a young fan went viral. Pic: TikTok 'When you get to meet Colin Farrell up close in personal and talk to him while he shot his music, such a gentleman,' the caption read. The video starts with Nino's mum telling Colin her son wants to speak to him for 'just one second,' with the Dubliner instantly getting out of his car and introducing himself. 'I watched a lot of your movies like Pay Phone [Phone Booth],' the young fan shared, with Colin thanking him before asking what his name is. @sonnygirlla When you get to meet Colin Farrell up close in personal and talk to him while he shot his movie such a gentleman @ColinFarrell #f#foryoupagef#fypc#colinfarrellm#moviesetc#celebrityc#colinfarrell ♬ original sound – Sonnygirl 'How you doing? How's school going, man?' Colin asked after a hug, with the young fan's mum noting they were 'having a little tough time with it.' Colin said: 'School is tough. They were the worst days of my life, for what it's worth. Life only gets better, man.' Colin then learned that the young fan was an aspiring musician and encouraged the youngster to 'stay at it.' Colin Farrell. Pic:for Maui Film Festival 'I promise you life gets better and better,' Colin said, shaking his hand. Social media users flocked to the comments with everyone branding the Penguin star a 'gentleman.' One said: 'You can't fake nice. What a wonderful human!' Hilariously, other commenters were taken about by the Irish mans… ehm, Irish accent. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock Another wrote: 'Many of us Irish are easy to approach, it's always great to see the famous ones proving it.' A third commented: 'A gentleman doing us Irish proud.' Others pointed out the young fans error with Nino's mum clarifying that he was 'so nervous' leading to the slip up. A response said: 'Colin would understand cause here in Ireland we never called the 'phone booth' we always said we were going down to the 'payphone.' Hilariously, other commenters were taken about by the Irish mans… ehm, Irish accent. 'Am I the only one that didn't know he had an Irish accent!!!' one wrote, 'My mind is blown today!!!'
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Drop' Review: The Ultimate Doomscroll
Modernizing the paranoid templates of thrillers like Joel Schumacher's 'Phone Booth' (2003) and Wes Craven's 'Red Eye' (2005), 'Drop' invites us to observe a disastrous dinner date with a potentially fatal dessert. The unsuspecting diners are Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widowed therapist with a traumatic past, and Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a hunky photographer with a debatable future. After three months of skittish texting, Violet has finally agreed to meet Henry in person at a luxury restaurant atop a Chicago skyscraper. And just as she's overcoming her first-date jitters — and the dizzying view from their window table — her phone beeps: Someone is sending anonymous, increasingly menacing messages using an AirDrop-style app that only operates within 50 feet. It would be easier to identify the culprit if every one of their fellow diners were not also staring at their phones. Like a Jenga tower with half the pieces removed, Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach's wobbly script grows more preposterous by the minute. (Not least because no woman as cautious as Violet would be this careless with her phone's privacy settings.) Which doesn't mean that 'Drop' isn't fun: Park your left brain at the door and enjoy Ben Baudhuin's snappy editing, Marc Spicer's glowing, gliding images and the easy chemistry between the two leads. The mood might be more ick than eek, but Fahy is wickedly entertaining as a woman casting around for an escape from her online tormentor — if she fails to obey his commands, the sister and young son she left at home will be murdered — and charming the seemingly saintly Henry into finishing a date with someone he must believe to be at least a little nuts. While reprising the kicky, repetitive style that drove 'Happy Death Day' in 2017 and, two years later, its less compelling sequel, the director Christopher Landon diverts us with visual gimmicks. Cell messages splay across the screen and inside a bathroom stall, and a shoal of brunette herrings swim through the movie. Apparently, almost every man in Chicago — including Violet's date, her meter reader and a random encounter at the bar — sports brown hair and a beard. Just like her unidentified attacker in the film's opening scene. Fortified by a handful of solid supporting players (like Jeffery Self as a wildly oversharing server), 'Drop' is pleasantly silly and minimally suspenseful. And when, in an utterly bonkers final section, the soothing sounds of upscale dining skid into a convulsion of action and last-minute plot dumping, your expression may mirror that of poor, baffled Henry. Yet Sklenar — who, after last year's 'It Ends With Us,' is carving a niche for himself as a soft landing for traumatized women — is, like a perfect zabaglione, hot and sweet in a role that demands little more. After witnessing Violet's jittery table changes and multiple bathroom breaks, he seems only minimally vexed, and never once inquires if she has a urinary tract infection. Now that's a keeper.
Associated Press
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Movie Review: ‘Drop' doesn't phone it in
It's oddly comforting that a movie can still dial M when it wants to. Smart phones have largely been a bit of a buzzkill for horror films, leading filmmakers to find all kinds of reasons — dead batteries, no service — to strand potential prey. But at least since 1949's 'Sorry, Wrong Number,' phones have also been a reliable conduit for terror capable of reaching into the home, or your pocket. 'Drop,' a silly but suspenseful new thriller, carries on the tradition of 'When a Stranger Calls' and 'Phone Booth' by situating its tension around mysterious, threatening phone messages. Violet ( Meghann Fahy), a widow with a young child, is on her first date in years. After three months of texting, she has hesitantly agreed to finally meet Henry (Brandon Sklenar) for dinner. When they sit down in a fancy restaurant high up a sleek Chicago high-rise, he's charming and relaxed. But Violet, like countless dates before her, can't stay off her phone. In Violet's case, though, the distraction is legitimate. She keeps getting messages dropped to her phone threatening her son, who's at home with Violet's sister (Violett Beane), unless she does what he says, including killing her date. In her home security cameras she can see a man with his face covered brandishing a gun. 'Drop,' directed by Christopher Landon ('Happy Death Day'), doesn't differ greatly from the large swath of high-concept, low-budget thrillers that regularly flood theaters. But it's a taut little movie, almost totally set in the restaurant, with a just keen enough sense of plausible and preposterous. It knows to keep the pressure-cooker plot moving while not overstaying its welcome. At a nifty 95 minutes, 'Drop' knows when to hang up. As if adding a digital twist to the old line 'The call is coming from inside the house,' Violet is getting message from an app called DigiDrop that can only be sent from a person within 50 feet. That means everyone in the restaurant — the bro who bumps into her, the cheesy waiter, the kind bartender — is a suspect. With her terrorizer watching her every move and prohibiting her from breathing a word to anyone, Violet is stuck rooted to her table when every fiber of her being wants to rescue her son. A considerable help to the film are the grounded screen presences of Fahy ('The White Lotus') and Sklenar ('1923'), both small-screen breakouts who here show movie-star poise. As the plot unspools, there are, naturally, quibbles one could make. Would a mother, with a masked gunman outside her toddler's door be able to feign interest in a duck salad? Does the highly orchestrated trap laid for her match the motives of the criminal mastermind? And while we're asking questions, could we not someday get a phone-themed thriller titled 'Butt Dial'? But if 'Drop' is invariably quite a bit less than realistic, it has a whiff of metaphor. Violet isn't just stepping back into the dating pool as a single mom, she's trying to shake the past trauma of spousal abuse. Going on a date with Henry, whom she met on an app, is a kind of crap shoot. Will going out with a stranger met online end in love or violence? You could also read 'Drop' as an extreme version of a more ubiquitous scourge. This is a movie where the bad guy, for nearly the duration of the movie, is nothing but text messages. (They are typically flashed large across the screen.) As Violet grows increasingly preoccupied and frantic, she could be just about anyone — a workaholic after hours, a teenager, a desperate Knicks fan watching the score — whose attention is held prisoner by her phone. How much of the terror of 'Drop' would have existed at all, if she had just put it on silent?
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Movie review: 'Locked' cleverly torments Bill Skarsgard
LOS ANGELES, March 19 (UPI) -- Movies set in a single location generate an inherent level of interest simply to see how a film can fill 90 minutes of time. Locked, in theaters Friday, compares favorably to films like Panic Room, Phone Booth and Buried. Based on the Argentine movie 4 x 4, Locked stars Bill Skarsgard as Eddie, a divorced father struggling to make ends meet. He needs $475 to repair his van so he can fulfill after school visitation with his daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright). Eddie quickly exhausts pickpocketing, begging friends and lottery scratch tickets. He resorts to breaking into an SUV and is somehow locked inside. William (Anthony Hopkins) calls Eddie through the car's electronic system once he learns someone else is in his vehicle and opts to hold Eddie captive. The car, a fictional brand called Dolus, is a bit fancier than real-world cars to make this premise work. For example, not even Tesla Cybertrucks have bulletproof windows. The features make for a fun movie trap. The Dolus blocks Eddie's cell phone signal and has soundproof and tinted windows, cutting him off from anybody outside. William uses the custom features of the car to torment Eddie further, including tasers in the seats. By combining the temperature, sound system and injuries Eddie suffered while trying to escape, William is able to push and pull his captive in all directions. Eddie is not entirely passive, attempting to gain the advantage when William isn't surveilling him. As cathartic as the idea of punishing a car thief is, Locked necessarily has to address the extremity of William's methods and the resources devoted to them. That explanation proves a tad simplistic. The film also oversimplifies some of Eddie and William's debates about crime and wealth. There is a valid argument to be had about desperation driving people to commit criminal acts to survive, but that's not really where Locked goes. Eddie just recites familiar talking points about the system being rigged to let the 1% keep their wealth while the other 99% struggle paycheck to paycheck. He's not wrong, but it's not believable that someone that desperate has articulated the same arguments as political advocates. On a pure narrative level, however, Locked keeps the thriller moving. Hopkins does appear in the movie, too, so it's not an entirely voiceover performance. Overall, Locked is worth seeing to see Skarsgard and Hopkins -- two titans of horror from different generations -- face off. It's not Pennywise vs. Hannibal Lecter, but neither is it a boring 90 minute thriller. Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
