LBBC Group

We support the who of LBBC Group’s digital infrastructure, across website design and development, 3D animation, support and digital marketing.

The websites are developed on their own WordPress Multisite network. Each website has it’s own style and design, but they are underpinned by the same frameworks, plugins and custom code so that we can easily update and manage the network centrally.

We developed a realistic 3D product visualisation for LBBC Baskerville’s new corrosion testing autoclave.

We significantly increased traffic and leads to LBBC Beechwood during a search engine optimisation campaign.

LBBC Group have a total of five websites; A group website, LBBC Technologies, LBBC Baskerville, LBBC Beechwood and Resomation. With five independent websites to build and manage, our approach was to use WordPress and the core multisite infrastructure, meaning that we only had one system, one theme framework and a single cache of premium plugins to manage and update. This multisite approach also allowed us to consolidate our hosting infrastructure to single bespoke server, protected by our cloud security infrastructure.

For the most part, the website network uses a similar look and feel, taken from the LBBC branding guidelines, with the exception of Resomation which maintained it’s existing branding and design rules prior to LBBCs purchase.

In addition to the primary websites, LBBC required us to develop an internal

LBBC Baskerville gave us an interesting challenge of developing a photo-realistic 3D visualisation of their new corrosion testing autoclave. Partnering closely wth Danny Burkle, we built the 3D version at the same time as Danny was building the real version, giving the project a competitive edge over the course of the project. LBBC Baskerville needed a digital product that they could take to trade shows and “WOW” potential clients without the need for shipping large, heavy and expensive machinery internationally.

One of the more technical challenges became the hosting infrastructure. Reliability and security are a given within our hosting environment, but we also wanted to see how efficient we could make our hosting and ensure that there was no possibility of the websites or any third party integrations creating “leaks” that might affect the rest of the sites.

Website Development

The LBBC Group websites were developed within a WordPress Multisite network, providing us with a single core platform and digital infrastructure to give us the building blocks for the separate sub-sites.

This setup minimises ongoing support by providing a single system to keep up to date and secure, but at the same time gives us full flexibility between sites so that we can provide a uniform style and independent design where necessary.

We are also able to consolidate news articles, so that the umbrella LBBC Group website can show all articles from the rest of the group in a single unified feed.

3D Product Visualisation

So that we could accurately communicate the features of the corrosion teting autoclave, we opted for a highly realistic look. This meant that as well as the machine proportions; visual details and textures had to be accurate. The first step was to gain access to the original CAD files from Danny, and then take as many reference photos as we needed from all angles and of all options and additional equipment. We used this to create accurate visual versions within our animation software.

The animation style is slick and fluid. There is enough visaual interest to draw potential clients in, then once they are engaged in the video they are provided with information without it taking away from the visual stimulus or being too distracting. On the website, this video is accompanied by clear call to action buttons to get in touch with LBBC and enquire about the machine.

The next step that we have been investigating is to develop an augmented or virtual reality version of the project – an application that could be easily download onto a phone via QR code, or pre-installed on android devices with Google glasses or a VR headset such as the Oculous Quest. We have already developed a successful proof of concept so watch this space.. An AR or VR version of the corrosion testing autoclave would turn a 3d animation into an interactive 3D experience; allowing people to rotate, zoom and test various features of the product at their own pace and convenience.

Website Hosting Infrastructure

LBBC Group have their own bespoke VPS server with dedicated resources and active malware and bot-fighting security measures. This is the origin primary, hosted in the UK to ensure that data is safe and secure at the origin. We then place a cloud security layer above this, in between the public and the origin. This is where a lot of the magic take place. Public data is distributed globally accross hundreds of thousands of small servers so that content only ever has a short journey to each website visitor. This Content Delivery Network also compresses and optimises the data, ensuring that every user has a lighting fast experience when navigating the websites. We even trick these nodes to start downloading new pages as a visitor hovers over a web link, further reducing page load times.

Because there is no direct access to the server (in fact, all external access outside of the CDN network and our development team is blocked) we ensure absolute protection from hacking attempts to the server itself. This level of control also allows us to check all incoming traffic to the domain. We can detect and block bots that might try to try and access the websites (whilst letting known “good” bots like Google Analytics through) as well as quickly and easily stop malicious attempts that match the custom patterns that we developed alongside LBBC.

Another unique part of our bespoke hosting infrastructure is the ability to load and run scripts within this security layer, taking weight away from the origin server and significantly improving performance.

Our Hosting infrastructure provides a completely isolated Development server, too. This allows our developers to test updates before we apply the to the live application and develop new features without the risk of the existing website going offline.

Non-Conformance Reporting Portal

In addition to the public facing websites, we developed a dedicated internal application to control the reporting of issues within the company.

The LBBC Group Website allows the team to easily advertise their services on a platform that prioritises user experience and engagement to drive visitors into filling in contact forms in order to increase leads.

The entire WordPress Multisite Network runs lighting fast on our bespoke website hosting infrastructure, with most pages loading in under 0.2 seconds and our next generation caching technology tells browser to start loading pages as soon as a user hovers over a link.

The 3D visualisation/animation video allows LBBC Baskerville to market their new corrosion testing autoclave without shipping heaving machinery to international trade shows, significantly increasing the reach of their marketing potential. They can also use the video to advertise across their social and online media platforms as well as digital newsletters to increase engagement, interest and ultimately increase the sales potential of their advertising strategy.

The WordPress Multisite Website is monitored, supported and protected by a custom version of out WordPress Webmaster Business solution. Business Webmaster Solutions support Multisite installations as well as custom applications such as the internal non-conformance reporting system that we developed. As well as continuous monitoring of the entire hosting infrastructure (server resources, client load times, malware and hacking attempts to name a few) we update the WordPress System, website frameworks and plugins regularly to ensure that everything runs safely, reliably and securely. It also ensure that bugs are fixed and new features are enabled automatically. Our WordPress Webmaster backs the website up to a secondary source, too. We create daily backups of the website on a secure European server so that even if there is an issue with the Data Centre. itself, we can get LBBC Group back online within an hour

In addition to the fully managed services that we provide for LBBC Group and it’s subsidies, additional support is provided via Support Blocks. These pre-paid blocks of support hours allow us to very quickly and efficiently investigate issues, update their custom applications, tweak elements of the 2D and 3D animated elements and develop new features for the various sites.