To say that Elite Sight and Sound was out of its comfort zone doing a recent commercial collaboration system, including multiroom video and a video wall, would be misleading. The company, which has served Raleigh, Durham, Cary and many other eastern North Carolina metropolitan areas since its inception in 2006, often tackles commercial projects in addition to providing residential customers with state-of-the-art audio and video installations. But its most recent commercial project for recruiting company Personify was unique in that the company relied heavily on its distribution partner AVAD for not only product selection and delivery, but design assistance.

Based in North Carolina, Personify is one of the fastest growing privately held Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Traditional Search organizations in the U.S. It was recently recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies.

The company enlisted the help of Elite Sight and Sound with the goal of creating a space with reliable, top-of-the-line technology to promote collaboration in the workforce.

“Once we began working with Personify, we knew this was going to be our largest project yet,” says Chris Fletcher, president of Elite. “The initial phase was centered solely around bringing collaboration into a central meeting phase, once we completed the initial phase, we began working on security and surveillance, as well as branching out to other rooms and spaces.”

Video Wall Part of Collaboration System

The project includes a combination of 70-inch Sharp Commercial2g+ displays and 50-inch Samsung hospitality displays in both conference rooms and open areas meant for collaboration. There is also a 16-screen video wall using Samsung UD46E-C mounted on Peerless-AV DS-VW765-LAND videowall mounts.

Even though this was a strictly commercial project, Elite turned to its local Charlotte AVAD branch for product selection and design.

“With our client’s goal in mind, we knew we had to hit it out of the park, which is why we worked with our local AVAD branch in Charlotte to ensure we were integrating the best technology for the job,” explains Fletcher. “Our local AVAD associate, Paul, worked with us through the entire installation, beginning with the design process.

“The video wall was the biggest challenge we had to overcome during the installation and Paul worked with us to find the proper video models and displays that were the adequate size while providing powerful video resolutions and remaining under our client’s budget. If we had any questions throughout the installation, Paul was always available to help us and we really appreciated his expert-level customer service support,” he says.

For delivery, Elite used AVAD’s personalized freight program to assure products arrive on time to its designated location.

“Throughout the installation, we were purchasing items that weren’t available at the Charlotte branch and Paul had each of the products we needed overnighted, without costing us precious time during the installation. Paul was able to call his sales managers directly, locate the product we were looking for and within a day we had the product in our hand and could continue the project.”

The full equipment list includes:

• 16 Samsung UD46E-C  video wall TVs
• 16 Peerless-AV DS-VW765-LAND  videowall mounts
• 1 Middle Atlantic 42U rack
• JBL CS Series Mixer Amplifiers
• 70-inch Sharp Commercial2g+ displays
• 50-inch Samsung hospitality displays
• Barco Clickshares
• Control4 EA5 controller
• Control4 Audio Matrix
• Luxul XMS-7048P 52 port switch
• Luxul AMS-4424P 26 port switch
• SnapAV/Episode ECS-AW70V-6-BLK 70 volt speakers

Fletcher notes how comforting and convenient it was to be able to work with his distributor for this commercial project.

“During our latest project with Personify, it was important that we were able to receive all of our products from one place for more efficient purchase orders,” he says. “AVAD had all of the commercial items we were looking for and by purchasing all of our solutions from AVAD, we were able to save an immense amount of time, which was critical for such a massive project.”

“We couldn’t be happier to hear that Chris and his team at Elite Sight and Sound were able to impress their client with world-class technology through AVAD products,” says Seth Evenson, director of customer experience for AVAD. “We’re continuously investing in providing our dealers across the nation with products that are reliable, innovative and affordable, allowing them to meet their client’s goals. We offer our dealers an industry leading line card, personalized freight program, and access to the best services and staff in the industry. In addition, we have recently expanded call center staff, tech support and design services, as well as hiring positions in previously underserved markets.”

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