CEDIA Cuts the Ribbon on its New Headquarters

CEDIA officially christened its new Fishers, Ind., global headquarters March 28th with a gala grand opening celebration featuring a host of member vendors, integrators and local officials.

Tabatha O’Connor, CEDIA’s global president and CEO, noted that the facility opening dovetailed both with the organization’s 30th anniversary and with the anniversary of its first member meeting in Amelia Island, Fla., “when the technology we see now was barely imaginable.”

Tabatha O'Connor and David Humphries

O’Connor read off a bullet-point-filled list of amenities at the new 30,000-square-foot site, including its state-of-the-art reference cinema and training facility, its media rooms and social hubs, its ergonomic and employee-friendly floorplan, and its multiple windows that fill each floor with light, as evidence that it will make its mark as an emblem of an evolved technology integration industry.

“The building is a testament to how far our industry has progressed. It is advanced, elegant, beautiful – but not stuffy. Simply put, it’s smart,” remarked CEDIA Chairman David Humphries, principal of the Rockleigh, N.J. rep firm Atlantic Integrated.

The three-story, $13.7 million building was two years in the conception and construction.

The building features multiple windows that fill each floor with exterior light

Facility Tour

The official opening ceremonies capped an evening of guided tours that showcased the facility’s functional and aesthetic innovations. Each room, as well as the second-floor open-air area, is labeled with its primary use as well as with a list of sponsoring vendors whose equipment is employed.

Among the many highlights:

• A welcome area near the entrance that includes an experience center equipped with a Samsung TV, Meridian DSP8000 floorstanding and Sonance architectural speakers, Crestron control and Ketra tunable lighting
• The first-floor reference cinema room. This nine-seat Dolby Atmos-endowed room is mechanically isolated from the rest of the building and features a 300-pound wooden door with a concrete core. Vendors whose gear is in use there include Stewart Filmscreen, Barco, Procella Audio, Kaleidescape, Lutron, Ketra, Torus Power, Trinnov Audio, QSC and Crestron.
• The main training room, characterized by O’Connor as “without equal, for a business that changes minute by minute.” It features a 16-foot-by-10-foot main screen, and outside the door, a touch panel that indicates with red or green lighting whether the room is in use or available.
• A bedroom/bathroom area – the bathroom features a Kohler toilet whose lid lifts automatically through sensor motion detection
• A dedicated podcast room
• Three advanced boot camp and eight basic boot camp training areas
• A 24-seat boardroom with chairs upholstered in the CEDIA logo’s signature shade of orange
• A kitchen area that serves as a social hub for employees, complete with chilled wine and beer on tap
• A dedicated storage room earmarked specifically for employee’s bicycles.

The facility is situated in one of the fastest-growing communities in America – an Indianapolis suburb which Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, on hand to formally welcome CEDIA to the community, said had topped Money Magazine’s 2017 list of the best places to live in the U.S.

“This is a smart, vibrant, entrepreneurial city for a smart, vibrant, entrepreneurial organization,” he said.