When Consumer Direct outgrew its Irvine, Calif. headquarters, the team viewed the move to a new facility as an opportunity to rethink how AV technology could support collaboration, presentation and long-term growth across the organization. The company envisioned a modern corporate environment anchored by a dramatic 220-inch videowall, multiple conference rooms with extensive source flexibility, as well as the ability to expand or reconfigure spaces without rebuilding the underlying infrastructure.
For ReelTime Sight & Sound, the project represented a significant evolution. According to the firm, this installation was the largest commercial project it had undertaken to date and was roughly double the scale of its typical work. Complicating matters further, the existing AV system at Consumer Direct’s prior office featured a legacy generation of Just Add Power hardware that would not be compatible with newer components.
“The challenge wasn’t just size,” says Edwin Dimas, partner at ReelTime Sight & Sound. “It was planning for what the client hadn’t asked for yet, while making sure everything we installed today wouldn’t limit what they wanted to do tomorrow.”
Adding to the complexity, the ReelTime team was preparing to deploy the latest generation of Just Add Power hardware for the first time just as multiple hurricanes disrupted manufacturer operations in Florida, where in-person training was originally scheduled.
How ReelTime Outfitted Just Add Power Hardware
According to the team, rather than attempting workarounds, ReelTime and Consumer Direct opted for a full system upgrade built on the current Just Add Power MaxColor Series platform. This decision ensured consistency across the facility and allowed every room, from conference spaces to the lobby videowall, to operate on a single, scalable AV-over-IP backbone.
The system design supports five sources in each conference room, including Apple TV, local PCs, wireless screen-sharing devices and dedicated conferencing hardware from Logitech and HP Poly. All sources are routed through Just Add Power encoders and decoders, giving users instant access to content on local displays or shared areas as needed.
According to the company, control and usability emerged as central priorities. ReelTime integrated the system with Control4, programming intuitive keypads and touchscreens that allow employees to select sources with a single button press. Despite the system’s scale, the user experience remains simple and consistent throughout the building.
Flexibility also proved especially critical as the project evolved. As Consumer Direct’s leadership saw the system take shape, new requests emerged, including additional video tiling, new displays and expanded routing capabilities. As the Just Add Power architecture was already in place, the team could accommodate those changes by adding encoders or decoders rather than redesigning the system.
“One of the biggest advantages was how easy it was to grow,” Dimas says. “If the owner wanted tiling in a new area or another display added, we didn’t have to start over. We just added hardware and kept moving.”
Overcoming Training and Deployment Challenges
The timing of the project coincided with multiple hurricanes affecting Florida in late 2024, disrupting Just Add Power’s normal training schedule. To keep the project on track, the manufacturer shipped a remote training kit to ReelTime, allowing the team to begin hands-on testing and configuration from its own office.
“That support made a huge difference,” Dimas adds. “Even with everything going on, Just Add Power got us what we needed. We were able to build a full mock system in-house, test tiling, work through programming and really get comfortable before we ever stepped on-site.”
This approach paid dividends during installation. Extensive preplanning, prewiring and off-site testing minimized surprises in the field and allowed the team to execute with confidence once deployment began.
Just Add Power Enables Seamless Integration
Courtesy / Just Add Power
Per the company, the completed installation delivers a polished, high-performance AV environment that functions seamlessly across the entire facility. The 220-inch, 1.2 millimeter pixel pitch videowall serves as a visual centerpiece, while conference rooms support fast switching between multiple sources without lag or signal degradation, even at 4K resolution.
Despite its size and complexity, the system has required virtually no post-installation service calls, a metric Dimas considers the clearest indicator of success. “We measure effectiveness by what doesn’t happen,” he remarks. “This is our largest project to date, and it is also one of our least demanding from a service standpoint. That says everything.”
