Overland Park, Kan. – February 13, 2019 – As one of the most world-renowned names in audio, Shure has built its reputation by carrying only the highest performance and quality microphones, wireless systems, listening gear, and other audio solutions. The Shure Customer Experience Center in Chicago was built to match this industry-leading reputation.

“The concept for our Customer Experience Center was developed by a small group of Associates to provide our integrators, consultants, architects, and end users with a space to experience our solutions paired with industry partners,” said Jim Schanz, Vice President of Global Integrated Systems Sales at Shure. “We wanted the Experience Center to be convenient for our customers to test drive our high-quality products in typical audio and video spaces such as huddle rooms, board rooms, conference rooms, and more.”

AVI-SPL, based in Tampa, Florida, was selected as the integrator to meet the project goals, both in a time and budget-conscious manner. The original plan for a Customer Experience Center quickly developed into a much larger, complex plan. Today, the Customer Experience Center shares space in The National building in downtown Chicago with Shure Associates in customer service, sales, and marketing.

As plans started to develop for its newly debuted center, Shure entrusted MSE Audio, an award-winning speaker manufacturer, to assist in its goal of creating a destination to experience the company’s professional audio solutions and collaboration tools for corporate environments.

“We had a relationship with MSE Audio before the Customer Experience Center,” said Schanz. “We’ve trusted their products in the past, most recently at InfoComm, where we incorporated pendant speakers in our demonstration room. And, as a manufacturer of audio components such as microphones and processors, it’s important to us that our entire audio system, from start to finish, is flawless. We wanted to present the high-quality audio experience that customers expect from us, and we found that with MSE Audio’s SoundTube speakers.”

The National presented its own challenges. Built in 1906, the building features high ceilings, which affects acoustical installation, and the office is located on the fourth floor, carrying city, traffic, and street noises.

“We had a lot of issues to face when it came to acoustical treatments to accommodate the pairing of building design and audio solutions,” continued Schanz. “A main reason we selected MSE Audio is because their pendant speakers require minimal acoustical treatment. Add their Dante-enabled capabilities, durability of the product, and flexibility of the design, and it checked all the boxes. Overall, Dante functionality was very important to us and made a significant difference in the functionality and protocol that we were able to provide.”

Dante-enabled digital audio systems can now extend the digital path all the way to the end point in an installation. MSE Audio’s SoundTube STNet speakers are Dante and AES67 compatible, enabling them to operate with a host of other products worldwide. The speakers feature digital signals with power sent directly to the speakers through a standard category cable. DSP management with high and low pass, time correction, and EQ can all be individually adjusted in the digital domain. The STNet speakers are designed for indoor and outdoor applications, featuring polypropylene woofers, soft dome tweeters, and the option of indoor and outdoor models.

MSE Audio’s SoundTube STNet speakers are hanging throughout the high ceilings in the Customer Experience Center. Shure pairs the SoundTube speakers with its portfolio of conferencing products to effectively showcase conference room collaboration.

”Many of the people who visit the Customer Experience Center ask about the speakers,” noted Schanz. “We believe that MSE Audio has been an important part of meeting and exceeding our goals for this project.”

After months of planning and renovations, the Shure Customer Experience Center is bustling. It provides a place for Shure to showcase its industry-leading audio solutions, assisted by MSE Audio’s SoundTube STNet speakers.

The full suite of SoundTube IPD STNet speakers can be found online at https://soundtube.mseaudio.com/series/dante-enabled-ip-speakers/.