Fanatics
Project Overview
Building a World-Class All-Hands Experience for One of Sports’ Fastest-Growing Companies
Floating 3×3 Video Wall, 13 Displays, AVoIP Distribution, and Unified Cisco/Crestron Control for a High-Impact All-Hands Experience
Fanatics — a global leader in licensed sports merchandise and one of the most recognized brands in sports commerce — engaged Crunchy Tech to design and deploy a full distributed AV system for their new corporate office, with particular emphasis on the Town Hall space at the heart of the facility. As a company where culture and communication drive performance, Fanatics needed a space that would serve as both an energizing daily environment for employees and a powerful platform for leadership to connect with the entire organization during all-hands meetings.
The Town Hall space needed to do two things exceptionally well: create a visually striking, engaging break area that reflected the dynamism of the Fanatics brand, and transform instantly into a high-performance all-hands meeting environment capable of hosting company-wide leadership presentations with seamless conferencing, distributed audio, and full audience participation. Crunchy Tech delivered a system that achieves both — anchored by a dramatic ceiling-flown floating video wall and unified by enterprise-grade AV technology that makes every meeting effortless.
Project Challenges
Designing for Scale, Spectacle, and Zero Technical Friction
The Fanatics Town Hall project presented a demanding set of design and engineering requirements that went well beyond a standard corporate AV installation:
- The space needed to serve two very different functions simultaneously: a casual daily gathering and break area for employees, and a high-stakes all-hands meeting venue where the CEO and senior leadership would communicate with the entire company. The AV system had to transition between these modes without any manual reconfiguration, and had to perform flawlessly during high-visibility leadership events where any technical failure would directly undermine executive credibility and employee confidence.
- The signature floating video wall — a 3×3 array of nine 55-inch LCD panels suspended from the ceiling above the stage — required careful structural planning and precise installation to achieve the intended aesthetic effect. Delivering a true “floating” appearance meant engineering a ceiling-flown mounting solution that kept all structural hardware visually minimal while safely supporting the full weight of the nine-panel array.
- With 12 video sources and 13 display endpoints distributed throughout the space — including the video wall array, dual-sided ceiling-mounted screen arms, wall-mounted monitors, and a presenter screen — the video distribution architecture needed to be fully flexible and scalable. Any source needed to reach any display without a complex and inflexible matrix of dedicated cabling runs.
- Audience participation was a core requirement. Fanatics’ all-hands meetings are interactive: employees ask questions, leadership responds, and the dialogue flows. The system needed to support six roaming wireless microphones being passed freely through the audience, with clean audio pickup reaching both in-room speakers and remote conference participants without feedback or drop-outs.
- Everything had to be operable by non-technical staff from a single, unified control interface. With the CEO presenting and an entire company watching, the last thing Fanatics needed was any technical hiccup slowing down the meeting or draining the energy from the room.
Understanding Client Needs
A Space That Energizes Culture and Empowers Leadership Communication
Fanatics’ vision for the Town Hall was clear: create a space where employees genuinely want to spend time, and where leadership communication lands with impact. The all-hands meeting format is a cornerstone of Fanatics’ culture — a moment where the CEO can speak directly to the whole company, share strategic direction, celebrate wins, and hear directly from employees across every level of the organization. The AV system needed to be worthy of that moment.
The floating video wall concept was central to the client’s design brief from the outset. Fanatics wanted a visual centerpiece that would signal to every employee walking into the space that this was a company that invested in their environment and took their experience seriously. The AV solution had to deliver that statement while also being practically excellent — crystal-clear content display, reliable conferencing for distributed all-hands meetings, and frictionless operation for staff managing the space.
Crunchy Tech worked closely with Fanatics during the design phase to understand the full range of use cases the space would need to support — from casual content playback during breaks, to live CEO broadcasts, to hybrid all-hands sessions with remote participants joining from Fanatics offices across the country. Every design decision was made with both the everyday experience and the high-stakes moments in mind.
Technical Solutions
Floating Video Wall, Full-Room Display Coverage, AVoIP Distribution & Unified Corporate Control
To deliver a visually spectacular, fully capable corporate Town Hall for Fanatics, Crunchy Tech integrated a comprehensive AV platform combining a ceiling-flown floating video wall, distributed multi-display coverage, AV over IP video distribution, professional wireless audio, DSP routing, and centralized Crestron and Cisco control.
| System Category | Components | Role in Project |
| Video Conferencing Core | Cisco Codec Pro, Cisco P60 PTZ camera, Vaddio OneLINK balun, Cisco Touch 10 touchpanel GUI | Delivered enterprise-grade conferencing intelligence and usability for the Town Hall’s large, specialized space; PTZ camera extended via balun for flexible positioning |
| Signature Video Wall | 3×3 array of nine 55" LCD panels, ceiling-flown to create a floating appearance above the stage | Served as the dramatic visual centerpiece of the Town Hall, creating an architectural statement while delivering high-impact content display for all-hands presentations and leadership broadcasts |
| Distributed Display System | (2) dual-sided ceiling-mounted arms floating (4) 65" screens; (4) additional 65" wall-mounted monitors; (1) 55" presenter monitor | Ensured complete, unobstructed sightlines for every audience member throughout the space; dedicated presenter monitor gave speakers confidence and control at the stage |
| AV over IP Distribution | Just Add Power video over IP distribution system supporting 12 video sources | Eliminated the need for extensive point-to-point cabling; enabled flexible matrix routing of any of the 12 sources to any display or the video wall array across the full space |
| Audio DSP & Routing | BSS Soundweb digital signal processor | Handled all audio signal routing and processing across the Town Hall, delivering reliable and versatile DSP performance for both break-room and all-hands meeting configurations |
| Amplification & Speakers | Crown Audio amplifiers, JBL pendant speakers | Provided high-output, evenly distributed audio coverage throughout the large Town Hall space for both ambient use and all-hands meeting sound reinforcement |
| Wireless Microphones | Shure wireless microphone system, 6 wireless handheld mics | Enabled audience members to ask questions during all-hands meetings by passing mics freely around the room, ensuring every voice was heard clearly by both in-room attendees and remote participants |
| Control & Automation | Crestron 3-Series control processor, Cisco Touch 10 interface | Unified all back-end AV communication and automation into a seamless, user-friendly experience operable entirely from the centralized Cisco Touch 10 GUI |
The Just Add Power AV over IP distribution system was a cornerstone of the design, enabling Crunchy Tech to route any of the 12 video sources to any of the 13 display endpoints — including the full video wall array — across a standard IP network infrastructure. This approach eliminated the need for a large, inflexible matrix switcher and extensive dedicated cabling runs, delivering the distribution flexibility that a space of this complexity required while keeping the infrastructure clean and scalable.
The dual-sided ceiling-mounted screen arms presented a particularly elegant display solution for audience coverage. By suspending 65-inch screens on both sides of ceiling-mount arms distributed throughout the space, Crunchy Tech ensured that every seat in the Town Hall had a clear, unobstructed view of content — whether an employee was seated close to the stage or at the far end of the room during a packed all-hands event. The six Shure wireless microphones gave every audience member an equal voice, supporting the open Q&A culture that defines Fanatics’ all-hands format.
Implementation Methodology
Coordinated Design-Build Execution with a Focus on Architectural Integration
The Fanatics Town Hall installation was executed through Crunchy Tech’s integrated design-build methodology, which in this case required close coordination with the office’s architectural and construction teams from the earliest stages of the project. The floating video wall concept — central to the client’s vision — was engineered during the design phase, with structural requirements for the ceiling-flown nine-panel array confirmed and built into the construction plan before any finishes were applied. This early integration ensured that the rigging points, power infrastructure, and cable pathways for the video wall were properly incorporated into the building structure rather than added retroactively.
The Just Add Power AVoIP network was configured and tested as the distribution backbone before displays were mounted, with all 12 source encoders and 13 display decoders addressed, networked, and verified for routing flexibility. The dual-sided ceiling mount arms were positioned based on a detailed sightline analysis of the space, ensuring balanced display coverage for the full audience capacity of the Town Hall without creating viewing obstructions.
Audio system commissioning included BSS Soundweb DSP programming for all meeting and break-room use cases, Crown amplifier configuration for the JBL pendant speaker system, and Shure wireless microphone channel planning to eliminate RF interference across all six handheld units. The Crestron 3-Series processor was programmed with intuitive presets for the space’s primary use modes, allowing staff to transition the room from break-area configuration to all-hands meeting mode with a single touch on the Cisco Touch 10 panel. Full end-to-end system testing was completed before the facility opened, including live all-hands rehearsals to validate performance under real operating conditions.
Key Technology Partners
- Cisco: Codec Pro conferencing system, P60 PTZ camera, and Touch 10 touchpanel providing the conferencing intelligence, broadcast-capable camera system, and unified control GUI for the Town Hall.
- Vaddio: OneLINK HDBT balun extending the Cisco P60 camera signal cleanly from the codec to the optimal camera position in the space without signal degradation over distance.
- Just Add Power: AV over IP video distribution system supporting 12 video sources and flexible matrix routing to all 13 display endpoints, including the 3×3 video wall array.
- BSS (Harman): Soundweb digital signal processor providing versatile and reliable audio signal routing and processing for the full Town Hall environment.
- Crown Audio: Professional amplifiers delivering the power output required for high-quality audio coverage across the large Town Hall space.
- JBL: Pendant speakers providing clean, even audio distribution throughout the space for both ambient background use and all-hands meeting sound reinforcement.
- Shure: 6-channel wireless microphone system enabling open-floor audience participation during all-hands meetings with clean audio pickup for in-room and remote attendees.
- Crestron: 3-Series control processor unifying all AV system automation and back-end communication into a seamless, reliable platform accessed through the Cisco Touch 10 interface.
Results and Impact
A Town Hall Space That Defines the Fanatics Culture
The Fanatics Town Hall was enthusiastically received by the company from the moment the space opened. The floating 3×3 video wall became an immediate landmark within the office — a visual statement that set the tone for the entire facility and gave the Town Hall the architectural identity the client had envisioned. Employees responded strongly to the quality and ambiance of the space, with the combination of the dramatic video wall, distributed screens, and pendant speaker audio creating an environment that genuinely elevated the experience of spending time in the office.
The measurable impact on company operations was equally significant. Employee engagement during all-hands meetings increased by 50% — a reflection of both the improved visual and audio experience for in-room participants and the seamless integration of remote attendees enabled by the Cisco conferencing platform. Meeting setup time was reduced by 30%, freeing leadership and staff from the pre-meeting technical troubleshooting that had previously consumed valuable time and energy before every all-hands session.
“The state-of-the-art system enabled them to have meaningful and impactful all-hands meetings, and just create a very cool space with the floating video wall.”
— Crunchy Tech CEO Adi Khanna, on the Fanatics Town Hall engagement
Finishing the Project On Time
Where Corporate Culture and AV Excellence Meet
The Fanatics Town Hall project demonstrates Crunchy Tech’s ability to deliver large-scale corporate AV environments that are as architecturally ambitious as they are technically capable. By combining a ceiling-flown floating video wall, comprehensive distributed display coverage, Just Add Power AVoIP flexibility, professional wireless audio, and unified Cisco and Crestron control, Crunchy Tech gave Fanatics a Town Hall space that performs at the highest level every time the company gathers — from the daily rhythm of office life to the high-stakes moments of company-wide leadership communication.
The result is a space that reflects everything Fanatics stands for: energy, ambition, and a commitment to doing things at the highest level. It is a corporate AV installation that does not just support the company’s culture — it actively enhances it.
