Jordan Brand Station 23

A big initial challenge of this store in downtown Chicago was working within this confined space in the heart of the city. When Jordan Brand decided they wanted a 25ft motorized roll down screen up in the third floor demo area, we knew immediately this would be a difficult task. The screen itself arrives on site in a 300lb box that is a little over 25’ long. 

Along with the technical challenges of getting the gear in place, there is also the process of selecting the right gear. For several reasons, we had to be very diligent in selecting the right equipment. 

First, there is the fact that this is ultimately a storefront and the products must look good. This means controlling brightness and even lighting across all display areas is crucial. In order for brand standards to be met, we had to carefully assess the space and the lighting control systems we installed. 

Secondly, particularly for the upstairs demo area with the basketball court we had to select equipment that was robust enough to take a hit from a basketball. We would have to tap into our experience installing gymnasium AV systems as well as providing production for professional sporting events. 

Providing this singular control system with touchscreens for the store staff to operate. With multiple floors and different space’s needs for lighting, video, and sound, this would be a big job. 

As with all of our projects where we are the av installer, we created many different solutions to complete this. Our chief innovation for this project was our software and hardware adaptation of the QSC Q-SYS Core technology. We also utilized a Kramer system for all of the video control.

These integrations allowed us to make a comprehensive yet easy to use platform for store employees. They could walk into their shift, go over to the touch screen device, and from that single location alter the colors of the lighting, the video on the screens, and the music volume in the space.

For the demo area we installed wireless racks for the presenter microphones, input jacks for devices, and all of the networking tech to integrate it into our main control system. We integrated seamlessly with the previously installed equipment and worked together with the store staff to make sure the control systems were easy to operate.
When it came to the giant screen getting up to the third floor, our onsite manager reviewed the space and did the math and they came up with an ingenious solution.
The team ended up using three chain hoists to thread the long heavy box up the center of the stairwell. Upon reaching the third floor, the techs simply leveled it out and lowered it down to the ground. Then they simply raised it up, hung it in place, and plugged it in. A big reason inner city installations are so difficult is because it is so hard at times to get gear into the area where it’s going to be installed.

This was a huge undertaking with many different moving pieces and we provided everything Nike requested and more!

We are so proud of how this installation for the Jordan Brand Station 23 store turned out. Our team worked closely with them and their building management to make sure everything was up to code and looked and sounded top notch. This was the culmination of many facets of our institutional knowledge. We had to tap into our sporting event AV, gymnasium installation, commercial AV installation and more to get this completed.

Jordan Brand was thrilled with the results and have used the space for countless events as well as day to day operations. They have reported no issues with the system and their staff loves the turn-key operation.

As a cool side note for film buffs, Shortly after the updates were finished, Jordan Brand hosted a special event with Michael B. Jordan in the space. It was part of a training series he did in New York, LA, and Chicago. We are always overjoyed when our AV Installations get utilized in creative and engaging ways and what better way than with a big movie star!

We are grateful to everyone at Jordan Brand Station 23 and Jordan Brand’s corporate team who gave us this opportunity and we look forward to supporting them in the future!