The project engineer selected Central Interconnect to design and install the system - beginning a relationship that would see the school district continue to trust Central Interconnect with its ongoing needs.

"They're just really good people to work with," said Bill Hammer, director of operations for Allegan Public Schools. "They basically did all the technical pieces in terms of our system, video projection and all the wiring. They really did an outstanding job - neat, clean, top-notch work."    : : read more : :

The Grand Rapids-based law firm Barnes & Thornburg has a variety of spaces within its office, and was looking for a way to make them not only look better, but also function more powerfully in support of the firm's client service objectives.

To design the look and configuration of an upgrade to these spaces, Barnes & Thornburgh hired the architectural firm Concept Design Group. And when CDG needed a partner to make the audio/visual aspect of the project work, CDG President Steve Fry went to a source he has trusted for more than 20 years - Central Interconnect.

The challenge was to transform four conference rooms and single large space, often used as a break room, into areas where the firm could make sophisticated audio/visual presentations.    : : read more : :

When Central Interconnect was asked in 2006 to upgrade the City of East Grand Rapids's audio/visual system, city clerk Karen Brower says the team was truly starting from scratch.

"We had nothing before," Brower remembers. "We had a building that was built in the late 1960s and was kind of retrofitted, but it was not any kind of integrated system. Our meeting space had a projector on a cart and a standup screen, and a very basic sound system that didn't work very well anyway."

But just as it didn't take much to improve on the status quo, East Grand Rapids wasn't looking for a mere step in the right direction. City officials wanted a truly functional, easy-to-use system not only for their city commission chambers but also for several other multipurpose and conference rooms.   : : read more : :

A Digital Breakthrough with Minimal Costs - and LEED Points to Boot - Thanks to Central Interconnect.

The developers of the Forest Hills Performing Arts Center wanted the facility to be first-class. So it should hardly come as a surprise that facility director Brian Hire wanted to be able to patch his soundsystem into a TV studio. It was not an unreasonable thing to want, but how complicated would it be to do?

At first, the task looked daunting. Such an application would typically require an enormous rack of patch panels, accompanied by significant labor costs to pull the whole thing together. It would requirea complicated jungle of microphone lines.   : : read more : :

The Haggai Institute is an Atlanta-based Christian ministry organization that provides extensive training services at its facilities on the Hawaiian island of Maui and in Singapore.

In the summer of 2001, the Haggai Institute's Maui facility underwent a $9 million renovation, with the Grand Rapids architectural firm Design Plus overseeing the job. With a high-end multimedia audio/visual system as major component of the project, Design Plus brought in Central Interconnect, which began the job as a consultant but eventually was given the green light to design and build the entire integrated A/V system.

"They wanted a state-of-the-art system," said Michael Smith, Vice President of Central Interconnect. "I spent 12 months consulting on the system design   : : read more : :