Based in Portland, Oregon — the beer tourism capital of the world — Maletis Beverage has been a distributor of beer, cider, wine, and soft drinks since 1935, and has occupied its 9-acre Swan Island distribution center since 1993. Recently, the company made the decision to revamp its headquarters to better reflect its wide range of brands and the spirit of the city it calls home.

The project included a complete overhaul of the facility, from the opening up of the upstairs work space to a redesigned ground floor with a dynamic lobby, conference room, retail space, and brew house and kitchen with an adjoining outdoor garden and patio. In addition to these renovations, a high priority for Maletis was updating its sales presentation capabilities, which meant an overhaul of its video and audio technology. The company called on systems integrator GB Manchester to bring its technological vision to life.

To give visitors a sense of Maletis’ commitment to quality, integrator GB Manchester installed a 2x3 video wall in the facility’s foyer, which displays content from the company’s portfolio of brands across six 55-inch NEC UN551S displays. For high-impact sales presentations, a larger 3x3 video wall was installed at the front of a 100-person-capacity sales room — which doubles as a gathering place for special group events and meetings — augmented by two 89-inch LG 4K-capable screens in the seating area. Video sources include two set-top boxes, a MAC mini, and a wireless laptop connection.

To allow sales staff to take advantage of a variety of content, it was imperative that Maletis could easily switch between sources. There were two elements required to provide this capability: a video distribution and switching system that could send source content to any of the displays, and a simple, intuitive user interface that would allow any employee to easily control the system.

For Maletis’ video distribution system, GB Manchester installed Just Add Power’s (J+P) 3G Ultra HD over IP platform transmitters and receivers. The setup supports the integration of video walls from 2x2 up to 16x16 in size, 4K Ultra HD resolutions, and HDMI 2.0 devices with HDCP 2.2. It enables seamless switching between HDMI sources of any resolution, as well as uncompressed lossless multichannel audio formats. Luxul’s AMS-4424P PoE+ stackable managed switch with layer 3 support is being used to optimize the J+P HD over IP distribution system. For system control, GB Manchester turned to RTI.

“To provide Maletis with the ease of use it required, we knew that customization of the interface would be key for the control system,” says Dale Williamson, project manager for GB Manchester. “That made RTI an obvious choice. Not only do the company’s solutions provide high reliability and a wide range of control options, but with the Integration Designer APEX programming platform, we can quickly and easily create a completely customized control experience for clients that is perfectly tailored to their needs.”

At the heart of the control system is RTI’s XP-8s processor. Luxul’s AMS-4424P switch — which controls the J+P video sources — is connected to the XP-8s via one of its eight two-way RS-232 ports. Employees control the switch and manage display content using iPads® running RTI’s RTiPanel app with a custom interface created by GB Manchester. With the RTiPanel app, users can conjure up dynamic presentations with content filling up an entire video wall, or pinpoint individual screens for specific content. All they have to do is tap a destination and source on an iPad. They have the same level of control of the facility’s zoned audio. The XP-8s is integrated with RTI’s AD-8X audio distribution system, allowing employees to distribute sources including a Yamaha WXA50DS streaming amplifier to any zone, while viewing information such as selected source, volume level, and tone control settings right on the iPad.