
Inside Shure's New Downtown Chicago Facility: An Epicenter of Innovation and Style Besides offering demo and training space and production studio, it's close to customers By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Thursday, August 9, 2018 - 11:23 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Earlier this year, Shure partnered with architecture and design firm Perkins+Will to create a City Center location in the heart of Chicago's Loop. Opened in March, the 35,000-sq.-ft. space (covering an entire floor) in The National building is intended to bring Shure closer to many of its key customers - including major sports venues - as well as boosting overall growth and expansion.
On pace to outgrow its corporate headquarters in nearby Niles, IL, by the end of this year, Shure moved sales, marketing, customer service, and market development to the new downtown location. Nearly 100 Shure employees are located there, with more scheduled to make the move in the coming years.
Shure's new 35,000-sq.-ft. space covers an entire floor in The National building in Downtown Chicago.
Although the need for expansion played a role, Shure's new office also features a state-of-the-art Customer Experience Center to demo its latest video-conferencing products, a Training Center, a dedicated video-production studio, and much more.
First and foremost, says Senior Regional Sales Manager Rick Renner, our main goal with this new location was to get closer to our customers and have a space to demonstrate our video-conferencing products. In the short few months since we opened, it's already paying off, and we're just getting started. We've got customers in here [for demonstrations] almost every day, and we're now bringing integrators in so they can see it and envision how they might serve their customers. We've got customers asking not only to come in and see our products but also to see proper acoustical treatment and what the possibilities could be for their operation. So it's been a lot of fun, and we're excited about what's still to come.
Shure Tech, Style, Culture Are Evident Throughout
Inside the new offices, the company's brand, culture, and storied history take center stage. Scrawled prominently across the wall in the reception area are the words of founder S.N. Shure, which the company still lives by: We know very well that absolute perfection cannot be attained, but we will never stop striving for it.
From left: Shure's Rick Renner, Celino Ullegue, and Bill Ostry at the Chicago office
Around the corner from the main entryway is the Customer Experience Center, which features three acoustically perfect conference rooms of various sizes, allowing Shure associates to demo the latest conferencing and professional products in a real-world environment. The rooms feature a wealth of MXA910 ceiling array microphones and MXA310 table array microphones. In addition, all mics and speakers throughout the entire Customer Experience Center are running on a Dante IP network, so the different rooms can communicate with each other during demos.
The Customer Experience Center is really why we built this facility, notes Renner. We have seen big growth in the corporate market with some of the video-conferencing products that we've released over the last five years. We didn't really have the space to build anything like this in Niles, and the bulk of our corporate customers are downtown anyway.
Shure has created a fully equipped training center at its new Chicago facility.
In addition to the Customer Experience Center, Shure has erected a Training Facility equipped with MXA910 ceiling mics and an automated camera-control system that leverages facial recognition to automatically switch between the presenter up front and those in the audience asking questions.
We didn't even really have a great training space in Niles at our headquarters because it's primarily all shared spaces, so everyone is competing for the same space, says Renner. This way, we are able to have a training facility all to ourselves.
The new Shure facility also features a video-production studio and three Adobe Premiere NLE suites responsible for creating marketing, product-based, training, and social-media content.
The new Shure Downtown Chicago facility features a full production studio to create a variety of content.
It's a real luxury to have this, because we didn't have a space like it in Niles, says Renner. It's been very active in here, and it's a lot easier for our team to be downtown because it makes venues a lot more accessible. And then, in addition, they have a video-editing suite, where they have three bays and they can just edit away.
In addition, Shure's downtown office includes dedicated work areas for sales, marketing, customer service, and market-development teams; several huddle rooms (each named after a famous Chicago music venue, such as The Metro and the Auditorium Theater); new-age collaborative spaces; and a hub space fully equipped with A/V for larger gatherings. The entire floor features a sound-masking system, which allows all employees to speak at normal levels without bothering others in the workplace.
The Downtown Advantage: Sports Segment Sees the Benefits
For the company's local M&E and sports pro-audio customers, the new facility is already bearing fruit. It's walking distance from the majority of the area's major broadcasters and countless venues in the Theater District and is just a 15-minute drive from Guaranteed Rate Field, Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, and the United Center.
One of four state-of-the-art conference room facilities in Shure's Customer Experience Center in Downtown Chicago
It has definitely been easier to facilitate some one-on-one conversations with some of our top end users, says
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
21/05/2026
SKY RAIDER II INTERNATIONAL's modular open systems architecture delivers expanded operational reach and mission flexibility....
21/05/2026
ASO-enabled WESCAM MX-10 systems conduct systematic wide-area maritime search patterns, autonomously managing sensor scan operations to expand coverage, reduce ...
21/05/2026
HBO Max, a new addition to Gracenote Data Hub, is home to the most sports programming among major streamers
NEW YORK May 21, 2026 New analysis by Gracenote...
21/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/05/2026
The UK's leading event for the creative industries united thousands of professionals for two days of networking, debate, industry insight and getting hands-...
21/05/2026
Recreating Doug Trumbull's Slitscan VFX - After Effects Mastery
Graham Quince May 21, 2026
0 Comments
In this After Effects tutorial, I'm divi...
21/05/2026
Cavalry: An Array of Fun Stuff
Simon Ubsdell May 21, 2026
0 Comments
Arrays are a really powerful feature of Cavalry and here we'll go over some o...
21/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/05/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, has announced that streaming service provider, Watch Brasil, has replaced its legacy systems with Bit...
21/05/2026
OWC Launches Dads and Grads Promotion with Exclusive Savings
Brie Clayton May 21, 2026
0 Comments
The gifts they'll actually use - save on cutting...
21/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/05/2026
For cinematographer Ashley Barron ACS ( Rivals , Dangerous Liaisons , Disney's Doctor Who ), setting the look of Netflix's How to Get to Heaven from ...
21/05/2026
Jean-Fran ois Hensgens, AFC, SBC, (Tueurs, Six Days in Spring, Le Fil) brings his signature visual approach to Cannes 2026 premiering biopic L'Affaire Marie...
21/05/2026
2026 delegation for Partner with Australia (UK) initiative announced 21 May 2026
Screen Australia and Ausfilm have today announced the delegation for the 2026 ...
21/05/2026
Beeble launches Canvas, a node-based AI compositor for VFX and Virtual Productio...
21/05/2026
Shelly Johnson Elected President of American Society of Cinematographers
Brie Clayton May 20, 2026
0 Comments
The American Society of Cinematographers...
21/05/2026
ARRI expands Management Board to accelerate next phase of growth and innovation
Brie Clayton May 20, 2026
0 Comments
ARRI expands its Management Board...
21/05/2026
Back to All News
In a Broken System, How Far Will You Bend? Netflix Releases Ma...
21/05/2026
Back to All News
RHYTHM FLOW ITALY: The Trailer Is Out Now For the Third Seas...
21/05/2026
Back to All News
Our Latest Steps to Make Content More Accessible
Product
21 May 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
Listen to the a...
21/05/2026
Tell us a little bit about your job I mainly work across paid and organic social, PPC, and SEO. The role is really varied, which I love.
If you weren't a D...
21/05/2026
Dublin DJ RKM333 wins 2FM competition and a coveted slot at this year's Forbidden Fruit Festival
2FM's search for the next big Irish DJ concluded this ...
21/05/2026
The mission begins now.
GeForce NOW is dialing up the action with a blockbuster...
20/05/2026
True to the Music City theme, the Tennessee Titans plan to make live music a prominent fixture on game days at the new venue
Reflecting the continuing converge...
20/05/2026
The long-term goal is innovation for the next generation of hockey rinks at both the professional and the community level
The National Hockey League (NHL) toda...
20/05/2026
End-users and vendors alike work toward cost-effective yet high-quality solution...
20/05/2026
The National Football League has announced that Nashville will host Super Bowl LXIV in 2030 at the new Nissan Stadium. The announcement was made at the NFL Spri...
20/05/2026
The NFL has announced that the 2028 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light will take place in Minnesota, uniting fans from around the world to celebrate one of the mo...
20/05/2026
As professional AV workflows continue to evolve, expectations around audio, video, networking, and control are rising rapidly. At InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas, La...
20/05/2026
Haivision will showcase its latest innovations at InfoComm 2026, taking place fr...
20/05/2026
For the seventh year, Spotify is returning to CMA Fest with Spotify House, the festival's premiere destination for fans. We're taking over downtown Nash...
20/05/2026
Amp-simulation software expanded
Acustica Audio's latest release greatly expands on their amp-simulation platform, turning it into a complete amplifica...
20/05/2026
MainStage integration, Analog Lab improvements & more
Arturia have just announced the release of an update that brings an assortment of new features to thei...
20/05/2026
At the Annual General Meeting held on May 20, 2026, the shareholders of SGL Carb...
20/05/2026
From Gulkula to the nation: Yothu Yindi Foundation and NITV deepen national acce...
20/05/2026
SBS appoints David Fernandez as National Manager, Digital & TV Sales
20 May, 2026
Media releases
SBS has appointed David Fernandez as National Manager, Dig...
20/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and INFOZAHYST: A strategic alliance set to redefine modern defe...
20/05/2026
A Rotating Detonation Engine being hot fire tested at Purdue University's Zu...
20/05/2026
A U.S. Army VAMPIRE system, assigned to Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 51st Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 7th Infantry Division/Multi-Domain Command - Pacific ...
20/05/2026
Cable Captures Only Monthly Increase Among Viewing Categories in March, Earns it...
20/05/2026
April brought a symbolic decrease in the overall time spent in front of television screens. On average, Poles watched video content for 3 hours and 51 minutes a...
20/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/05/2026
The Royal Television Society Technology Centre today announces the launch of the RTS Technology Awards 2026, celebrating excellence, innovation and achievement ...
20/05/2026
In the heart of London's financial district, the new purpose-built Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre invites audiences to experience Suzanne Collins' inte...
20/05/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, today announced that production powerhouse BCC Live successfully deployed the new LU900Q intelligent production un...