
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
15/04/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BBC World Service has selected its IP ...
15/04/2026
LiveU has announced an expansion of its collaboration with Sony Corporation, add...
15/04/2026
Ateme has announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to support live Apple Immersive ...
15/04/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a multi-year partnership renewal with DAZN DACH, covering Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, and...
15/04/2026
Canon U.S.A. (NAB Booth C3825) today took the lid off of the CINE-SERVO 40-1200m...
15/04/2026
Panasonic Video and Audio Systems North America and NEP Group will demonstrate a...
15/04/2026
For the fourth year running, independent analysts found businesses across all industries and verticals pay roughly the same amount in fees as they spend on stor...
15/04/2026
The Soccer Tournament (TST) has announced a media rights deal with NBC Sports to...
15/04/2026
JB&A will host the Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event on April 17-18 at Flamingo Las Vegas, ahead of NAB Show. The event features hands-on demonstrations and technic...
15/04/2026
The Sennheiser Group will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth 4931, Central Hall), with demonstrations from Sennheiser, Neumann, and Merging across three areas: Rel...
15/04/2026
NAB Show 2026 will take place April 18-22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, wi...
15/04/2026
AI-Media has announced the LEXI Text Encoder and LEXI Voice Encoder at NAB Show 2026, the company's first new encoder hardware release in more than a decade...
15/04/2026
Italian camera support manufacturer Cartoni will introduce several new products at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C6540, Central Hall), including the Master 30 OB fluid h...
15/04/2026
Lawo and swXtch.io have announced a memorandum of understanding at NAB Show 2026, under which Lawo will explore incorporating swXtch.io's groundSwXtch softw...
15/04/2026
CacheFly will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W3129, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), showcasing three new additions to its content delivery platform:...
15/04/2026
Synamedia has announced GO Shorts, a new module within its Synamedia Go OTT platform that uses AI to convert an operator's existing content library into a s...
15/04/2026
The NAB Show kicks off on Saturday, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams a...
15/04/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced an agreement to acquire Comprimato, a live video encoding and processing software company. The deal will unite the two companies...
15/04/2026
Prime Video Sports' NBA Playoffs coverage, which includes the entire SoFi NB...
15/04/2026
Just announced, the SDE standard provides a unified method and file format to ensure consistent and reliably comparable noise predictions
Sports and entertainm...
15/04/2026
From immersive storytelling to laugh-out-loud comedies, podcasts are booming in ...
15/04/2026
Books have always moved with us, whether tucked in our bags or humming in our he...
15/04/2026
For many artists, independent venues are where music careers begin and fan communities take shape. Independent venue operators work hard every day to keep local...
15/04/2026
From gripping thrillers to poignant memoirs, the 21st century has had no shortage of unforgettable books. To celebrate the standout storytelling of our modern e...
15/04/2026
Vintage broadcast experts release second plug-in
Telsie T is the second plug-in to be released by SonicWorld, a German audio company who specialise in servi...
15/04/2026
Includes eight free UAD plug-ins
Universal Audio's latest bundle brings together a selection of their renowned plug-ins and virtual instruments, and is ...
15/04/2026
Maximum uptime for broadcasters: Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S BroadcastShield at...
15/04/2026
Image courtesy of MD Helicopters...
15/04/2026
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, L3Harris VP Mark Farley, and state and local l...
15/04/2026
U.S. Space Forces Ground-Based Optical Sensor System upgrade at the Maui Space S...
15/04/2026
NBCU-Versant notches 13.1% of TV viewing in February, its best since August 2024...
15/04/2026
New data reveals older Kiwis are financially resilient, loyal to local products,...
15/04/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, announces the market launch of the ACCE...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...
15/04/2026
Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...
15/04/2026
LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...
15/04/2026
Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...
15/04/2026
Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More...
15/04/2026
Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound.
Apri...
15/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/04/2026
Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...