At a glance
- Client: Sephora, the beauty retailer, at its San Francisco headquarters
- Location: Market Street, San Francisco, California: 6th floor reception and perimeter, 2nd floor training rooms, Innovation Lab
- Scope: A reception video wall, digital signage, workplace displays, an Innovation Lab display, divisible training rooms and ongoing service
- Platform: Sony PRO BRAVIA and Samsung DC-E displays, Crestron DigitalMedia, ClearOne CONVERGE Pro 2 audio
The situation
At its Market Street headquarters, Sephora needed more than meeting rooms. The 6th floor needed a reception wall and workplace digital signage for company communication. Sephora also wanted displays for general workplace use, a showcase screen for its Innovation Lab and a 2nd floor of training rooms that could divide and combine.
Each request came from Sephora's IT team as its own order, alongside the conference rooms described in the companion piece on the conference room standard across both towers. Once the screens were up, the work turned into service: fixing, reprogramming and moving equipment as the office changed. That mix is typical of corporate headquarters AV at a retail brand.
What made the signage hard to pin down?
The signage scope changed three times. The first proposal paired eight Sony FWD55X850C and two FWD49X830C displays on Chief LTM1U tilt mounts with twelve Crestron DM-TXRX-100-STR streaming endpoints. The drawing set then showed twelve perimeter displays, each fed by a DM-RMC-4K-100-C receiver from an owner-furnished Crestron DM-MD32X32 switcher.
The final revision dropped the streaming and the fixed perimeter layout. It became nine FWD55X850C displays on Sephora's own display carts, with one wall mount.
The walls added work. Our drawings flagged fire-rated partitions, so every display location needed treated conduit and back boxes and plywood or 16-gauge backing sized for 100 pounds. The training floor brought a different problem: divisible rooms share equipment, so a change in one room can affect its neighbors.
How did we design each space?
The 6th floor reception got a 1x3 video wall of Samsung DC32E displays on VideoSecu ML206B mounts. A rack PC feeds each screen through an Atlona AT-UHD-EX-70-KIT HDBaseT extender. It is the kind of lobby and reception AV that needs to run all day without anyone touching it.
Signage moved to carts, which kept the screens movable. Sephora then added ten Sony FWD55W800C Android displays, drop-shipped straight to the office, and a refresh order of ten Sony FWD48X650D displays. The Innovation Lab got one Sony FWD65X850D with RS-232 and IP control. All are Sony professional models, the category we list under digital signage displays.
The 2nd floor was the larger build. A Crestron DM-MD8X8 in the IDF, fitted with DMC-4K-C-DSP input cards and DMC-4K-CO-HD output cards, distributes video across the floor. Five divisible rooms, Respect, Expertise, Teamwork, Initiative and Passion, each got a ClearOne CONVERGE Pro 2 128V, two beamforming ceiling arrays and two Sony FWD75X850D displays on owner-furnished carts. Crestron DM wall-plate transmitters and receivers connect the room to the switcher, and Sephora-supplied iPads run control.
Two smaller rooms, Balance and Innovation, take a single array, a Crestron AM-101 for wireless sharing, a Lab Gruppen E 2:2 amplifier and Tannoy CVS 6 ceiling speakers. The design follows the training room AV pattern of shared audio and video with per-room control, built on the same ClearOne audio family as the meeting rooms.
Equipment by space
| Space | Displays | Signal and audio | Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6th floor reception | Three Samsung DC32E | Atlona AT-UHD-EX-70-KIT from a rack PC | None |
| 6th floor digital signage | Nine Sony FWD55X850C | Owner-furnished carts, one wall mount | None |
| Workplace displays and refresh | Ten Sony FWD55W800C, ten Sony FWD48X650D | Drop-shipped displays | None |
| Innovation Lab | Sony FWD65X850D | RS-232 and IP control | None |
| Divisible training rooms (five) | Two Sony FWD75X850D each, on carts | ClearOne CONVERGE Pro 2 128V, two beamforming arrays, Crestron DM wall plates | Owner-furnished iPad |
| Balance and Innovation rooms | Sony FWD55X850D or FWD65X850D | CONVERGE Pro 2 128V, one array, Lab Gruppen E 2:2, Tannoy CVS 6 | Crestron AM-101, owner-furnished iPad |
| 2nd floor lobby | Sony FWD49X800D | Crestron DM-RMC-4K-100-C | None |
| Function | Model | Where used |
|---|---|---|
| Reception displays and extenders | Samsung DC32E, Atlona AT-UHD-EX-70-KIT, VideoSecu ML206B | 6th floor reception |
| Signage and workplace displays | Sony FWD55X850C, FWD55W800C, FWD48X650D, FWD65X850D | 6th floor, Innovation Lab |
| Training room displays | Sony FWD75X850D, FWD65X850D, FWD55X850D, FWD49X800D | 2nd floor |
| Display mounts | Chief LTM1U, Chief LSM1U | Signage, lobby, Balance and Innovation rooms |
| Video distribution | Crestron DM-MD8X8, DMC-4K-C-DSP-HDCP2, DMC-4K-CO-HD-HDCP2, DM-MD6X4 | 2nd floor IDF, Initiative room |
| Wall-plate endpoints | Crestron DM-TX-4K-100-C-1G, DM-RMC-4K-100-C-1G | Training rooms |
| Conferencing DSP and microphones | ClearOne CONVERGE Pro 2 128V, ClearOne beamforming array | Training rooms |
| Wireless presentation | Crestron AM-101 | Balance and Innovation rooms |
| Amplifier and speakers | Lab Gruppen E 2:2, Tannoy CVS 6 | Balance and Innovation rooms |
| Control tablets and display carts | Owner-furnished | Training rooms, signage |
Network and IT
Every display location on the 6th floor got data stubbed above the ceiling and 1-1/2-inch conduit to its AV box, so each screen has power, data and a signal path in the wall.
On the training floor, each room's wall plates run on shielded Cat6 back to the DM-MD8X8 in the IDF. The iPads that run the rooms reach the Crestron control processor over the network. The reception wall runs HDBaseT over Cat6 from the rack PC, which keeps the PC out of the lobby.
The rollout
The signage and workplace-display orders ran under one project number. The workplace displays went by drop shipment direct to Sephora, and the Innovation Lab display followed as its own small order.
Many service visits started at 6 a.m., ahead of the working day, so fixes and moves did not interrupt meetings or training. Later, when the training rooms needed their control logic reworked, we quoted the reprogramming of five 2nd floor rooms as labor only, with no new hardware.
Support from here
Our service agreement for Sephora covered both Market Street towers with a 40-hour pre-paid block for a year. Calls and email went to our help desk from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific, Monday to Friday. It set technician dispatch within 24 hours of remote troubleshooting and resolution within 72 hours unless parts were needed, plus a monthly service-level report and an on-site service report.
The service records show the range. The reception wall's center display lost picture; we replaced the HDMI-over-Cat balun and power-cycled the rack PC. An accidental firmware update on one training room iPad stopped control, and the programmer asked for all divisible rooms to be blocked off for a day so work on one could not take down the others. In the Passion room, a software update on the iPad, applied with Crestron support on the line, got it loading its configuration again. Other visits moved projectors and added HDMI plates as rooms changed.
We also quoted a room-scheduling pilot: a Crestron TSS-752-B-S panel with a one-year cloud scheduling license. Rooms drift out of spec if nobody is watching them, and AV maintenance and support plus Crestron programming keep them usable.
Frequently Asked Questions — Workplace Digital Signage and Training Rooms
Answers to the questions IT and facilities teams ask most often about office signage, divisible training rooms and keeping them running.
Should office digital signage go on the wall or on carts?
At Sephora's Market Street office, the final signage design put nine Sony FWD55X850C displays on the company's own display carts with one wall mount, after earlier versions called for wall-mounted perimeter screens fed by Crestron DigitalMedia receivers or streaming endpoints.
Carts keep screens movable as the floor changes. Wall mounts suit fixed locations with power and data already in place.
What does a small reception video wall need?
Sephora's 6th floor reception wall uses three Samsung DC32E displays on VideoSecu ML206B mounts, each fed from a rack-mounted PC through an Atlona AT-UHD-EX-70-KIT HDBaseT extender, so the computer sits in the rack rather than behind the reception desk.
When the center screen lost picture, the fix was a replacement extender. Small-format commercial displays keep a reception wall compact.
How do divisible training rooms share one AV system?
On Sephora's 2nd floor, a Crestron DM-MD8X8 switcher in the IDF distributes video to five divisible training rooms, and each room has its own ClearOne CONVERGE Pro 2 128V, two beamforming ceiling arrays and two Sony FWD75X850D displays, so rooms work alone or combined.
Shared equipment means changes must be tested across every room that can join.
Can training rooms be run from an iPad?
Yes. Sephora's divisible training rooms use owner-furnished iPads running the Crestron app as their control panels, connected over the company network to the Crestron processor, which avoids wall-mounted touch panels in rooms that change layout.
The trade-off is updates: an automatic iOS or app update can change how control behaves, so tablets need managing like any other device.
What does an AV service agreement for an office cover?
Creation Networks' service agreement for Sephora covered both Market Street towers with a 40-hour pre-paid block for one year, a help desk from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific on weekdays, a ticketing system, a knowledge site, on-site visits and a monthly service-level report.
Requests go through the AV support help desk.
How quickly does a technician arrive under an AV service agreement?
Sephora's agreement set technician dispatch within 24 hours of remote troubleshooting, with issues to be resolved within 72 hours unless parts were needed. Response targets ranged from eight business hours for high priority to 72 hours for general requests.
Many visits started at 6 a.m., ahead of the working day.
What happens when a firmware update breaks room control?
At Sephora, an accidental firmware update on one training room iPad stopped control, and a later iPad software update restored control in another room. Creation Networks reloaded the Crestron configuration, worked with Crestron support, and scheduled the programmer when all divisible rooms could be blocked off.
Reprogramming five rooms was then quoted as labor only.
Can an integrator supply displays without installing them?
Yes. For Sephora, Creation Networks supplied ten Sony FWD55W800C Android displays by drop shipment straight to the office, while the signage displays and training rooms were installed by our technicians, so each order matched how the screens would be used.
Drop shipment suits standalone screens that need no wiring, control or mounting work from an installer.
Technology partners on this project
Creation Networks, Inc. — nationwide commercial AV integrator, CTS-D certified, based in Concord, CA and Incline Village, NV. Design, engineering, programming, installation, and support from a single point of contact. Call 888-230-3661 or email sales@creationnetworks.net.
Workplace signage and training rooms
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