Ellis County Courthouse

 

In the heart of Waxahachie, Texas, the Ellis County Courthouse is an emblem of architectural heritage and civic service. Completed in 1897, the courthouse boasts elaborate surface ornamentation and contrasting masonry materials, offering a glimpse into the craftsmanship of Romanesque Revival architecture. Over the years, the courthouse has been a seat of justice and a symbol of the county’s identity.

Ellis County Courthouse’s recent restoration efforts brought new life to the facility, addressing deteriorating stonework, enhancing accessibility and correcting interior alterations that strayed from its historic roots. Alongside these upgrades, Ellis County expanded its judicial footprint with a new sub-courthouse and an administrative courts building to support its growing population, which is nearing 200,000 residents as part of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metroplex.

Within the courthouse’s restored walls, outdated audiovisual infrastructure posed a major challenge. The county judges, court reporters, attorneys and other courtroom participants were relying on a system that had already outlived its lifespan. “The system was 15 years into a 10-year lifespan,” said a representative from Infinity Sound, the integrator responsible for the courthouse’s AV systems. “It was a patchwork of old VGA, RGB, and HV components that needed multiple HDMI converters to keep it working. It just wasn’t practical anymore.”

A longtime partner to Ellis County, Infinity had installed the original system and remained a trusted integrator for ongoing service. When the opportunity came to bring the AV system into the modern age, the team partnered with the county to deliver a complete overhaul across four identical courtrooms. Infinity’s approach honored the original layout by keeping input locations at the judge’s bench, prosecution bench and defense bench, but replaced the outdated system with state-of-the-art AV-over-IP technology from Visionary.

“At this point, Visionary has become our go-to video system provider,” explained Noah Mast, CTS, sales consultant for Infinity Sound. “The flexibility and simplicity they offer with the PacketAV Matrix Series are unmatched. I really appreciate the DUET 2 devices because they support both HDMI and USB-C, which makes them compatible with virtually any computer, especially helpful as more devices transition to USB-C.”

A new endpoint was added at the witness stand to ensure video evidence could be viewed with greater clarity, a critical component in courthouse settings, and routing capabilities were significantly enhanced. Beyond the hardware, the system was designed with seamless usability in mind.

“Our setups are engineered to be easy to configure. We use NETGEAR switches, so the entire system is straightforward from a deployment standpoint,” Mast added. “Visionary’s decoders are a standout, with built-in RS-232 that let us control displays and projection screens directly from the device. It’s a streamlined, all-in-one solution.”

Even though the courthouse currently uses existing all-in-one displays for conferencing, the infrastructure is designed to support expanded capabilities in the future. “They’ve recently invested in the desktop collaboration and conferencing units, so they’re holding off on a broader video conferencing rollout for now,” said Mast. “But the system is ready whenever they are.”

Having serviced the courthouse for many years, Infinity takes pride in the partnership and the reliability of the technology they’ve implemented. “We now use Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series on nearly every video system project,” said Mast. “From procurement to backend support, they’ve been awesome to work with. Honestly, the fact that we rarely need support says everything – it just works.”

Now, courtroom participants can easily manage video feeds and route content directly to their monitors with precision and confidence. The upgrade replaced aging technology and transformed the system into a scalable, flexible and future-proof solution.

Visionary’s 5 Series is the latest evolution of Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series endpoints. Known for its pioneering AV over IP endpoints with USB-C I/O for seamless soft codec integration, the 5 Series elevates performance with cutting-edge innovations. Its 4K60 4:4:4 video support ensures exceptional image quality and color accuracy without impacting bandwidth. The 5 Series include isochronous USB over IP, allowing for effortless webcam extension, ideal for video conferencing and remote collaboration. Additionally, the 5 Series includes a full-motion MJPEG substream, enabling users to access a secondary, lower-bandwidth video stream for simplified video distribution.

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