How Sight & Sound Achieved Operational Simplicity and a Better Guest Experience with Extreme Fabric and Extreme Platform ONE™

• Simplified network operations and troubleshooting with centralized visibility through Extreme Platform ONE™
• Increased resiliency and uptime for mission-critical theater and production systems with Extreme Fabric
• Reduced operational complexity across highly distributed environments
• Enabled faster issue identification and proactive management with AI-driven insights
• Built a scalable, future-ready network foundation for continued growth

Sight & Sound Theatres began nearly 50 years ago in rural Pennsylvania and has grown into a multi-channel entertainment organization with two theaters, an online streaming platform, and a film studio. Through immersive productions and cinematic storytelling, the organization brings stories from Scripture and history to life for audiences nationwide.

Behind the scenes, a lean IT team, including Network Engineer, Richard Gingerich, supports guest services, media production, office operations, and mission-critical theater technologies.

Sight & Sound’s network powers far more than office connectivity. The environment supports audio and video systems, animatronics, guided vehicles, production technologies, guest connectivity, and operational communications — all of which must perform seamlessly during live productions.

A key challenge was securely connecting two distinct environments: the OT network that powers the show and the corporate network that supports the business. Sight & Sound needed an architecture that preserved segmentation while enabling secure, selective collaboration between them.

“The network has to work—and work well—because if it doesn’t, guests notice right away. We needed a network that could deliver reliability and visibility across every part of the organization without adding complexity for our IT team,” Said Richard.

Before moving to Extreme, Sight & Sound relied on Cisco Meraki for wireless networking. While easy to deploy, the platform lacked the visibility, flexibility, and advanced capabilities needed to support the organization’s increasingly complex environment.

The team desired something with embedded AI, as they needed deeper network insight, stronger segmentation, and a more scalable architecture capable of supporting long-term growth without increasing operational burden.

“At refresh time, I was thinking beyond ease of use to future-ready capabilities, including embedded AI—not just a platform with AI bolted on,” Richard said.

Sight & Sound selected Extreme to modernize its network with a more intelligent and resilient foundation. By implementing Extreme Fabric and Extreme Platform ONE™, the organization gained centralized visibility, simplified operations, and scalable support for both guest experiences and production systems.

Extreme Fabric streamlined segmentation and improved network efficiency across diverse operational environments, while Extreme Platform ONE™ provided unified management, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

“Once we realized the magic of Fabric, it quickly became central to our strategy because it simplified the network and helped bridge OT and corporate securely,” said Richard.

That architecture also improved high-volume data movement between sites, strengthening both resilience and disaster recovery.

“Extreme gives us the visibility and operational simplicity we need to support critical systems and quickly resolve issues before they impact the experience.”

For Richard, one of Extreme’s biggest advantages is its AI-first approach. Extreme Platform ONE™ embeds AI into the networking experience, giving the team better visibility across the environment.

With Extreme Platform ONE™, Sight & Sound can proactively manage its environment using AI-driven insights, automation, and centralized visibility.

That means clearer insight into both network and client activity—wired and wireless—through a single platform for switching, wireless, routing, policy, and security. The result is faster troubleshooting and more confident operations.

“With Extreme Platform ONE™, I can see what’s happening across the network and get to root cause faster. In our environment, that visibility matters because downtime affects operations and the guest experience,” Richard said.

Just as importantly, the platform supports Sight & Sound’s long-term goals by unifying key networking domains and helping the team advance secure access and zero trust strategies.

“Extreme Platform ONE™ gives us a more complete solution instead of a collection of disconnected tools,” said Richard.

As the organization continues to grow, Sight & Sound views AI-driven networking and Extreme Platform ONE™ as critical to scaling efficiently while maintaining the high-quality experiences guests expect.

By modernizing its infrastructure with Extreme, Sight & Sound gained a more resilient, scalable, and easier-to-manage network environment capable of supporting both operational performance and exceptional guest experiences.

With Extreme Fabric and Extreme Platform ONE™, the organization now benefits from:

• Greater operational visibility and faster troubleshooting
• Simplified management across complex environments
• Improved resiliency and scalability
• Reduced manual effort for IT teams
• A future-ready platform built to support continued innovation

For Sight & Sound, the network is no longer just infrastructure — it is foundational to delivering immersive experiences audiences can rely on every day.