The use of the word ‘remote’ has increased exponentially in recent times. When COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe in early 2020, remote work became essential for many organizations. With that shift, many companies needed to evolve their workflow and technology.
Joshua Gregoire, Nicholas Fletcher and Matt Geasey used their career experience in producing live events to create Just Networking in September 2020.
To solve network dilemmas for production companies, Just Networking built a device known as theBRIDGE, which essentially connects one network to any other network in seconds.
For production companies, this device is incredibly useful, as it will save the cost and time to travel. From a remote location, they can access connection at a different location through a secure connection.
Just Networking and developing theBRIDGE
“This was a ‘Rona [Coronavirus] pivot to help our colleagues out who needed to still program and operate shows remotely on systems that are designed to only exist on localized connected networks,” explains Matt Geasey, one of the partners at Just Networking.
From the beginning, Geasey and his partners knew they needed to build systems from the ground up. They wanted the technology to be accessible to colleagues who didn’t have depth of knowledge in networking, and thereby, reduce the dependence on the capabilities of technicians.
That strategy has already paid dividends.
“We are seeing that installs and remote support systems are the best application, especially when there's only a certain number of technicians available,” says Geasey.
While developing theBRIDGE, the team at Just Networking focused on designing a device that was easy to use. In fact, they haven’t made many changes to the production unit since the product came out.
“The design was to make it simple to use, and simple to troubleshoot – Plug and Play,” shares Geasey. “Other than the BETA models we built with Protocase, the production unit stayed intact minus some physical placement and sizing due to the ever-changing electronics market.”
Working with Protocase
As mentioned above, Just Networking have been getting their parts manufactured at Protocase from the beginning, when they were building BETA models of theBRIDGE. Geasey learned about Protocase through his friend Ryan Mast, who had custom enclosures built for his production automation.
Geasey is pleased with his Protocase experience, between the customer service, quality and more. He envisions a future where Just Networking and Protocase continue working together long-term.
“Honestly, the service, the communication, and the feeling that [Protocase] had your back when things didn’t go as planned, and the friendly phone calls is why I will never move our units from Protocase and anything in the future will stay at Protocase,” says Geasey.
“The quality is fantastic, and the suggestions from the engineering team to someone who has never done manufacturing ever could never go unnoticed.”
Oscar Glory
theBRIDGE may be only a couple years old, but the unit has already made it big in the world of cinema, including the Everything Everywhere All at Once, the 2023 Academy Award winner for Best Picture.
“The units were used to shoot a part of the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, as the actress couldn’t travel to Los Angeles from Paris. So, we sent a unit to both places, and the lighting and video teams controlled the soundstage from LA in Paris live with the director,” explains Geasey.
“There was another commercial event that our colleague used 5x units to connect video servers throughout Yonge-Dundas Square to control all the screens all at once. This was fun, as it had to work, considering the cost it took per minute to take over that amount of LED surface in a public area.”
Another production that benefitted from theBRIDGE was Carrie Underwood’s Las Vegas Residency. For the pre-production phase, a team used three BRIDGE units to allow the creative team to connect a number of lighting desks with each other from across the United States.
Looking to the future, Just Networking’s aim is to keep making networking easier, even on large complex setups.
“People can only learn so fast if they're in a jam and need a high-functioning network but with the simplicity for their knowledge level,” explains Geasey.