Original Article written for AV Magazine
Walmart’s Sam Walton Hall Event Center combines live events and broadcast operations within a SMPTE ST 2110 IP environment. Standardising on Grass Valley production systems, the facility enables consistent, multilingual communications across a global workforce of more than two million associates.
When Walmart began developing its new corporate campus in Bentonville, Arkansas, the objective was clear: create a central environment that could support collaboration, communication, and culture at global scale. At the heart of the 350-acre site is the Sam Walton Hall Event Center, a purpose-built venue designed to serve as both a live event space and a broadcast hub for one of the world’s largest workforces.
Operational since January 2025, Sam Walton Hall supports internal communications for Walmart’s 2.1 million associates worldwide. The facility brings together live production, broadcast, and event operations within a single, connected infrastructure, enabling the company to communicate consistently across offices, regions, and time zones.
“It’s positioned right in the centre of the campus,” says Dave Magnia, chief engineer, campus events at Walmart. “From any office building, it’s a short walk. The intention was to make company-wide events and broadcasts easy to access, both technically and operationally.”
Unified production ecosystem
The Event Center is the result of a five-year development process involving Walmart, APRO Designs, and Grass Valley. Early designs were based on traditional SDI workflows, reflecting Walmart’s long history in internal broadcasting. The company has operated its own television studio since 1988, originally using satellite distribution to communicate directly with stores across the US.
As the campus project evolved, the team reassessed its technical approach and made the decision to transition the facility to a SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based architecture. While the move was not initially driven by creative requirements, the operational and infrastructure benefits became increasingly clear during the design phase. “When we started running the numbers, the cabling savings alone were significant,” Magnia explains. “Once you get into router sizes at this scale, reducing copper and labour has a real impact. IP also gave us far more flexibility in how we designed and distributed the system.”
The 130,000-square-foot facility includes a 1,150-seat auditorium, a 900-seat conference centre divisible into six rooms, a broadcast television studio, a radio studio, two auxiliary control rooms, and an outdoor amphitheatre. A core requirement was that every space could be operated independently or combined into larger productions, depending on the event. “Operator consistency was critical,” says Magnia. “We wanted staff to be able to move between control rooms and see the same panels, the same layouts, and the same workflows.”
Grass Valley K-Frame production switchers were deployed across the control rooms to support this requirement, providing a uniform operational environment regardless of production scale. System orchestration and signal management are handled using Grass Valley Orbit, which enables routing control across video, audio, timecode, and metadata within the IP infrastructure.
Moving to SMPTE 2110 also allowed Walmart to decentralise its signal processing. Instead of relying on a single central rack room, IP gateways and interfaces enabled I/O to be distributed throughout the building, simplifying expansion and reducing physical constraints.
Bridging the Worlds of Audio and IT
Today, the Event Center supports a wide range of internal broadcasts, streamed globally using platforms including Zoom, YouTube, and WorkVivo, Walmart’s internal communications network. Content is delivered in multiple languages, including English, French, Hindi, Mandarin, and Spanish, reflecting the geographic spread of Walmart’s workforce.
“Being able to manage multilingual audio workflows efficiently was essential,” Magnia says. “With 2110, we can pair different audio tracks and adapt outputs without redesigning the system.”
Audio integration was one of the more complex aspects of the project. Walmart’s production audio infrastructure is built around Yamaha consoles using Dante, alongside a Q-SYS system for background audio across the campus. Integrating these environments within a 2110 framework required close coordination between broadcast engineering and IT teams.
Security was another key consideration. As a corporate facility, the system needed to comply with strict IT security policies without compromising broadcast performance. Walmart deployed Cisco Nexus-class switches and worked closely with Cisco and Grass Valley engineers to validate and optimise the network configuration. “Every 2110 deployment is different,” Magnia notes. “There’s no single blueprint. Having partners who understand both broadcast and IP was essential in getting the system operational.”
Walmart’s long-standing relationship with Grass Valley played a central role in the technology selection. The company has relied on Grass Valley systems for decades across studios, OB environments, and live production facilities. “That familiarity and reliability matter,” says Magnia. “When you’re building something at this scale, you need confidence in both the technology and the support behind it.”
Looking ahead, Walmart continues to explore further IP integration and more flexible control options, including greater use of third-party interfaces and personalised operator workflows. The Sam Walton Hall Event Center has been designed to accommodate that evolution. “This facility isn’t static,” Magnia concludes. “It’s a platform that allows us to adapt how we communicate as the organisation changes.”
By combining Grass Valley production systems with a SMPTE 2110 infrastructure, Walmart has established a scalable, resilient broadcast environment that supports inclusive, global communication across its workforce, while maintaining the operational discipline of traditional broadcast engineering.
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