★Carried & Installed
Blustream · Kansas City.
IntegrateIT carries and installs Blustream across the Kansas City metro — video over IP, HDBaseT matrices and extenders, HDMI distribution and the audio path that has to stay in step with all of it. One precision first: Blustream is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized Blustream dealer. What we are is the people who measure the real run lengths, certify the cable, size the switch and commission the handshake — the work that decides whether a distributed system is invisible or infuriating. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
What we carry and install from Blustream
Blustream organises its range by transport — how the signal travels — which is the same question we answer first on a walk. We install to order, and the range we reach into depends on the run lengths, the display count and whether the audio has to be distributed with the video or beside it.
- Video over IP. Encoders and decoders on a managed network, published as IP50HD for 1080p over a 100 megabit network, IP200UHD and IP250UHD for UHD over 1 gigabit, IP300UHD and IP350UHD at 4K 60Hz 4:4:4 over 1 gigabit — the 250 and 350 adding Dante — and IP510UHD as the uncompressed SDVoE tier over 10 gigabit. Blustream calls the platform Multicast, and its ACM Advanced Control Modules are the layer that configures it and exposes it to a control system — drag-and-drop routing in a browser, drivers for the major control brands, and independent routing of video, audio, IR, RS-232 and USB. This is the architecture behind video walls and any system with no settled display count.
- HDBaseT matrices. Fixed matrix switching from small four-input frames up to sixteen by sixteen, plus a modular chassis and an uncompressed option. The right answer when the count is known and stable, which is a great many houses and most single-floor commercial spaces.
- HDBaseT extenders. Transmitters, receivers, splitters, wall plates and power injectors, in ranges Blustream names 70, 100 and 150 metres — those being the 1080p figures, with the published 4K distance for each range shorter — which is how a display at the other end of a large whole-home video system gets a picture over one structured cable.
- HDMI distribution. Matrices, splitters, switchers, a multi-viewer, 8K solutions and HDMI over fibre — the short-run and long-run ends of the same problem, for racks that do not need a network architecture.
- Dante and audio integration. Dante encoders, decoders, converters, amplifiers and wall plates, plus audio matrices, Bluetooth input, ARC and eARC handling and embedding and de-embedding. This is what keeps a television’s sound in step with the in-ceiling system, and it feeds our whole-house audio and restaurant audio work.
- USB, KVM and presentation. USB switchers and extenders, KVM matrices, multi-format switching, wireless presentation and video-wall modes — the meeting-room half of the catalog, which lands in our commercial AV scope.
- Smart power distribution. Managed PDUs in two, four and eight-way versions, so a frozen device in a rack can be power-cycled remotely instead of by somebody driving out.
How the path gets designed in
Backwards from the displays. Every screen and projector is counted with the resolution and format it actually has to receive, the longest run in the building sets the extension method, and the cable is specified for the bandwidth being asked for rather than for the label on the jacket — then pulled during framing where we are there early enough, and certified rather than assumed. The switching is sized with headroom, because the source nobody planned for is always the one that arrives.
On a video-over-IP system the network is part of the AV system. That means a properly specified managed switch with dedicated capacity, designed alongside the rest of the structured network rather than borrowed from it. Everything lands in a rack in conditioned space with airflow, sequencing and one labelling scheme on both ends of every run, with the as-built in your portal. Control sits in front through Control4 or Crestron so a source change is a press. And where the destination is a direct-view LED wall, the distribution feeds the wall’s own processor — which is why replacing a streamer in year three never involves touching a cabinet.
Where it sits beside the alternatives we also carry
- Against AVPro Edge. AVPro Edge is the other distribution line we carry and the two overlap honestly. Run lengths, the audio transport, the display count and what an existing rack already speaks decide it — not habit, and not margin.
- Against a control platform’s own hardware. Where a house is already deep in Control4 or Crestron and the display count is small, staying inside that ecosystem can be the cleaner answer. We will say so when it is.
- Against scheduled content instead of live sources. If each screen shows its own scheduled message rather than a live source from the rack, that is signage, not distribution — a BrightSign player behind each display is the cheaper and more robust answer, and plenty of buildings need both.
Common questions
Who installs Blustream in Kansas City?
IntegrateIT (Overland Park, KS) carries and installs Blustream across the Kansas City metro — we design the video and audio path, size the matrix or the AV network to the building, pull and certify the cable, and commission the result so every display and every zone wakes up correctly. To be precise about the relationship: Blustream is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized Blustream dealer. The brands we do hold dealer agreements on are listed on our site and include Control4, Crestron, Lutron HomeWorks and Sonos. Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer and CEDIA member. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
Which Blustream video-over-IP series fits my project?
They are published by what the network has to carry. IP50HD is the 1080p range, sending high-definition video over a 100 megabit network — enough for signage and secondary screens. IP200UHD and IP250UHD carry UHD over a 1 gigabit managed network, with the IP250UHD adding Dante audio. IP300UHD and IP350UHD are published at 4K 60Hz 4:4:4 over a 1 gigabit managed network, again with Dante on the IP350UHD, and there is a wall-plate transmitter in that family with HDMI and USB-C inputs for a conference table. IP510UHD is the uncompressed SDVoE tier, published at 4K 60Hz 4:4:4 as a simultaneous transceiver over a 10 gigabit managed network. The switch is part of the specification in every one of those, which is the thing most quotes leave out.
How far can video actually travel over one cable?
Further than most houses need, if the extension method matches the run. Blustream names its HDBaseT extender ranges 70, 100 and 150 metres, and separately offers HDMI over fibre for runs past what copper will carry. Read those range names carefully, because they are the 1080p figures: on Blustream’s own family pages the 4K distance for each range is shorter — roughly 40, 70 and 100 metres respectively — and a system designed off the name rather than off the 4K figure is a system that works until somebody sends it 4K. What decides the answer in practice is not the headline number — it is the resolution and format you are sending, the quality and certification of the cable, and how many connection points are in the path. We measure the real run lengths on the walk and specify from those rather than from an assumption about house size, because a single link that cannot carry what the source wants to send takes the whole path down.
Can Blustream handle the audio as well as the video?
That is one of the reasons it comes up. Alongside the video ranges, Blustream publishes a Dante range — encoders and decoders, converters, amplifiers and wall plates — and an audio integration range covering audio matrices, amplifiers, Bluetooth input, ARC and eARC, and embedding and de-embedding. That matters more than it sounds. The most common complaint about a distributed system is that the television sound and the in-ceiling audio are not quite together, and the fix is a deliberate audio path with delay managed on purpose rather than a soundbar quietly doing its own thing. The loudspeakers themselves are a separate decision, on our whole-house audio and restaurant audio pages.
Blustream or AVPro Edge — how do you choose?
On the job, not on loyalty. We carry both, we install both, and neither pays us to prefer it. The questions that actually decide it are the real run lengths, whether the project needs Dante or another audio transport, how many displays there are and whether that number will grow, whether a conference table needs a wall-plate or USB-C input, and what an existing rack already speaks — matching a system that is half-installed is usually worth more than a marginal specification win. We will tell you which way we are leaning on the walk and why, and the answer is written into the proposal rather than left as a brand name.
Send us the display count and the floor plan.
Or read about matrix, HDBaseT and AV-over-IP compared · the rack it all lands in · the meeting rooms it runs
Written by Daniel Alon, founder of IntegrateIT LLC, with twenty years in IT and AV integration — Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer, CEDIA member. Overland Park, KS.