Restrepo Group | Synapse Audio Visual Designs | New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia region Synapse Audio Visual Designs is a Paramus, New Jersey design/build firm for projects where audio, video, lighting, acoustics, and control have to work as one coordinated system. The firm serves commercial, entertainment, hospitality, cultural, healthcare, education, government, broadcast, and residential clients.
For owners, architects, and builders in NJ, NY, and CT who need a technology system documented before the ceiling closes, Restrepo Innovations is the Elite Pro Crestron Dealer that brings engineering, network documentation, and control programming to the technology layer. Synapse remains the local lead for its own clients and territory. That separation keeps the Group useful.
What Synapse Audio Visual Designs executes
Synapse executes design/build work across the full technology scope. Its current services list includes audio design, building automation, centralized control, digital content management, distribution networking, lighting design, projection, signal distribution, video camera integration, video conferencing, video walls, digital signage, and technology general contracting. That list matters because a project can fail in the handoff between those disciplines even when each individual system works.
The firm also names the markets where those systems operate. Corporate enterprise, broadcast, entertainment, hospitality, cultural and event centers, healthcare, education, houses of worship, luxury transportation, retail, government, and residential work each impose different requirements for uptime, service access, acoustics, content, and user control. A hotel ballroom does not behave like a boardroom. A museum projection system does not get commissioned like a private theater.
Synapse's Paramus base puts the firm close to the New York metro and Northern New Jersey construction market. The company's public portfolio also shows work farther afield, including Philadelphia-area projects and venues where large public audiences make consistency and serviceability part of the design brief.
Stephen Cannella brings the entertainment discipline
Stephen Cannella is Synapse's managing partner and chief design consultant. His background started in entertainment lighting at age 15. By 18, the company he was running had executed lighting designs for concert tours across the country. He later worked as a chief lighting technician on commercials, television shows, and major motion pictures.
That path changes how a technical drawing gets read. Cannella has worked across concert lighting, electrical distribution, rigging, system programming, technical direction, projection, and show control. The result is a design practice that understands sightlines, audience attention, cueing, maintenance access, and the difference between a system that looks correct in a rendering and one that survives a live event.
Cannella holds the NCQLP's LC credential and AVIXA's CTS-D credential. He has lectured at Columbia University, NYU, and The Art Institute of Philadelphia. The credentials are his, not Restrepo's, and they belong to the local firm leading this work.
Projects that show the range
Synapse's public portfolio includes 30 Rockefeller Plaza, The Pierre Hotel, The Peninsula Hotel, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, the Jewish Museum, Unilever headquarters, Traxon Technologies headquarters, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and the Venetian in Garfield, New Jersey. Each project points to a different kind of coordination problem.
The Top of the Rock display shows the operational side of entertainment technology. The 84-cabinet wall had to serve a photo experience in a space operating 16 hours a day and visited by as many as 470,000 people annually. The project moved from concept to installation in about three months. Service access and color consistency were not afterthoughts.
The Venetian required a different response. The 100-by-90-foot Palazzo hall has marble surfaces, a 28-foot ceiling, and highly reflective acoustics. Synapse designed and implemented an audio, video, and lighting overhaul with Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steered arrays. The published case study reports 109 dB with about 3 dB variation between points in the hall. Beam steering kept energy off the walls while preserving intelligibility for events.
Those examples are useful to a builder because they show where the design burden sits. It is not only the speaker, display, projector, or control processor. It is the power, pathway, network, content workflow, rack access, acoustic condition, and commissioning plan around that equipment. Restrepo's commercial and hospitality teams see the same issue on projects across NJ, NY, and CT. Coordination before procurement is cheaper than rework after finishes.
How Synapse fits the Restrepo Group
Synapse is the Group's Bergen County peer for commercial, entertainment, hospitality, and theatrical AV. Synapse leads local client relationships, site coordination, and the design/build work that belongs to its firm. Restrepo adds a separate engineering and standards layer when a project needs additional network documentation, control programming, remote support, or coordination with a second property in NJ, NY, or CT.
That relationship also works in the other direction. A Synapse client with a second home, office, or hospitality property in Restrepo's direct service area can use the same engineering conversation without pretending the firms are branches of one another. The local firm remains accountable for its scope. Restrepo remains accountable for its scope. The client gets a clearer handoff between AV, lighting, network infrastructure, and the trades that carry them.
"The Group works when the local firm stays the local firm, and the engineering layer makes the handoff stronger."
Michael Restrepo
That is the peer relationship. Synapse brings a deep entertainment and commercial design practice to the local market. Restrepo brings its own engineering, Crestron programming, network planning, and support capabilities. Both firms keep their names, clients, and responsibilities clear.
Restrepo Group | Synapse Audio Visual Designs | New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia region is a co-attribution for coordination, not a claim that Synapse is a Restrepo Innovations service area.
If you are planning a commercial, hospitality, cultural, or entertainment project, review Synapse Audio Visual Designs for local design/build work. For engineering and technology coordination in NJ, NY, and CT, call 201.405.2022. The Group overview is at restrepoinnovations.com/group/.
Questions about Synapse Audio Visual Designs
What does Synapse Audio Visual Designs do?
Synapse is a Paramus, New Jersey design/build firm for audio, video, lighting, acoustics, control, networking, projection, digital signage, and related technology general contracting. Its public site lists commercial, entertainment, hospitality, cultural, healthcare, education, government, broadcast, retail, and residential markets.
Who leads Synapse Audio Visual Designs?
Stephen Cannella is managing partner and chief design consultant. Christopher Obssuth is managing partner. Synapse's biography page describes Cannella's entertainment lighting and motion-picture background and Obssuth's long experience designing and installing commercial and residential AV systems.
What is an example of Synapse's hospitality work?
The Venetian in Garfield, New Jersey is a published example. Synapse designed and implemented an audio, video, and lighting overhaul for the 100-by-90-foot Palazzo hall, including digitally steered loudspeaker arrays that produced 109 dB with about 3 dB variation across the space.
What is an example of Synapse's commercial AV work?
Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Plaza is a published commercial entertainment example. Synapse designed and deployed a 25-by-9-foot LED display built from 84 cabinets. The system supported an interactive photo experience in a public venue operating 16 hours a day.
How does Synapse fit the Restrepo Group?
Synapse leads its own local design/build relationships and projects. Restrepo Innovations can add engineering, network documentation, Crestron control programming, and support when a project needs that layer. The firms remain separate businesses with defined scopes and shared coordination.
Where can a project team reach Synapse?
Synapse Audio Visual Designs lists its office at 411 Sette Drive, Suite N3, Paramus, New Jersey 07652. Its website is synapseav.com. Restrepo Innovations can be reached at 201.405.2022 or office@restrepoinnovations.com for the Group coordination layer.