Quick Answer: Restrepo Innovations was brought in by Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to remediate lighting in the base chapel and was paid directly by the installation. That on-base past performance is the foundation we build our federal AV practice on. We are not GSA-scheduled and we are not facility-cleared. We work with cleared primes for any classified-area scope and we carry Elite Pro Crestron and OSHA on our own.
Most case studies on integrator websites are aspirational. Renderings, partner logos, statements of capability. This one is the opposite. It is the actual federal job we ran, the way it actually happened, and the honest framing of what it does and does not qualify us for.
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst sits on more than 42,000 acres in Burlington County, New Jersey. It hosts the 87th Air Base Wing, the 514th Air Mobility Wing, the Army Reserve, and multiple tenant units across three service branches. We were brought in for a focused scope: remediate the lighting in the base chapel. The installation paid us directly. That is the past performance we cite, because it actually happened.
The Scope: Lighting Remediation in the Base Chapel
The chapel is a working religious space on a tri-service installation. It serves Air Force, Army, and Navy personnel and their families. The lighting issue we were asked to solve was operational, not cosmetic. The existing system did not give the chaplain's office and the AV operators consistent, repeatable scenes for the range of services and events the room hosts on a typical week.
A military chapel is not a single-use room. On a Sunday it runs Catholic mass, Protestant service, and an evening contemporary service back to back. Mid-week it hosts memorials, weddings, choir rehearsals, and counseling sessions. Each of those uses a different lighting envelope. The old system relied on manual switching that the volunteer operators could not run reliably under the time pressure of a service start.
Our scope was the lighting infrastructure and the control logic that drives it. We specified fixtures appropriate for the architecture, replaced the failing components, and built a control layer that gives the chaplain's office a small set of named, repeatable scenes any volunteer can recall in two button presses. The job was paid for and accepted directly by the installation. No prime contractor sat between us and the base for this scope.
Why This Work Mattered
A chapel is one of the few spaces on a base where the only metric is whether the room serves the people in it. There is no operational uptime to brag about. There is no classified data flowing across the system. There is a service starting in fifteen minutes and a volunteer at a touch panel who needs the room to be ready.
We approached the chapel the same way we approach a luxury home theater or a corporate boardroom. The standard is whether the room works on the day it has to work. The operator does not care what brand of dimmer is in the rack. The operator cares that the cue runs and the room looks right and the next cue is one tap away. That is the test.
Working on a federal installation also taught us things that no commercial job teaches. The badging process, the escort rules, the documentation expectations, the way work orders move through a base civil engineering office. None of that is glamorous and none of it is in a brochure. It is the part of federal work that separates integrators who have actually been on a base from integrators who have only read about it.
What the Job Does Not Make Us
This is the honest part. The JBMDL chapel work does not make Restrepo Innovations a cleared contractor. We are not facility-cleared. We do not hold classified-area scope, cleared-prime defense IT environment, FIPS, evaluated-product environment under cleared prime, EMI-shielded scope under cleared prime, or cleared-prime facility scope accreditations. We are not on a GSA schedule.
What we are is an Elite Pro Crestron Dealer and an OSHA Certified integrator with documented past performance on a Department of Defense installation, paid directly by that installation. For any future federal scope that touches classified areas or requires facility clearance, we work under a cleared prime contractor. The prime carries the clearance. We carry the Crestron, the lighting, the AV, and the field discipline. That is the honest framing and it is the framing we lead with in every federal conversation.
Mike says it plainly when this comes up on a call. We do not claim clearances we do not hold. We do not need to. The chapel work happened. It is on the base record. That is enough to start the conversation with the right primes.
What We Learned and What We Carry Forward
Four things stayed with us from the chapel work and they shape how we approach every federal opportunity now.
First, federal work runs on documentation. A commercial integrator can be loose with as-builts and rough with submittals and still get paid. A base will not pay you if the paperwork is not right. We tightened our documentation standards across the whole company because of this job, not just the federal side.
Second, the customer on a federal job is not one person. It is the chaplain, it is the base civil engineer, it is the contracting officer, it is the facility manager. Each of them has a different read on what success looks like. Our job is to listen to all of them and design a system that respects all four answers without overpromising any of them.
Third, the standard of care is the same as in a luxury home. The system has to work the first time, every time, with no excuse. The room does not care that it is on a base. The room cares that the lights come up and the sound is right.
Fourth, honest framing wins. When we talk to a prime contractor about teaming on a larger federal scope, the first thing we tell them is what we do not have. No clearance. No GSA schedule. No DCAA-audited accounting. What we have is the Crestron certification, the OSHA certification, the documented base past performance, and the field discipline to show up and do the work. Primes respect that. They have been burned by integrators who overclaim.
What Comes Next for Restrepo Federal Work
We are actively pursuing additional DoD work through teaming with cleared prime contractors in the Northeast corridor. The targets are the cleared primes who hold federal AV contracts and need a Crestron-strong subcontractor in NJ, NY, and CT, plus the DC, Maryland, and Virginia corridor where so much of the federal AV demand actually sits.
We are also building out the rest of the front-door work. SAM.gov registration. A capability statement that names the chapel work and the Crestron credentials in one place. A short list of primes to introduce ourselves to. None of that is glamorous either. It is the work that makes the next federal job possible.
For federal contracting officers, base technology officers, and prime capture managers reading this: we are an Elite Pro Crestron Dealer based in Franklin Lakes, NJ with documented past performance at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. We work under cleared primes for classified scope. We design, deploy, install, configure, and support Crestron, Lutron, Ketra, Biamp, QSC, and the rest of the federal AV stack. Call 201.405.2022 if there is a Northeast federal AV scope where a Crestron-strong subcontractor on the bench would be useful.
“The chapel lighting at JBMDL is the past performance we cite, because it actually happened. We were brought in, we did the work, the base paid us. That is the foundation. Everything else we are doing in federal is built on that one job and the discipline it taught us.” __EMDASH_PROTECT_0__
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Restrepo Innovations the prime contractor on the JBMDL chapel job?
For this specific scope, yes. The installation brought us in directly and paid us directly. There was no other prime between Restrepo Innovations and the base on the chapel lighting remediation. For future federal scope that touches classified areas or requires facility clearance, we expect to work under a cleared prime contractor.
Does the JBMDL chapel work make Restrepo Innovations a cleared contractor?
No. The chapel work is documented past performance on a Department of Defense installation. It does not confer a facility clearance, a classified-area scope accreditation, or any other security accreditation. We are not GSA-scheduled. The honest framing is that we have on-base past performance and the certifications we hold are Elite Pro Crestron and OSHA.
What kinds of federal projects are you targeting next?
Crestron-heavy AV scope where we can team with a cleared prime. Briefing rooms, command center displays, base auditoriums, education facility AV, chapel and ceremonial space lighting, and dining facility AV. We are focused on the Northeast corridor and the DC, Maryland, Virginia corridor where the federal AV demand is densest.
Can a prime contractor add Restrepo to a bench for federal subcontracting?
Yes. We carry the documentation a prime needs to vet a subcontractor: insurance, OSHA, Crestron Elite Pro standing, past performance, and a clean bid history. Call 201.405.2022 or email office@restrepoinnovations.com to start the conversation.
How is this different from your residential and commercial work?
The standard of care is identical. The documentation discipline is tighter on federal. The contracting process is slower. The operator on the receiving end of a federal install needs the same thing a luxury homeowner needs, which is a system that works the first time and every time after.
If your project is in NJ, NY, or CT and federal AV is on the table, we are here to talk it through. Call 201.405.2022 or email office@restrepoinnovations.com.
Related reading: The Army's New Data Operations Center and What It Means for Federal AV; Restrepo Innovations Launches Government Division; JBMDL Installation Page; Government Services Capability Statement.