More than 70 people took part in the official ribbon cutting where general manager Fredrik Nilsson spoke about partner loyalty and mutual growth both in the past and into the future.

Axis Communications, Chelmsford, Mass., a provider of network video, held an official grand opening celebration on April 12 for its new North American headquarters with a private cocktail event for local partners in the state-of-the-art Axis Experience Center.

Read contributing writer Derek Rice’s first-hand impressions on the new headquarters here.

Axis’ new 60,000 square foot office is located at 300 Apollo Drive in Chelmsford, Mass., about 30 minutes from Boston and on the same campus as its previous facility. Of Axis’ 150-plus North American employees, nearly 90 from business development, sales, marketing, technical services, finance and human resources work in the horseshoe-shaped space on the third floor, while the first floor is home to Axis’ unique twist on the typical executive briefing center: the Axis Experience Center.

The Axis Experience Center on the first floor is the crown jewel of the new office, featuring an Axis product museum, executive board rooms, a 50-person auditorium for large meetings and training sessions and an impressive mock command center to showcase the latest Axis products and complementary partner technologies in a real world setting. The company also opened an updated training facility for Axis Communications’ Academyclassroom-based courses.

“This entire space was completely empty before we moved in, so we were able to design the workspace upstairs and the Axis Experience Center completely from the ground up with our employees and partners in mind,” said Axis general manager Fredrik Nilsson. “This is the third year in a row that we’ve opened a new office in our region, and our office upstairs is only half filled — so with our joint partnerships and all these great resources at hand, there’s a tremendous growth opportunity in front of us.”

To better serve its partners and sales team out in the field, Axis said, the company tripled the size of its IP camera demo network, including outdoor models installed on the building’s rooftop for the first time. Additionally, the secure network was built to scale so that the entire Axis product line can be featured as new IP cameras are launched.

Axis also built three separate labs on the third floor for product testing and troubleshooting. The Partner Lab provides Axis Application Development Partners with an opportunity to remotely access network cameras and test their software and applications. The Axis Network Camera Lab for internal testing was quadrupled in size to include every IP camera and encoder in the Axis product line. Lastly, the Axis Light and Image Lab enables the technical services and field sales engineer teams to simulate a wide variety of lighting scenarios to best recommend a certain product, accessory or image setting for a specific surveillance application.

In 2010, Axis opened the doors to its new Canadian office in Ontario, followed by the grand opening of its Mexico, Central America and Caribbean office in the heart of Mexico City in 2011.