Tag: vernal

Technomad Vernal Loudspeakers Play Instrumental Role in LEED-Certified Muzak System for Price Chopper Supermarket

<!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> 40 loudspeakers playback music, advertisements and other in-store messages at high quality for new 60,000 square foot supermarket

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Technomad LLC, a leader in weatherproof loudspeakers and audio systems since 1995, announces that Functional Communications Corporation has installed 40 Technomad Vernal loudspeakers as part of a LEED-certified AV and intercom communications system at the new Price Chopper supermarket in Colonie, NY.The Technomad loudspeakers are installed throughout the store and at the entrance to provide high-quality audio reproduction for a Muzak Audio Architecture installation featuring music and in-store advertising; and outstanding voice intelligibility for live pages and other in-store communications.

Functional Communications Corp., headquartered in Syracuse, is an independent Muzak affiliate that managed the design and installation of the entire system.The company specified Technomad based on its compliance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to provide standard for environmentally sustainable construction.According to Scott Welton, Account Executive at Functional Communications Corp., the Technomad Vernal was specifically selected for its audio quality and projection, and its compact and durable design, in addition to LEED-compliant measures including the company’s use of recycled plastic in its manufacturing process.

“The U.S. Green Building Council stipulates that LEED project contractors are encouraged to specify equipment manufactured within 500 miles of the installation, so noting Technomad’s proximity I ordered one Vernal for evaluation.I liked the sound reproduction and the fact that it was a very tough loudspeaker,” said Welton.“The Vernal also comes in a 70-volt transformed version, which was necessary to accommodate the long cable runs to the digital amplifier and minimize infrastructure.The Technomads have proven versatile enough to legibly reproduce in-store marketing and music, message repeaters, and live pages from telephones and microphones with excellent audio quality.”

The Technomad Vernal is available in 14 custom colors to match the environment of your installation. The Price Chopper installation includes 40 white Vernals.

The Muzak Audio Architecture music and messaging stream is received externally via satellite through Muzak Audio Architecture network and passed through a mixer and four-channel digital amplifier before hitting the loudspeakers.The Vernals are positioned 30 feet apart from each other at a height of 18 feet, mounted to beams and directed straight down to reach customers at the point of purchase throughout the approximately 60,000 square-foot supermarket.

Functional Communications Corporation also installed two Vernals at the store entrance to broadcast the Muzak stream to shoppers as they enter and exit the store, projecting well out into the parking lot.Welton added the weatherproof design of Technomad loudspeakers meant the Vernals could be installed outdoors without obvious protection from the elements.Many of the loudspeakers are also exposed to direct sunlight in the store via skylights in the ceiling, which made durability a requirement.

The complete system as installed by Functional Communications also features a mini-recording station with a microphone and digital message repeater for recording unique messages in-house; ambient microphones for live pages throughout the store; and a broadcast television service featuring entertainment from the DiSH Network, another Functional Communications partner.

Distributed Audio Creates Unique Atmosphere for Christian Visitor Attraction

Dry Gulch USA in Oklahoma Makes Audio Part of the Visitor Experience

The effective use of outdoor audio can put a stamp on the personality of the venue. A combination of high-quality sound, creative programming, and innovative system design and technology helps to create an atmosphere that will stick with visitors long after they depart.

Dry Gulch USA is one venue that has put a great deal of thought into employing an intelligent audio strategy, helping to create a unique and memorable atmosphere. The year-round non-profit campground and retreat center is located one hour northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma on the shores of Lake Hudson, and owned by Church on the Move of Tulsa.

Established in 1986 as a Christian summer camp for children, Dry Gulch USA is now a multi-purpose facility also offering corporate and marriage retreats as well as Christmas holiday events. The grounds span several hundred acres and include a lake, a 700-seat performance hall, a mini-amusement park, overnight quarters and a Town Square area that is a replica of an old west town.

Audio is essential to communication and entertainment across the grounds. The facility recently initiated a multi-stage project to overhaul its existing outdoor audio systems, which had fallen into severe disrepair over the years.

Two Technomad Berlin loudspeakers broadcast voice and music to the downtown "Town Square" area, which is modeled after an old west town.

“The older audio systems were long neglected and in very poor shape,” said Audio Visual Coordinator Stephen Arruda, who was hired last year to improve AV systems across the board. “The loudspeakers were completely unprotected from the elements. It sounded as if the horns were blown, but instead they were clogged with mud. The magnets were filled with hornet nests and the paper cones were deteriorated. Everything was rendered useless.”

Arruda worked with Ford Audio-Video, a regional design-build contractor, to demonstrate a range of Technomad products to improve the audio presence. The upgrades include a multi-zone networked audio system to deliver voice and music to four distinct areas of the campground, as well as a mix of new loudspeakers from Technomad and JBL that are used both within the multi-zone system and in standalone systems elsewhere on the campground.

“The staff was forced to continually replace drivers and cabinets as the older system gradually deteriorated over the years,” said James Mitchell, Account Manager for Ford Audio-Video. “What they needed was sturdy equipment that could reliably reproduce voice and audio with good quality, yet still handle the volatile Oklahoma weather. The Lake Hudson area weather is especially varied: rain, snow, heat — everything under the sun. The older weather-treated systems failed continually because they couldn’t tolerate the rough weather seasons of northeast Oklahoma.”

“There is a philosophy here to not continue to use equipment if it needs to be constantly repaired,” added Arruda. “We’re spread very thin, and this is a very large campground. A quarter-mile between loudspeaker points is not unusual here, and it’s a waste of time to drive around the grounds constantly repairing equipment. Ford Audio-Video was a big help in demonstrating products that fit within our budget but would produce good audio and be consistently reliable.”

The "Park System" is one of three audio zones featuring Technomad loudspeakers. Here, two Berlin loudspeakers are installed on the rooftop of an arcade. — The Park System is one of three zones featuring Technomad loudspeakers, which were installed in multiple locations where outstanding audio quality and weatherproof characteristics were required. Here, two Berlins are seen installed on the rooftop of the park arcade.

Among Arruda’s chief initiatives was to design a multi-zone system capable of distributing audio over separate channels. The five well-defined zones comprise the “Park System,” and it is intended to produce a unique thematic experience for each zone — noticeable to guests as they move from one zone to the next. The Park System, powered by Furman power conditioning and sequencing products, employs a DBX ZonePro 640 for audio processing and Crown amplifiers to power the audio output.

The DBX ZonePro 640 is fundamental to creating the theme for each zone, entertaining guests with audio customized specifically to match the environment. Arruda assigns CDs, an iPod, and a Sonos wireless music system to deliver music, following a seven-day schedule. The iPod feeds into a Raxxess IRD-1 unit, essentially a docking station that protects the player and interfaces with the ZonePro 640 through a line output.

The Sonos system is more complex, featuring 13 audio players and 10 wireless bridges to extend the reach of the system to certain zones, including the main entrance. The Sonos systems’ Zone Player also provides a single line input to one player, which can be distributed to all locations that contain another Zone Player.

Arruda designed the system so that the ZonePro 640 reduces the main audio when a page or announcement is made over the system. While the audio program is different within each zone, live announcements are distributed to all five zones for the purpose of reaching the majority of visitors and staff.

“There is great significance in being able to communicate important messages to the entire park, whether it’s a simple informative announcement related to a visitor attraction or a true weather-related or other emergency situation,” said Arruda. “The fact that we can do this from a central point and have the messages take priority over the five-channel music output is very valuable. Visitors can hear the important messages across all zones, and then the assigned music for each zone returns immediately following the announcement.”

Several buildings and attractions signify the area around the Park System. This includes The Western Bunkhouse, which serves as the “Main Zone” in the audio distribution system. The “brains” of the Park System is also housed in this zone.

Two Technomad Berlin weatherproof loudspeakers reproduce high-quality audio within the Main Zone. The Berlin model is among the largest and most powerful loudspeakers built by Technomad, and were installed here to cover a very large area both within the park area and its outskirts. Music emanates from the Berlins in between announcements to entertain visitors. The Berlins are installed on the building rooftop for the best possible directivity and projection.

“The Technomad Berlins supply a rich and reliable sound throughout the park area, and are in a perfect location for visitors to hear pages and special announcements,” said Mitchell. “The design was also helpful as it allows for simple rooftop installation without awkward positioning.”

Arruda added that the Technomad design enabled him to mount the loudspeakers in unusual positions without modifications. He installed Berlins on top of two other downtown buildings — Town Hall and the Dining Hall — as standalone systems, using the same unusual mounting techniques.

The Dining Hall features two Technomad Berlin loudspeakers projection audio long distance into the downtown area, setting the atmosphere on Main Street.

“The Berlins have fly points everywhere, and that really helped in these unique rooftop installations where I had to anchor the loudspeakers from below,” he said. “There is no possible way this could have been done with other loudspeakers without drilling into the cabinet and adversely affecting sound quality.”

The second zone is comprised of multiple Technomad Vernal loudspeakers under several building eves in the park area, including bunkhouses for summer camp and retreat guests. The Vernals are the smallest model in the Technomad fleet, but retain the same traits of the Berlin: high audio quality, broad dispersion, weatherproof design and durable construction.

The music in this zone changes to match specific themes, such as during the Christmas Train event. The Silver Dollar Saloon, located in the Town Square of Dry Gulch USA, hosts a live bluegrass band during these events. The music is extended outdoors to the Vernals so visitors can hear the live performance. The usual soundtrack for the entire campground, distributed through the Sonos system, kicks in again once the performance has ended.

The Vernals also provide background music at a third zone by the main entrance, where visitors hear music as they wait in line and enter the park. During events such as the Christmas Train and the annual 4th of July picnic, patrons will hear music themes from the old west before segueing into seasonal or patriotic music. In this case, an iPod distributes separate content while the Sonos system extends the system’s reach up to 1000 feet, linking the entrance music with the rest of the grounds.

Arruda expects to install as many as 40 Vernals throughout Dry Gulch once completed, citing the broad audio coverage as essential to reaching visitors throughout the area. He deployed the Vernals in a 70-volt configuration to effectively reproduce audio across the entire zone, instead of the traditional 8-Ohm configuration. The 70-volt configuration daisy-chains multiple loudspeakers over longer distances than what is possible within 8-Ohm configurations. This will allow Arruda to more easily expand his distributed audio network over time.

Technomad Vernals are installed at multiple= — Technomad Vernals are installed at multiple locations around Dry Gulch, including the main entrance and under building eves in the downtown area. Many are arranged in a 70-volt configuration to enable long-distance signal distribution.

“I learned about the benefits of the 70-volt configuration through Andrew Stone, the front of house engineer at Church on The Move,” said Arruda. “The Vernals include multi-tap connections to chain loudspeakers together, enabling distributed audio over longer distances. We can also set different wattages for better audio control in different areas. It’s a lot easier to modify 70-volt systems and manipulate the sound in different areas, even if the loudspeakers are on the same line. It’s also less labor intensive. You don’t need to provide a home run from every single loudspeaker or pair of loudspeakers back to the signal processing rack.”

The two final zones in the Park System are targeted for completion by the spring of 2009. The fourth zone will feature nine landscaped loudspeakers from Outdoor Speaker Depot in a series of planters outside of Town Square. Each planter includes three OS650 HD True Omni Ground loudspeakers installed in 70-volt configurations. The fifth zone will distribute theme park-style music to up to 12 JBL Control 25T loudspeakers. Many of the loudspeakers are being installed under the bumper car pavilion, and others will be hung near inflatable games and other theme park-style attractions.

“The whole idea of this multi-zone system is to distribute separate styles of music to create a different atmosphere in each zone,” said Arruda. “We didn’t want music floating through the air from a single location. The point is to create an environment that stays with you the entire visit but changes as you enter a different section of Dry Gulch.”

Several standalone audio systems complete the campground-wide audio presence. The Town Hall is a 700-person capacity auditorium with two Berlin outdoor loudspeakers tied to the indoor PA system. The music inside is synchronized to the Berlins to signal the beginning of daily chapel services or other gatherings and events. The signal is produced using a 32-Channel Midas Venice console, processed through a DBX DriveRack 260 and driven by a Crown Com Tech 800 to the two Berlins.

“These Berlins are used solely for the purpose of our Summer Camp sessions,” said Arruda. “The music notifies campers and their counselors when morning or evening chapel services are beginning. The loudspeakers are then muted once everyone is inside the building so other visitors and personnel are not disturbed.”

Two Berlin loudspeakers are also installed on the roof of the Dining Hall. The long-distance audio projection allows staff to project audio down the Main Street area.

“The Dining Hall loudspeakers set the atmosphere for the entire downtown area, which includes Main Street and the Town Square,” said Arruda. “We play old western music throughout the day, like the theme from Silverado. We expect to add Vernals to this building’s lakeside outdoor eating area down the road.”

Dry Gulch USA also just completed construction of the Palace Hotel in Town Square. The hotel is an ideal companion for the Christmas Train event; children have their pictures taken with Santa Claus on the main floor, and the hotel offers rooms for overnight guests. Arruda and his team from Church on the Move installed four Vernal loudspeakers at the Palace Hotel for audio entertainment and announcements.

Although the Dining Hall and the Palace Hotel systems remain standalone for the time being, Arruda envisions eventually tying both sites into the multi-zone system. He has already tied the Sonos equipment to the Palace Hotel system, although the system is processed by a dedicated Zone Pro 640 and driven by a Crown CT 1200 amplifier. Considerations for tying in the Dining Hall system will be made once Vernals are added to the building.

“Before we established the multi-zone audio system, the Dining Hall was the only building where it was possible to hear music from a distance,” he said. “Our strategy is changing now that we have established multiple loudspeaker points with better audio in various areas. We are gradually moving away from standalone systems and toward distributed audio everywhere.”

A similar version of this story appeared in the January 2009 issue of Technologies for Worship.

Technomad Loudspeakers Provide Game Day Audio Coverage at Jamsil Baseball Stadium

Technomad announced that C.I.C. Electronics, a Technomad dealer located in South Korea, installed a variety of Technomad weatherproof loudspeakers throughout Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. C.I.C. Electronics, a global supplier of professional audio and public address systems selected Technomad loudspeakers for their outstanding audio quality and projection, weatherproof design, and durability.

Jamsil Baseball Stadium, built in 1982, seats 30,265 people and is home to both the Doosan Bears and LG Twins, both professional teams of the KBO Baseball League. C.I.C. installed Technomad Berlin, Paris616 and Vernal-15 loudspeakers in various areas depending on the amount of power required for each specific location. The Technomad Berlin, part of the company’s AS Series of loudspeakers, is the largest of the three models. TheBerlin offers unparalleled projection, fidelity, and power to disperse intelligible voice and music throughout the stadium while maintaining an even pattern.

The Technomad Paris 616 and Vernal-15 models, part of the company’s MP Series of loudspeakers, offer more compact designs for all-environment installations, distributed systems, and sound reinforcement applications. Like the Berlin, both the Paris and Vernal offer unmatched fidelity as well as very broad dispersion to ensure that clear audio is hitting the most difficult-to-reach areas within the stadium.

Jamsil Baseball Stadium comprises part of the Jamsil Sports Complex along with nearby Seoul Olympic Stadium, and was host to baseball events during the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

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Club Med Cancun Goes High Tech

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the October 2007 issue of Lighting & Sound America.

Club Med Cancun Goes High Tech

Brian Galante

The 2005 hurricane season will go down as one of the bleakest in history, as the list of named storms became so long that forecasters turned to the Greek alphabet. Hurricane Wilma, the last storm from the traditional alphabet, tore through the Gulf of Mexico early that fall, settling on top of the Yucatan Peninsula and barely moving for 48 hours. After making its exit, some of Mexico’s most famous resort areas, including the city of Cancun, were left battered and faced with a long period of rebuilding.

Club Med Cancun, with its shoreline location, was just one of many resorts that sustained heavy damage from winds, rain and an unrelenting storm surge. The club took the opportunity to rebuild its lighting and sound infrastructure along with much of its resort, favoring high-fidelity audio products and a lighting system that was easy to operate yet technically advanced enough to produce the right atmosphere in each room.

The family resort offers a variety of clubs and restaurants to satiate both kids and adults. The open-air design through much of the resort presented many challenges for the audio integration team, which had to balance the desire for high-end audio throughout the club with the reality of Cancun’s harsh weather environment.

We have done plenty of installations in tough environments, but we have never run into environment as harsh as Cancun, said Bill Weir, Owner of Core Audio. Our challenge in these outdoor areas was to install loudspeakers that could sit in the bright sun and survive the ultraviolet degradation, not to mention the humidity and mineral content in the air the latter of which contributes to rapid corrosion. This all adds up to a highly challenging installation, unlike in any region I’ve experienced.

The Core Audio team, in cooperation with Whump Sound, a Los Angeles based dealer specializing in audio installations, led the systems integration. The central equipment room houses a Digigram digital distribution system that routes audio to eight zones, a combination of indoor and outdoor venues, each with a distinct personality. Technomad loudspeakers were selected for all open-air venues, partially due to the true weatherproof design of the loudspeakers. These venues include a mix of restaurants, bars and entertainment areas plus the valet greeting area in front of the resort.

The indoor areas used two other speaker brands: Altec Lansing for in-ceiling installations where architecturally required, such as in the gymnasium and the late night restaurant Las Cazuelas; and Core Audio’s self-designed loudspeakers for The Soluna, the main indoor dance club. The installations play to the strengths of each speaker, but all share one thing in common according to Weir: outstanding audio quality.

The broad dispersion pattern on both the Technomad and Core Audio loudspeakers require fewer loudspeakers per room. The wider audio dispersion eliminates the phasing issues that are common in large installations, where too many loudspeakers cause an uneven sound in certain areas, or a wishing sound as the patron walks through the sound field.

Many resorts of this size put budget over any other consideration when choosing equipment, and the audio reproduction at the end point is anything but musical, said Weir. Club Med Cancun uses a 24-bit distribution system that plays back high resolution audio files, and that fidelity is well represented in each zone due to the choice of loudspeakers. Core Audio uses a patented subwoofer technology that produces very high audio quality, and we were interested in working with Technomad because we wanted musicality in the outdoor zones. The range of products that can withstand the Cancun environment is very limited, and Technomad meets both the musical and environmental requirements.

The outdoor club environment in tropical locations poses difficult weather related challenges for audio integrators, notably ultraviolet susceptibility to loudspeakers, said David Meyer, Commercial Sales Manager for Technomad. While the weatherproofing aspect is important, it has to sound good regardless of the environment. You can deliver the most rugged, bulletproof speaker, but you don’t have anything if the speaker produces poor audio quality.

Audio distribution is handled over Ethernet, with numerous fiber optic hops across the resort property to extend distribution past the 328-foot limit of the Ether Sound protocol. The eight zones (expandable to 16) are interchangeable, meaning that a music stream can be changed to a different destination point through a simple switching system. Since Club Med Cancun is a family resort, the Digigram network also offers a paging system. Digigram ES220 two-channel transceivers are installed at each end point and can receive two channels of Ether Sound audio from an Ethernet stream. The pages can override the audio stream on the two-channel, mono audio design utilized in most zones.

Music streams can be localized to specific zones, or routed to all eight zones simultaneously. The resort leases a proprietary music servicing software that plays out from a central server in the control room and communicates with the Digigram system for distribution. On-site audio engineers can use Soundforge and Wavelap programs to produce personal CDs in the control room, and can interrupt the automated stream to any zone if they want to play the DJ role.

I’d say the most unique aspect of this project is the routing system, said Diaz. The Digigram system is powerful enough to interact with multiple speaker brands, and gives the on-site operator plenty of flexibility in playback. Even though we operated under a very tight deadline, the entire system came together in a very seamless manner.

The central indoor club is The Soluna, which offers an adult-oriented club environment typical of downtown Cancun. The music in this room is played back through Core Audio loudspeakers, with lighting courtesy of iDesign Productions out of Miami. The Core Audio loudspeakers deliver sound pressure levels of an active nightclub at a higher quality level than is typical due to several design features. A custom subwoofer with a quarter-wave resonant system extends the bass, and special two-way, non metallic coaxial compression drivers smooth the mid and high ranges. The loudspeakers are installed in a traditional four-corner configuration, the ideal setup for the enclosed, air-conditioned room.

The Soluna’s lighting system as set up by iDesign employs a scheduler for two different settings: House and Lounge. The programming is more intricate on the House setting, with more aggressive LEDs and stimulating, rapid lighting changes. The Lounge setting is gentler, with soothing, subtle changes. The programs change slightly by the hour on automated settings, and are barely noticeable to guests. The entire system uses an astronomical clock to calculate the exact time of sunrise and sunset each day.

The lights in the Soluna are very subtle for the first hour and add color and depth as the evening progresses, said Michael Meacham, Owner of iDesign Productions. A typical progression may add teals, magentas and ambers as the programs change. The automated settings also take the staffing situation into account. Since many of the employees work on a six-month term, it’s important they understand how to use the system. So we designed to be as foolproof as possible.

Meacham served as the lead designer and installer, bringing a team to the resort and focusing on key areas one at a time as the rebuilding process moved forward. His team integrated a Color Kinetics control and software system with LEDs as the foundation for the Soluna, with installations inside the bar and within soffits in the ceiling. Color Kinetics LEDs were also installed in an outdoor entertainment area that serves multiple purposes .Martin Mac 250 Kryptons and Washes were added throughout the Soluna for articulation.

The outdoor entertainment area, known as The Chispa, offers a movie theater and a performance area with an exceptional A/V and lighting system. The central kiosk area is peppered with palm trees that are lit using Color Kinetics color blasts. The LED fixtures for each palm tree are automated using a Martin Light Jockey control system, with 220 volt power lines providing juice to each palm tree. Like the Soluna, the lighting for this zone is customized to match the event, and can be manually operated on theme nights using a small 8-button switcher. Martin 250 Kryptons and Washes were also installed in the theater area.

We programmed white, stoic lighting for the palm trees on certain nights, but there are other theme nights that benefit from more intensive lighting, said Meacham. This outdoor area features an island where the resort hosts a circus that includes a giant trapeze. We took more creative liberties here: The colors move quicker, and the intention is to recreate the feeling of approaching a carnival. Whether you are inside having dinner, hanging out at the Chispa kiosk or having a drink at the pool bar, these lights are designed to invoke emotion as you look toward the island and see this giant, gorgeous structure lighting up the atmosphere.

The Chispa movie theater is perhaps the most unique aspect of the resort, and according to Weir, a one-of-its-kind system. The integration team painted one side of a three-story hotel building on the resort with retro-reflective, high-gain paint. Guests can sit on the beach or on bench seating in the pool area to watch movies projected onto the building.

A triple DLP 5000 HD projector, mounted in a protective cage on the beach, projects a 30-foot wide, 15-foot tall 16:9 aspect ratio image. Guests can take advantage of a Sennheiser RF headphone system with a broadcast range of 300 feet to watch the movie undisturbed, while those who want to enjoy the ambience can do so without the audio dominating the atmosphere.

DJs and performance groups can also take advantage of this outdoor entertainment area. A pair of Technomad Berlin loudspeakers was purchased for mobile events, and plug in to rack systems on the performance stage. The dedicated control room features an Allen & Heath GL2800 front of house mixer and processing equipment to assist with these live events.

The remaining room-to-room breakdown of Technomad loudspeakers include: The Pergola, a beach bar that features four Noho loudspeakers hung 9 feet above the crowd and two Chicago 15 subwoofers at two corners along the baseboards; eight Vernals in The Chispa and Las Velas, the pool bar; and Noho and Vernal loudspeakers in the valet area, which play back low volume music as guests enter the resort. Crown DSI series amplifiers are used to power the audio in each of these zones, offering full parametric EQ, crossover functions and basic signal processing. (A Rane RPM88 DSP is used to power the Core Audio loudspeakers in the Soluna.)

The Berlins were specifically chosen for mobile events because they are high quality, full range portable loudspeakers that can be used anywhere on the resort at a moment’s notice, said Weir. They offer a full range of sound with excellent bass response and a very nice tonal quality that is ideal for DJ sets. In the Pergola, the Nohos produce enough sound pressure levels at 1 a.m. so that people who want it loud can turn up the volume, but still produce a full, pleasing sound at lower volumes. This was the same idea we had for the Vernal 15 installation in the pollapa, with a higher emphasis on producing clearly audible sound at low levels for conversational situations.

All power and electricity issues were resolved in the early stages, although there were plenty of challenges. Meacham had an easier go of it with the lighting system.LED technology requires very little power, which makes our job that much easier. It is entirely possible that one of the four Mac 250 lights in the main bar took more power than the entire LED display in that zone, he said.

The audio installation proved far more complex, from the cleanliness of the power coming into the resort to more common grounding issues. We had to resolve numerable electrical engineering issues ahead of time, from improper load balancing in the main three-phase transformer to adding clean technical earth at multiple entrance points, said Weir. We removed a lot of the audio on common phases with large inductive loads, like refrigerator compressors. We also custom built resident filters with some of the power lines to filter out harmonics generated from motor noise in the AC system. It was pretty much a nightmare situation that required a lot of troubleshooting.

The electricity issues proved to be the only real undesirable aspect of the project, and the end result has been pleasing to everyone involved.

Contractors may view this as a standard design in terms of audio and lighting, and it is similar to what you see today in theme parks and large corporate installations, said Diaz. But the resort community seems ready to catch up.