SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA: The newly expanded Casino Arizona at Talking Stick is aptly named. While the name derives from the Indian tribe who runs the popular Scottsdale, Arizona casino, it also seems somehow appropriate for a casino that houses one of the gaming industry's most dynamic,
state-of-the-art AV systems.
All forms of aural communication - including music, satellite TV sound, and
PA announcements - swirl around the inside the sprawling facility,
complementing an equally frenetic visual landscape replete with dozens of
screens pulsating with around-the-clock video of sporting and entertainment
events.
Screens are everywhere. A bank of nine, 9' x 12' rear-projection screens
form a 125-lineal-foot run of dazzling visual displays along the top of one
wall of the casino. Touted as one of the largest of its kind in North
America by the company who installed the system, Phoenix-based Audio Video
Resources, Inc. (AVR), the video wall is supplemented by an
attention-grabbing 16:9 video screen powered by a 10,000 ANSI lumen,
high-definition digital projector situated over the entrance. Another
nineteen 50-inch high-definition plasma televisions and twelve video cubes
combine to make the casino's new addition one of the industry's more
formidable and enviable sound and video venues.
While it may look like a recipe for audio-visual integration and routing
confusion, the casino's AV system is blessed with a stout backbone that
makes it all somehow work. An essential part of that core is SymNet Audio
Matrix, the modular audio mixing, routing, and processing system from
leading audio products provider Symetrix, Inc.
Eight SymNet units, all housed in one of a dozen AV equipment racks in the
casino's dedicated equipment room, help make short work of the complex task
of directing the audio traffic generated by multiple audio/video sources and
routed to a multitude of loudspeakers and other output devices located
throughout the three distinct areas of the casino.
For AVR, the Phoenix systems integrator who worked with Seattle's Sparling
Technology Consulting Group to design and install the system for the
casino's 38,000 square-foot addition, SymNet proved the ideal method for
managing the complexities the system posed.
"The unique challenge we faced from an audio standpoint was the sheer
number
of sources," said Kevin Hodgson, AVR's lead design engineer for the project.
"One of the advantages SymNet offers over competing products is that its
comparatively short, wide bus design allows you to handle a lot more
channels. That offered a definite advantage to us because we had so many
sources that all needed to share. This was a much more cost-effective
solution than some of the others that we could have selected."
Two SymNet 8x8 DSP units do the system's heavy lifting. Designated as the
main processors for the casino's background music sources - CD and DVD
players, cassette decks, and VCRs - the two 8x8s employ eight analog inputs
and eight analog outputs to route audio signals to six QSC amplifiers that
power scores of loudspeakers situated in three zones, mostly hung from the
ceiling grid. In addition, the 8x8s also handle audio from five wireless
mics used to page patrons waiting for tables. The wireless also enables
walk-around employees to showcase winning customers and conduct spot
drawings.
"The two 8x8s do all the digital signal processing, providing one of SymNet's
real advantages: the ability to link everything together with up to 64 available
buses and the ability to pass control signals up and down stream," Hodgson
said. A third stand-alone 8x8 is dedicated to handling the background music
and paging in an 8,000-square-foot "link" building that connects the
new 38,000-square-foot casino area with the older tent that had been in operation
prior to the new phase. A total of six analog audio sends are directed from
the new tent area to the older tent area, and the building linking the two.
"We wanted them to be able to share pages, so we have analog audio sends
and returns that go between all three spaces," he said. "It's is set
up as another overlying audio ring."
Symetrix' SymNet Audio Matrixing System wide bus design easily
handles multiple sources at Scottsdale's Casino Arizona at Talking Stick.
The SymNet system also employs three BreakIn12 units to route audio from
video sources, including twenty Sony High-Definition Direct TV receivers and
eight standalone cable TV antenna tuners. The 12-input analog-to-digital
converters form a SymNet ring with the 8x8s via SymLink, the proprietary
64-channel audio and control data bus.
"The BreakIn12s do no processing or switching, but are just designed to
get
12 inputs into the processing ring, onto the bus and into the DSP box for
processing, switching and control," Hodgson said.
An additional BreakIn12 is dedicated to routing signals from C-band
receivers used to show live action from horse and dog racing tracks on
screens inside the casino. A separate BreakOut12 unit is used to route audio
to an internal CATV system used in the older casino area, from the satellite
TV system in the new addition.
Managed by an ethernet-based Crestron AV2 control system, the casino AV
system may represent one of the largest single SymNet deployments.
"I don't know of other install projects I've been involved with that has
this many SymNet units in one space," Hodgson said. "It's unique in
the fact
that it's a very sizeable installation. You can't go much bigger than what
we've done. We took full advantage of everything the system had, because the
project expanded beyond the original design, particularly in the area of the
C-band."
ABOUT SYMETRIX: For more information on professional audio signal processors
from Symetrix and Lucid, please phone (425) 778-7728 or refer to the Websites,
www.symetrixaudio.com and www.lucidaudio.com.
