Rebounding from recession, business in Las Vegas is back on a growth track, with a resurgence in tourists, conventioneers and club-goers joined by an influx in residents who are drawn, not just by the casinos, but also by a revitalized downtown with an emerging arts scene and influx of high-tech startups.
Forlorn properties in valley neighborhoods dotted with foreclosure signs have been snapped up at bargain prices and spruced up, flipped or rented to a new wave of residents. And the newcomers aren’t just arriving from the colder climes in the Midwest and Northeast, as there’s an international surge in residents from as far away as Eastern Europe and Russia.
New construction projects — both municipal and private — are everywhere, rising from the ashes of a multi-year, recession-induced hiatus. Ikea couldn’t have timed its store opening last month more perfectly; the place has been packed for weeks.
Catering to the needs of the newly established locals, along with all their extended family and friends (who have a new excuse to hop a cheap flight and visit) is a growing roster of new or revamped hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
And the growth will continue. The Lucky Dragon is a 10-story Asian-themed hotel/casino/resort now under construction on Sahara Avenue, slated for completion later this year. Also on the drawing board: the first W Hotel on the strip, which will take over the SLS Lux tower at the existing SLS Las Vegas complex. Further out, the Enclave, a new 75,000-square-foot multi-function events venue, is set to open Jan. 2017. Enclave is designed to provide a wide array of facilities for corporate meetings, weddings, receptions, broadcasts, training and live entertainment.
With all this in mind, and InfoComm in town, we decided to look into a few current and ongoing audio installation projects that could only happen in Las Vegas.
Fremont Street Experience
The original site of “old” Las Vegas, the Fremont Street area — which first hit its “Glitter Gulch” heyday in the 1960’s — eventually began losing its luster as the mega hotels and casinos along the famed Las Vegas Strip began to draw more tourists and gamblers.
In the mid-90’s, seeking to draw more tourists into the area, the western-most five-block section of Fremont Street was closed to automobile traffic and was transformed into the Fremont Street Experience — a canopied pedestrian mall and attraction along the street in front of the major casinos.
Today, the 1,500-foot canopy has been transformed into Viva Vision, a $17-million overhead, monster-sized LED display that serves as a non-stop visual experience for onlookers craning their necks skyward. Along with the sequence of sound and light spectacles, visitors can try (or watch other tourists) flying overhead on the SlotZilla zip lines. There are also plenty of shopping options and live music coming from three stages — and, of course, a gauntlet of brightly lit casinos with doors opening onto the street to lure potential customers.
Italy-based speaker manufacturer RCF was recently awarded the contract to provide sound reinforcement for the upgrade and expansion of the Fremont Street Viva Vision LED display canopy. A total of 50 clusters — 350 total speakers — will be used in the installation. Each cluster is comprised of six HDL20-A dual 10-inch two-way active line array modules with one SUB8005-AS active 21-inch subwoofer.
The engineering team working on the audio upgrade for the main canopy consulted with RCF to design the custom clusters of the HDL20-A and SUB8005-AS elements with specific splay angles to optimize coverage for the crowds gathered below.
RCF’s speakers aren’t new to the area. Even before the speakers won the shootout with other manufacturer speakers considered for the upgraded canopy system, RCF speakers had been put to use for the three live venues used for free concerts between the regularly scheduled light and sound extravaganzas that take place as part of the Fremont Street Experience.
The main live entertainment stage is equipped with 18 TTL55-A dual-12-inch three-way active line arrays along with eight TTS56-A dual-21 active subwoofers and eight TT25-CXA wedge monitors. The second stage has 16 HDL20-A modules, eight SUB8006-AS dual-18 subs and five TT25-CXA monitors. A third stage features eight HDL20-A modules with four HDL18-AS 18-inch active subs flown plus three TTS36-A active dual-18 subwoofers on the ground.
Inside the Fremont Street Experience
- Capacity: Thousands
- Key Components: RCF HDL20-A line arrays; SUB8005-AS subs
- Integrator: RCF
- Designers: RCF
T-Mobile Arena
Owned by AEG and MGM Resorts International, the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is a world-class, $375 million, multipurpose entertainment venue available to host NBA and NHL teams, concerts, boxing, mixed martial arts, award shows and other major events. The 650,000-square-foot arena is set to host 150 events annually with a maximum seating capacity of 20,000.
Michael MacDonald, president of integrator ATK Audiotek, served as the project manager for the installation. The main six-cluster sound system that hangs next to the scoreboard was designed by Dallas-based system design and consulting firm, WJHW. The principal consultant was Scott Bray. The clusters consist of 72 JBL VTX V25-II elements and 36 JBL VTX S28 subwoofers powered by 18 Crown VRacks.
The system features cardioid subwoofer arrays that Bray designed specifically to direct the infrasonic energy toward the audience seating areas and away from hard wall surfaces and the roof structure.
This high-fidelity, high-output system for sports and other events can be reconfigured and redeployed as the primary sound system for music performances, or moved up into the scoreboard garage to clear the airspace for large-scale televised events.
“The VTX V25-II sounds great and has astounding output and bandwidth,” says MacDonald. “The collective opinion is this is one of the best acoustically designed and best-sounding arenas in the U.S. The acoustic treatment helps tame the usual challenges in a room this size,” he adds. “The coverage aligns well with the audience areas in the room, while keeping energy off the wall surfaces. System bandwidth is superior to most systems found in arenas, and it has a wide open natural sound that’s low in distortion, is easy to listen to and does not create fatigue for the audience.”
Inside the T-Mobile Arena
- Capacity: 20,000
- Key Components: JBL VTX V25-IIs, VTX S28 subs, Crown VRacks
- Integrator: ATK Audiotek
- Designer: WJHW
Jewel Nightclub
Jamie Foxx, the Chainsmokers, Drake and Lil’ Jon were among the headliners performing the grand premiere weekend at the new Jewel Nightclub at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, part of the Hakkasan Group. The club officially opened on May 19, 2016.
Built into the former space of the Haze Nightclub, the 24,000-square-foot Jewel Nightclub was designed by the renowned Rockwell Group and has a capacity of nearly 2,000 guests. The layout includes two intimate spaces, the main club and a mezzanine level with five exclusive VIP skyboxes. Whether a world-class DJ or performer takes the stage each night, the venue is a rare ambient delight, boasting a luxurious, yet modern atmosphere.
In the main club, more than 1,400 square feet of distinctive LED ribbons pulse to the music within Jewel’s circular dome ceiling. They serve as a visual centerpiece, encompassing the room. Jewel Nightclub’s owners turned to Dublin, Ireland-based AudioTek, an audio/video design firm with branch offices in Las Vegas and London, for the design and installation of the club’s new sound system.
With more than a quarter-century of industry experience, AudioTek’s projects have ranged from corporate boardrooms to live music venues and bars to the mega-club lounges, and the AudioTek brand is particularly well known among owners and operators of late-night entertainment venues. AudioTek has worked on a number of projects commissioned by Hakkasan in recent years, including the sound system now being used by the 75,000-square-foot, multi-story Omnia Nightclub at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which was completed last summer.
As with the Omnia project, AudioTek once again relied on an L-Acoustics system for Jewel’s high-end — and high roller — clientele. The system in the main room features L-Acoustics ARCS II constant curvature speakers (five per side) with coaxial 12XTi speakers handling outfill duties to cover the final few seats. Given the venue’s DJ-oriented entertainment, AudioTek selected eight L-Acoustics double-18 SB28 subwoofers to ensure ample bottom-end punch, with the entire mains and sub rig driven by L-Acoustics LA8 amplifiers. DJ monitors are comprised of six L-Acoustics KARAi modular line source speakers with SB18i subs, again powered by LA8 amps.
The audio design was a joint design by AudioTek UK’s Chris Kmiec and L-Acoustics Dan Orton using Sound Vision. “The main boxes were placed left/right so as to allow a coherent sound source from the front of the room over the dance floor and onto/under the balcony, where delays were positioned,” says Kmiec. Due to the number of seats around the DJ booth at the front of the room, the only space restriction was the subwoofer position. This led into a mono-block sub arrangement under the raised DJ booth.
“Both the client and ourselves have used L-Acoustics on many projects before and been impressed by both the product and the support, and this is reflected again on the riders of our artists who also regularly request the brand,” Kmiec says. “The final result sounds fantastic.”
Inside the Jewel Nightclub
- Capacity: 2,000 total
- Key Components: L-Acoustics ARCS II, 12XTi and KARAi fills
- Integrator: AudioTek
- Designers: Chris Kmiec and Dan Orton
More to Come
The Lucky Dragon is a 10-story Asian-themed hotel/casino/resort now under construction on Sahara Avenue, and is slated for completion later this year. Also on the drawing board, planned for the third quarter of 2016, is the first W Hotel on the strip, which will take over the SLS Lux tower at the existing SLS Las Vegas complex.
Further out, with a grand opening planned for January 2017, is the Enclave, a new 75,000-square-foot multi-function events venue. Enclave is designed to provide a wide array of facilities for corporate meetings, conferences, trade shows, weddings, receptions, broadcasts, training and live entertainment.
While we can’t tell you how to gamble in Sin City, the word is that there’s a whole lotta building going on. And you can bet on that.
