Michael Cusick, a veteran systems designer who heads up Specialized Audio-Visual Inc. (SAVI), based in Clifton Park, New York, regularly works with a global customer base, formulating audio, video and affiliated systems for a diverse range of venues and applications. One project of note is One of his latest projects features an impressive application of leading-edge technology at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, a 12,000-seat arena adjacent to the resort and casino of the same name on the Las Vegas strip.

The Events Center also houses a number of subsidiary rooms, used for meetings and small conventions, as well as for press conferences at big events like prize fights. All of these spaces, as well as concourses, dressing rooms and restrooms, were all included in the systems designs created by Cusick, and now are under the control of Karl 'Lugus' Lugmeier, chief system operator.

A perspective of the Events Center

"From the outset, the customer made it very clear that the Events Center is an entertainment venue much more than a sports facility," Cusick explains. "One of their primary goals is to use the arena as a marketing tool to garner as much exposure for Mandalay Bay as possible. As a result, one of our challenges on the design side was formulating the best, most convenient broadcast facilities, to attract as many television broadcasters as possible.

Given a choice, and there are a lot of choices in Las Vegas, we want them to choose the Events Center as their preferred place to do a broadcast."

The project marked one of the first networking applications of a Peavey Electronics MediaMatrix digital signal processing, matrixing and routing system. Two MediaMatrix mainframes are on an in-house network, along with a Crown IQ System for remote control and monitoring of the arena audio system's power amplifiers.

In the formative design stages, Cusick was already evaluating possibilities of being able to control the arena system from several locations in the facility. During this process, he began discussions with Peavey, which was just finishing development of a Windows NT operating system platform for MediaMatrix. (Previously it utilized a stand-alone Windows 3.1 platform.) With Windows NT, MediaMatrix could be placed on a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) with access points throughout the venue.

The control system made up of MediaMatrix and IQ Technologies

"Windows NT with MediaMatrix opens up so many possibilities for control from multiple locations," Cusick says. "We decided that this was the best way to achieve our goal, which was to achieve control of the system from any appropriately outfitted computer that could be plugged into the network at dozens of points." Two primary system control positions were established. The main position is located in a secured room behind the arena's main lower concourse, home to one of the MediaMatrix mainframes and most other audio, video and broadcast system components.

The other primary control position resides in a room on the press level, housing the other MediaMatrix mainframe. Both of these locations are outfitted with two workstations providing complete access to either mainframe.

Access can also be attained at 32 "A/V plugging boxes" strategically positioned around the facility, each linked via Ethernet back to both mainframes. As a result, system operators can check and modify the system from virtually anywhere in the building by plugging in a laptop PC. Most recently, wireless Ethernet capability has been added, with the laptop PC equipped with a PCM/CIA card capable of transmitting upwards of 300ft. to a wireless Ethernet access point, plugged in via a CAT-5 connection at any of the A/V plugging boxes.