South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa on the Las Vegas Strip recently completed a new facility specifically designed to host professional bowling tournaments and competitions, part of a larger project that also includes two new equestrian arenas, all outfitted with QSC amplifiers, loudspeakers and Q-Sys networking.
The facility chose QSC based on previous experience with the products as well as the ability to integrate all of the audio systems across the entire property.
“This is a fairly large facility and we have a lot of different kinds of events that come through throughout the year,” states Jason Lein, South Point’s production manager. “We needed something with a flexible backbone that would allow us to quickly and easily change room combinations, configure paging and program source material and automatically adjust volume levels as ambient noise level in the venue changes. Q-Sys and the associated peripherals met all those needs.”
When the resort opened in 2006, South Point selected QSC WideLine and Basis for the main show room, and then subsequently utilized a Q-Sys Core 500i network processor, CX Series amplifiers and AcousticDesign In-ceiling loudspeakers to handle paging and PA for the addition of a new Arena and Equestrian Center.
“We started out just with a QSC WideLine 10 system in the showroom with a Basis 914lz processing on the front end, and since then we have upgraded all our back end gear to Q-Sys as well,” explains Lein.
Completely designed and installed by Lein and the staff at South Point, the new bowling center and arena expansion system includes a Q-Sys Core 500i with half-a-dozen Q-Sys I/O frames and more than 20 QSC CXD-Q power amplifiers that drive a variety of QSC AcousticPerformance and QSC AcousticDesign loudspeakers.
The use of CXD-Q amplifiers, designed specifically for use with the Q-Sys platform and utilizing RJ45 interconnects, enabled a quick and trouble-free connection of CXD-Q on the venue’s Q-LAN network.
With about 120 days of planned operation in 2015, 210 days in 2016 and nearly 320 days of planned operation in 2017 to support the events such as the Teen Masters, the PBA World Series of Bowling, USBC Women’s Championships and USBC Open Championships among the dozens of other PBA regional events and tournaments, South Point wanted a “turnkey” system that offered advance routing options and could be configured on the fly.
As with the previous Q-Sys install, Lein cited the ability to create custom user control interfaces (UCIs) that can be deployed on wireless devices as a major benefit. “Whatever the event is our production staff can quickly setup an appropriate audio configuration tailored for the event’s needs and make adjustments from anywhere within the venue,” he notes. “This saves us a tremendous amount of time and hassle.”
He also cites QSC’s comprehensive architectural audio product line and the flexible Q-Sys network audio platform with its Layer-3 network configuration as a key consideration. “Q-Sys is hands down the best, most flexible faculty processor in the market today,” he concludes. “Combine that with the CXD-Q amplifiers that seamlessly integrate onto the Q-LAN network, tuning and presets and that also feature presets and tunings specifically for QSC loudspeakers and then add QSC loudspeakers on top of that and you get a system with unmatched flexibility, power, fidelity and reliability.”