USA - Owned and operated by the Muscogee Nation, the River Spirit Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma is a premier entertainment destination offering a range of gaming, dining and live entertainment experiences. Among its highlights is the new Gridiron Sportsbar, the largest sports viewing bar in the State.
Headquartered in Ireland and London, AV design specialists, Audiotek, were introduced to the project by builders and fabricators i5 Design and were tasked with designing and installing a new, advanced audio and video (IPTV) system throughout the space, which also incorporates two TopGolf swing suites (golf simulators), the Locker Room banquet suite and VIP lounge.
The system needed to support a variety of content, from live sports broadcasts to special events, with consistently reliable and high-quality audio and video. AV-over-IP services needed to be integrated with the existing network infrastructure.
Led by project manager Chris Kmiec, working with design colleagues Ash Attwood and Darren Pavitt, this was the second casino project in short succession in which Audiotek has been involved within the world of Native American gaming, having recently completed a similar installation at the Potawatomi Casino Hotel in Wisconsin. As with that project, they sub-contracted Martin Audio US-based partner, CCCP to assist with the integration.
The audio design was again critical, as managing sound levels in a bustling, high-energy sports bar environment posed challenges in minimising echo and maintaining speech intelligibility.
However, Audiotek were able to satisfy all their sound reinforcement requirements from the Martin Audio portfolio. Their solution was to specify 40 of Martin Audio’s C8.1T 8in full-range ceiling speakers and 16x SX110 subwoofers, concealed in the ceiling, to distribute the sound evenly and intelligibly around the various zones in the vast space.
In the Locker Room – a private dining and meeting space – a pair of Martin Audio FlexPoint FP15, set left and right of the video screen, are all powered by a combination of Dante-enabled multichannel iKON and Linear Research DSP amplifiers. They all run on a Dante backbone processed and controlled via Q-SYS architecture.
Stated Chris Kmiec: “We selected Martin Audio, due to a very strong worldwide relationship with the Martin Audio team and Audiotek. Our experiences with Dom Harter, Dan Orton and Brad Stephens go back 20 years, and we trust them to deliver every time.
“The range of Martin Audio products keeps getting better and better, and we were able to choose the perfect product for each requirement in the design – it’s a one-stop shop for everything that the size of a casino would need. In addition, the brand is strong in the States; they are easy to deal with, the products always sound good and the supply is the quickest of any supplier we’ve got.”
He said the conversion of the pre-existing space into a sports bar had been a case of moving with the times. “The traditional casino buffet is no longer used, and sports betting is rapidly becoming legalised across the US.
“The overall solution developed by the team for this space maximised flexibility and functionality while maintaining both the quality and value required by the client.”
i5 Design were equally complimentary. “Once again, our partnership with Audiotek has resulted in an extremely good result for the client, as well as the team on site being a pleasure to work with,” concluded i5 Design’s Daniel Scamman.
