Integrator Vega Technology and consultant Campbell Shillinglaw speak with Hurrairah bin Sohail about how they creatively worked with architecture and interior design to deliver AV systems at Ocean Park Marriott Hotel.
Real estate in Hong Kong has always been at a premium and hotels operating there have to make the most of the spaces they
have. The Ocean Park Marriott
Hotel, Hong Kong is an example
that points the way on how to
maximise the returns from your
venue by investing in the right
AV systems.
Vega Technology was
appointed as the integrator
while Campbell Shillinglaw was
selected as the consultant for the
Ocean Park Marriott Hotel
project. The AV professionals’
task was to ensure that the AV
systems across the three towers
of the Ocean Park Marriott Hotel
helped it perform its function.
The crown jewel at the hotel,
in terms of AV systems deployed,
is the main ballroom which
covers 1,200 square metres and
was designed with a pillar-free
layout.
A Leyard videowall comprising
4mm pixel pitch LED tiles and
measuring 3,600m x 11,280m is
the most eye-catching fixture of
the space. The premium display
serves as the focal point when
the ballroom is being used at full
capacity.
Alan Gui, senior designer at
Campbell Shillinglaw, says:
“It goes without saying that
quality was the first deciding
factor when selecting a suitable
product for the videowall. We
first narrowed the field down to
products that we thought had
great performance for indoor
applications. From here we
selected Leyard because it
differentiated itself from the
other options by having tiles
that had exceptional flatness.
Leyard’s software also gave us
control to adjust the frequency,
frames per second, colour and
other parameters according to
our needs.” The Leyard tiles have
been paired with Leyard cards
and processors to complete the
videowall system.
The size of the videowall was a
challenge and Alex Tam, project
manager for Vega Technology,
details: “The ceiling height for
the ballroom is 5m and the
highest point is 7m. When we
first began work on designing
and installing the videowall,
we quickly realised that it was
exceeding the 7m height. In
addition, the LED videowall was
very heavy and we felt that the
light-brick material support of
the walls was not sufficiently
sturdy to go for a wall mount.
We solved both problems by going
for a floor mount and created a
special rack to house the LED
videowall securely in place.”
Support from the manufacturer
was crucial as Tam continues:
“The suggestion for the floor
mount actually came from
Leyard. They came onsite to do
a survey, to do the calculations
for the floor mount of the LED
videowall and then identified a
solution that would be suitable.
The whole videowall is a
customised, bespoke solution
that all parties worked on
together to make possible.”
The ballroom at the Ocean
Park Marriott Hotel is also
designed to be multifunctional
and this is achieved with the
deployed AV systems. Tam says:
“The grand ballroom can be
divided or partitioned into four
smaller ballrooms. The client
wanted to have a flexible AV
system that could be easily
divided depending on different
scenarios that the spaces might
be used for. It was important that
this requirement be met and we
tried our best to meet it.”
A mixture of Panasonic and
Eiki projectors have been used
with Grandview projection
screens. The brightness levels of
the projectors have been chosen
in accordance with the size of the
individual compartments. The
projectors have been hidden
into the ceiling with Jomard
motorised elevators so as to not
clash with the interior décor of
the ballroom when they are not
in use.
Once again, the dimensions
and configuration of the
ballroom were a challenge that
the integrator and consultant
had to overcome. Tam says:
“There were cases where the
architecture posed a problem.
In particular, there were hanging
crystal lights which hung quite
low. This meant that the
projection poles had to be
suitably low as well so as to not
have the light fixtures disrupt the
projection. At a late stage of the
project, we also had to deal with a
door being added to the ballroom
and had to relook at the projector
placement and design.”
Video signals are managed and
routed by a Crestron DM-MD 16 x
16 matrix.
Audio in the grand ballroom
is provided by Community C4
speakers powered by QSC
CX204V amplifiers. A range of
Shure microphones are provided
for audio input and a Mackie
mixer manages them. The audio
signals are routed by a Symetrix
Radius AEC 12 x 8 DSP and
transmitted via Dante.
Gui says: “Dante is used
because we needed flexibility to
combine parts of the ballroom
as partitions are placed or taken
out. With this in mind, we chose
the Symetrix DSP because it
was most in-line with the open
protocol we were looking for.”
On the integrator side, the
choice of audio transmission was
also beneficial. Tam says: “Dante
allows many channels of audio to
be transmitted and received over
a single Ethernet cable. This
helps to ease the job of cabling
and also provides savings when it
comes to the cost of installation.”
A Crestron AV3 processor is
used to provide control over the
AV systems in the ballroom. Gui
details: “We chose the Crestron
control processor because of the
increased functionality when
pairing it with the Crestron
matrix.”
Apple iPads are used as touch
panels. Gui says: “Marriott had a
strict requirement to not have
any CCTV system in the ballroom
because the space will sometimes
be used for private or confidential
meetings. This meant that
controlling the AV systems from
the control room was not very
feasible. We decided to remedy
this by using the Apple iPads and
also by providing wall mount
controls in the ballroom itself.”
Lighting for the ballroom stage
is provided by Pearl PR-8201 LED
par lights as well as Pearl PR-2586
moving head spotlights. The
lighting system is managed from
an Avolites Pearl 2010 digital
lighting console.
Rounding out the AV systems
for the ballroom, the Ocean Park
Marriott Hotel has also been
furnished with a portable Televic
Confidea conference unit and
microphones.
Recapping the project, Tam
says: “There were engineering
challenges posed by the
architecture and the interior
design of the ballroom. We
needed to be agile with our
design and integration to handle
these. Besides that, the biggest
challenges we faced were
coordinating with the other
contractors working on the
project to ensure that everything
went smoothly.