Hurrairah bin Sohail discovers how Audio System Consultants Asia battled spaces constraints and added restrictions to fit out the ballroom at St. Regis in Hong Kong with premium AV.
Integrators and AV professionals have pointed to the hospitality sector in Hong Kong being one that provides
opportunities for growth as
the traditionally strong corporate sector experiences flux.
The St. Regis hotel in Hong Kong is a recently completed hospitality project delivered by Audio System Consultants Asia [ASCL] in the capacity of integrator with Shen Milsom & Wilke serving as the consultant.
Patrick Leung, sales and marketing director at ASCL, says: “St. Regis is a brand that is associated with luxury and prestige and these two aspects were extremely important for the AV component of the project. The design had to embody luxury and prestige while also following St. Regis’ global compliance rules and preference for brands.”
ASCL was charged with delivering AV systems for the main ballroom, conference room, presidential and deluxe suite and facilities for guest rooms along with digital signage and background music in public and outdoor spaces.
Those familiar with hospitality projects will be able to identify the ballroom as the space where most attention has been paid to the AV systems.
Double displays
Right off the bat, the main ballroom at the St. Regis hotel in Hong Kong sets itself apart from the competition due to the selection of displays.
The main display in the centre of a room is an LED videowall comprised of Liantronics R series PH 3.9 Nichia tiles.
Leung says: “Originally, the main display in the ballroom was
a 300-in projection. However, taking into account modern trends and also considerations for the space, the property owner decided to switch from laser projection to an LED videowall which is approximately the same size.”
The LED videowall is complemented with supporting projection displays on the sides of the ballroom. Panasonic PT-RZ970 and PT-RZ660 projectors display visuals on 180-in Draper projection screens. The projectors are all mounted onto motorised projector lifts to ensure that they seamlessly blend in with the interior design and deÌcor of the ballroom.
Regarding the challenges faced when it came to deploying the displays, Leung says: “The ballroom height is approximately three storeys which is higher than standard commercial
buildings. It was St. Regis’ specific aim to have that high vertical height and spatial aspect for the ballroom and to not have too much equipment taking up the space. However, this meant that there were added restrictions to how and where the AV systems could be deployed.”
He continues: “The MEP parts of the project, such as the air-conditioning, the electrical works and public alarm and fire evacuation components are all housed in the ceiling and we were competing with these other systems to find space for our speakers and projectors. It was quite difficult to find this space.”
At the same time, the chandeliers and light fixtures present made it difficult to deploy the projectors. Leung narrates: “Tangent projection screen was required and customised as the length of projection is lowered down from the motorised rack in order to cater for the big chandeliers that may block the views from the projection screens. The tangent of the projection screen is to ensure that projection screen is straight given the length when it is lowered down.”
Spectrum of sound
Audio in the main ballroom is provided by K-array line array speakers that flank the LED
videowall, with K-array subwoofers helping flesh out the lower frequencies.
Leung says: “Once again, the space to install the speakers was fixed and very tight. We specifically chose the K-array speakers for its slim design and for being able to deliver the audio we needed while still conforming to our space requirements.”
He continues: “But it wasn’t straightforward. We found that although the speakers fit the space, we could not use the original mount. So, we had to customise a mount for the speakers and we did this in collaboration with the other parties involved in the St. Regis project to make sure that the speakers could fit the space constraints.”
Tannoy and Electro-Voice ceiling speakers are used to completement the K-array speakers. Amplification is provided by Biamp Tesira and K-array amplifiers while processing duties are handled by integrated K-array processors.
A+V
The interesting aspect of the AV systems at St. Regis hotel in Hong Kong is the fact that both audio and video are transported over the network via AVB. Biamp Tesira Lux
encoders and decoders are used to achieve this.
Leung says: “The selection of AVB over Dante was easy because AVB allowed us to run both audio and video over the network. Dante might be more common but it is mostly used for carrying audio streams only.”
He continues: “We also wanted something that was based on a standard. A lot of manufacturers and brands will develop their own proprietary streaming products and include Dante into the product for the audio streaming component and there are advantages to this approach. But on the integrator side, it means that we have to be extremely careful with regards to how the system is set up to ensure that the audio and video is routed to the proper end point from the source and sometimes this can involve embedding and de-embedding audio streams from video and it can get complicated.”
According to Leung, AVB eliminated these issues: “AVB transmits audio and video over the same network. Any separation of audio and video that is required can be easily done and routing it to the end points with no synchronisation issues is easy. This is AVB’s greatest advantage.”