Discover how ihD and IAV delivered modern technology systems at the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre. Hurrairah bin Sohail reports.
Bringing an idea to life is a difficult endeavour and the journey can come with speed bumps. When ihD first came on board to the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre project, as the consultant for the installation, the development’s operator had not yet been confirmed. This meant the design team had to draw on industry knowledge and convention centre best practices to start framing a solution while keeping in mind that the system could evolve down the line.
Josh Ting, AV consultant at ihD, says: “There was no operator at the concept and detailed design stage. Fortunately, the client was quite open to ideas drawn from other convention centres and the latest industry trends. The overall process at concept stage was quite smooth, but things became more complex as we moved into detailed design and budgeting.”
A brief and a budget gap
The convention centre sits within a larger mixed-use development that encompasses a hotel, a retail shopping mall spanning levels one and two, and residential components. ihD was engaged across all three sections, with the convention centre being the first to be completed and handed over.
The completed convention hall occupies the upper floors of the development and is divisible into five individual rooms, offering the flexibility to host everything from corporate conferences and seminars to banquets and concerts. Level three adds 10 meeting rooms with a further eight to 10 rooms earmarked for a second phase once the operator sees sufficient return on investment. VIP rooms, pre-function spaces, and a landscaped garden area opening onto the convention hall, along with a generous arrival lobby at ground floor.
Bringing the operator on board partway through the process created a significant design pressure point. A Korean convention centre operator, KinMalaysia Management, was selected and its arrival triggered an extensive value engineering exercise. Crucially, the technology team’s interpretation of value engineering was not about cutting corners.
Ting says: “When we came to the value engineering exercise, we were not talking about reducing quality, but more about streamlining the entire solution.”
One notable change involved the main hall’s audio ambitions. The original concept had catered to concert use cases, complete with a surround-sound line array configuration designed to deliver immersive spatial audio across the space. Following discussions with the incoming operator, the brief was rationalised, and the speaker configuration in the main hall was left open. The operator chose to retain flexibility for rental production rigs depending on the event type.
One of the more unexpected challenges came from the structural side. By the time ihD was engaged at concept stage, the building was already under construction meaning that the hanging point loads required for convention-scale AV rigging had not been factored into the original structural calculations.
Ting recalls: “Most of the consultants, including the structural engineers, were quite surprised. They did not expect that kind of loading requirement for the convention hall. We had to do a lot of calculation on AV equipment, including decorative equipment that might be used in different event configurations, and run through all the loading requirements in detail.”
The ihD team worked through the calculations to satisfy the structural engineers and ensure sufficient provision for AV was incorporated into the convention centre.
Tech backbone
The arrival lobby LED videowall provides the convention centre with a visual centrepiece for welcoming delegates.
The technology backbone of the convention centre is a converged AV/IT network built on Cisco switching infrastructure, running 10-gigabit uplinks throughout. For ihD, a converged network is a default design philosophy: the firm also served as IT consultant on the project, and its view is that AV systems should sit within the IT infrastructure rather than run in parallel to it.
Ting explains: “If there is good IT infrastructure, every AV system can be part of the converged network. The entire convention centre, retail, and future hotel AV systems are under the IT infrastructure.”
Audio networking runs over Dante, with a Dante Domain Manager solution applied to segregate devices into specific domains. Video is handled by Crestron NVX AV-over-IP encoders and decoders, providing high-resolution video distribution.
Control system traffic operates over the shared IT infrastructure. Getting the operator to accept this architecture was, however, far from straightforward. When the operator came on board, their instinct was to insist on physical network separation. This is not uncommon in hospitality, where IT teams are cautious about blending operational AV with the guest and corporate networks.
Ting elaborates: “Initially they were quite reluctant. They still preferred physical network separation. We spent three to four months convincing them and running through all the security compliance, PCI requirements, camera monitoring, VLAN segregation, and bandwidth planning for every device.”
The payoff for that negotiation is significant operational flexibility. With near-complete Wi-Fi coverage across all public areas, including VIP rooms, corridors, pre-function lobbies, and the arrival hall, operators and event staff can manage background music, system status, and AV control from anywhere in the building via iPad. Control is no longer tethered to a fixed operator position inside the function space.
Integrator difference
IAV was brought on board as the system integrator through a pre-qualification process. The firm had previously delivered projects with ihD and has an established reputation, but this was the first convention centre collaboration between the two companies.
Sandhi Soong, senior sales manager from IAV, says: “From our experience, the design is of high standards and comparable to that of many hospitality and convention centre projects we have successfully delivered. During the early stages we submitted a lot of design drawings for consultant approval to make sure everything met the requirements of the operator, the client, and ihD’s design intent. Only once everything was approved did we proceed with site cabling and equipment orders.”
Based out of Kuala Lumpur, IAV ensured delivery in Penang would not be an issue by establishing local contacts and stationing its own manpower on site. Local partners assisted in tasks such as cabling works and these relationships ensured that IAV could respond rapidly to any site urgent requests from the main contractor.
The contract was awarded relatively late in the construction programme, giving IAV an initial window of approximately five months to complete the full AV fit-out. Subsequent construction delays ultimately provided additional time, but the team’s approach throughout was to treat the timeline as tight. IAV ordered long-lead items well in advance and managed equipment arrivals carefully to avoid delays.
Hybrid provision
The 10 meeting rooms on level three are designed to the latest operational expectations for a modern venue. BYOD connectivity is supported throughout, and every room is provisioned for hybrid and virtual events. This was a deliberate decision to ensure the convention centre can market itself as a conferencing destination capable of supporting live-streaming and remote participation from day one.
Each meeting room is equipped with a dedicated PTZ camera and wired microphone infrastructure, with portable conference table microphone systems available for event-specific deployment. Like the convention hall, the meeting rooms are configured as flexible, non-fixed spaces. There are no permanent tables or seating arrangements, with furniture and portable equipment laid out according to each booking’s requirements.
Audio business
Audio signal processing runs on a QSC Q-SYS platform, with Powersoft amplifiers chosen to drive the loudspeaker systems across the various spaces. The decision to go with a third-party standalone amplifier manufacturer was driven by the fact that the project incorporates multiple loudspeaker brands across different zones, and Powersoft’s ability to store and recall presets for different speaker types made it the practical choice for an installation of this complexity.
Ting notes: “We were not always sure which speaker would be in which zone. And in the landscape areas, corridor ceilings, and meeting rooms, there are different brands deployed. Powersoft gave us the flexibility to manage all of them from a single amplification platform.”
Fixed loudspeakers installed in the space include Bose EdgeMax units and QSC ceiling speakers. Wireless microphone systems are a mix of Shure QLXD and SLXD, while the main hall retains an open provision for production audio. Rental line arrays and front-of-house systems can be brought in by event production teams as required.
Doing more
One of the less visible but operationally important elements of the AV design is the integrated broadcast and production provision built into both the convention hall and the meeting rooms. The system is ready for recording teams and live streaming providers, with output connections distributed to enable rapid setup without running additional cabling for each event. OB van connectivity is also built in. Broadcast vehicles from major production companies can patch directly into the convention centre infrastructure. It is a level of production readiness that reflects the aspirations of the convention centre to be a venue not just for meetings and banqueting events, but as a destination capable of hosting broadcast-quality productions.
Since handover, ihD made a return site visit to run through the systems with the venue’s local AV team. The feedback from the on-site AV manager was encouraging. While the hardware was acknowledged to be complex, the iPad-based control interface made day-to-day operation accessible to non-specialist staff.
Ting reports: “They said the system looks complicated from the hardware side, but through the iPad it is very user friendly. IAV spent a lot of time on the control system GUI, running through all the operation requirements and making sure everything was as easy as possible for the operator.”
The broader development — including hotel and retail spaces — remains a work in progress. But in the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre, the city now has a technology-forward venue ready to compete for regional convention and event business, underpinned by a modern and effective AV/IT architecture.