We’ve wrapped up another exciting project here at Fluid Sound. This one was for a returning client—The Lot. We’ve worked with the owners of The Lot on three previous occasions: when they needed an audiovisual integrator for each of their three Southern California locations in La Jolla, Liberty Station, and Fashion Island.
This is The Lot’s first Northern California location, and it’s impressive! It’s part of a new upscale shopping, dining, and entertainment center in the city of San Ramon called City Center Bishop Ranch. The Bay Area mall was designed by renowned “Starchitect” Renzo Piano, and The Lot is considered the flagship venue of the City Center.
While we normally work with clients in and around the San Diego area, we were very happy to work with the developers of The Lot again as their audio video integrators for their Bay Area location. Their venues are exciting and innovative and we love being a part of helping them execute their vision.
Like the three other locations of The Lot, the San Ramon venue has both a restaurant/bar and a luxury movie theater. The 10 auditoriums feature leather recliners and in-theater food and drink service. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a modern, yet relaxed setting, and the sophisticated bar and the more casual café offer additional options for patrons to enjoy the new venue.
A Video Wall, Multiple Digital Displays, and State-of-the-Art Sound Technology Help Create a Dynamic Environment
Like with the previous three venues of The Lot, Fluid Sound was tasked with the audiovisual integration of this new facility. The movie theaters received NEC projectors, as well as NEC displays for digital signage at the entrance to each auditorium. The theater’s box office also got four NEC displays that feature general movie information and show times. Since the auditoriums will also be used for private events and meetings, our team made it possible for users to connect their laptops or mobile devices and have their content displayed on the movie screens. Those presentations can also be broadcast into any of the other theaters or on the video displays in the bar area.
Speaking of the bar area, here, our team installed nine 55-inch NEC displays to form a 3×3 video wall, and also a separate NEC display to be used as digital signage for food and beverage sales. The video wall has three display modes: it can show a single large image across all nine screens, or it can display nine separate images on each of the nine screens, or it can show one large image across four of the screens plus five smaller, independent images on the remaining five displays.
For the audio system in the venue, the owners were looking for a rich, warm sounding system with the ability to achieve “nightclub” sound levels. Tapped horn subwoofers made by Danley Sound Labs were selected due to their ability to produce a very deep bass from a physically small cabinet. Their small size allowed the subwoofers to blend in seamlessly with the bar and restaurant’s décor. The 25-foot ceiling height in the bar and restaurant meant that the ceiling loudspeakers needed to have a very narrow coverage pattern to properly focus the audio in the intended area to help minimize sound reflections and increase the intelligibility of the audio.
Utilizing Video Over IP for Video Distribution
One thing we did differently in this location of The Lot was change the way the video is distributed throughout the venue. In the previous three locations, we used traditional video switches and matrices. In this venue, however, we decided to go with video over IP devices from Just Add Power. This setup allows all of the video inputs to be routed to any of the video displays in the facility, without the need for a traditional physical video matrix router.
The setup needed to be user-friendly, giving the venue manager the ability to control the audio and video output, as well as the lighting and HVAC from a centralized location. The Crestron-controlled system we set up allows the operator to easily regulate these aspects of the venue from an iPad or a hard-wired Crestron touch panel.
Contact Fluid Sound for AV Integration in San Diego
Working with clients like The Lot gives the team at Fluid Sound the opportunity to help create exciting and innovative spaces that are admired and enjoyed by many. But we get just as excited when we help other types of companies and organizations improve their San Diego facilities with audiovisual technology. Let Fluid Sound help take your conference room, training facility, or command center to the next level by utilizing the latest in AV innovations. Contact us today to learn more about what’s possible!