A Club With A Mission
Entertainment Install
Naples, Florida is not your grandmother’s retirement location anymore. Over the last few decades, the city’s population has morphed from retirees into younger couples with families. With this demographic shift have come establishments that cater to the needs and wants of the younger, hipper set. “The entire demographic of Naples has changed; the average age is now 42,� said Bryant Yunker, owner of the new SWAY Lounge in Naples, who “retired� to Naples at the age of 35 after 15 years in New York. Yunker named the lounge after a VJ from MTV, and liked that SWAY had several connotations to it.
With the intention of bringing South Beach and New York City nightlife to Naples, SWAY offers patrons five different themed nights per week. Each of these nights, the club must transform itself accordingly using AV and lighting installed by Accent Electronic Systems Integrators, a custom systems integrator for specialty markets for residential and commercial in Bonita Springs, Florida. Wednesday is “Sex in the City� night, playing off the theme from the popular HBO show set in New York; Thursday is SWAY’s jazz night, where the high-end modular furniture is rearranged to give patrons the feeling of being in their living room. Friday and Saturday feature high energy DJ spinning music from SWAY’s DJ booth.
The open, industrial space is designed by renowned contemporary architect Mark Leonardi of Naples. “He designed the space with a great mezzanine; it’s very inviting and voyeuristic,â€? said Yunker. “SWAY also features art that plays off the name, including a 60′ x 30′ aluminum and fiberglass sculpture of a maple tree made by a local artist that rises through the center of lounge roof up to the sky bar.â€?
SWAY is a multi-level lunge with a VIP lounge area, balcony and DJ booth on the second floor. The DJ booth is situated over the bar area so the occupant can see the entire first floor. On the first floor, several recessed niches offer patrons the chance to lounge in beds; some hidden from view with pull-down shades.
“The architect uses clean lines and metal finishes,� said Curt Ross, president of Accent, who has worked with Leonardi on past projects. “He especially likes to influence his spaces with detail in lighting and sound.� Total AV budget for the year-long project was $200,000 and included several facets like lighting control, video projection, background music, DJ booth, and surveillance system.
Audio and Lighting Control
The lounge’s house lighting system uses theatrical track lighting (Lucifer) installed throughout the open-beam ceiling. Accent installed two sets of lights broken down into sixteen zones, with one track equaling over 15,000 watts. “There are ten times more house lights than necessary so that there are no hotspots,� said Ross. “Perhaps it is overkill but the lighting bathes the lounge an even pool of light.� As for his lighting requirements, Yunker explained: “I designed the club for what I wanted. I wanted it to look like Miami or New York, a higher price point than what you would typically find in Naples.�
Lighting control by Crestron provides individual fixture control within each zone; Yunker can use the programmed presets but can also tweak the lighting depending on the mood. SWAY represented the largest Crestron lighting control installation completed to date by Accent, with Ross and his team using the Crestron PAC2 automation control system with Ethernet, one Crestron C2ENET-1 single port Ethernet card for 2-Series control systems, eight Crestron CNX-B8W eight-button keypads, and one Crestron TPS-3100LB Isys 6.4″ touchpanel. Crestron automation enclosures included three CAEN-7X2 7 modules high x 2 modules wide enclosures and one CAEN-7X1 7 modules high x 1 module wide enclosure.
“Using quality products like Crestron, we were able to create a control center at the Lower Bar area using a 10� TPS-4000L touchpanel. Using that touchpanel, we were able to give Bryant control of all lighting fixtures,� said Ross. “Before he decided he wanted a lighting control system, he had requested that all the light switches be located at one place at the Lower Bar. There would have been twenty-eight light switches not including the keypads for the music control system. The end result is a multi panel Crestron system that is much more manageable and robust.�
Integrated with the Crestron lighting control is a DBX ZonePro 1260 processor to provide multi-zone audio control. Similar to the lighting programming, the audio is preset to certain scenes depending on the evening’s events. “The lounge setting means that lighting and audio are low-key, whereas the dance night setting defaults to the DJ booth,� said Ross. “The ZonePro allows us to do volume presets but we can still bypass the presets if necessary. We’re impressed with the flexibility of the DBX software. Using the ZonePro, we can control the settings in each of the five audio zones separately. Additionally, several DBX ZC.8 keypads are installed in each zone for in-room audio control.�
For emergency situations, the system has a built-in “audible shutdown” using the DBX fire module. This allows for an automatic ducking of a live audio signal for emergency announcements and instructions.
The sound system was designed to provide a phenomenal amount of sound coverage, using the same technique as the lighting scheme. JBL Professional Control Contractor loudspeakers were installed to cover every square inch of the lounge with evenly distributed sound coverage. Eight JBL Control 28s provide background music for the main floor. For high energy dance nights, four EAW Avalon DCS2 subwoofers in custom enclosures that double as an elevated stage for professional club dancers and four EAW MK516 loudspeakers suspended from the beam ceiling are used to supplement the system. DBX 233 crossovers are used for the EAW subwoofers.
Throughout the rest of the space, eight JBL Control 26CT recessed loudspeakers provide sound coverage in the bathrooms and hallways. A total of sixteen JBL Control 28T-60 loudspeakers cover the terrace, study, VIP room and roof garden/sky bar.
The control room on the second floor houses all Middle Atlantic equipment racks and the DJ equipment, including three (Technics) turntables, a (Pioneer DJM-800) mixer, and a Yamaha DVD750 DVD/CD player. Crown CT series amplifiers, a client-owned computer and a Sirius satellite radio receiver are also located in the control room.
Video Projection
Video projection and display images are shown on a custom-built 120� piece of Plexiglas built into a frame. The $10,000 Plexiglas display screen is covered on both sides with the Dayview LCD Projection Film from Pro DISPLAY. The Dayview laminate consists of a liquid crystal polymer which can change its appearance when an electrical current is activated. The film is applied to any glass panel using special optical glue. Once in position, the glue is cured using a radiating UV lamp, which bonds the film to the glass surface. The edge of the film has an electrical contact strip which transforms the film from transparent to frosted translucent using an ON / OFF switch.
The film can turn any panel into either a front or rear high definition projection display. The film laminate is designed for rear projection applications, but using a special reflective film on the opposite side of the glass will turn it into a front projection surface. According to the manufacturer’s web site, Dayview LCD Projection Film is made to a customer’s required size. The maximum single panel is 980mm x 2600mm; for a large surface area, panels are joined together to create a virtually seamless display.
SWAY uses two Runco (710LT) projectors with an Aurora Multimedia (DIDO PRO) digital scaler, processor and switcher. Ross explained: “The display is mobile and hooks up to one of two hang points when they want to use it. The challenge was getting the right projectors for the room and aiming them for both locations. Prior to receiving the Plexiglas display, the projectors were aimed with cardboard cutouts hung at each point.�
The lounge’s closed circuit television system (CCTV) is a Honeywell (HRHD16C500) DVR system with 32 high-resolution (Honeywell Night Hawk HCD82) IR cameras.
Yunker noted: “The biggest challenge for the overall project was the acceptance of the club in this town. We had an issue with permits so our six month time frame turned into 15 months.� He also noted that SWAY “lucked out� with good acoustics. The lounge recently held a fundraising event featuring an acoustic set by Gavin Degraw.
Technology Sidebar: Crestron’s PAC2 Professional Automation Control System
Built upon Crestron’s reliable 2-Series control engine, the PAC2 is extensively programmable using Crestron’s suite of powerful development software and vast database of drivers and software modules. The PAC2 works seamlessly with Crestron’s entire line of lighting dimmers and shade controls, keypads and touchpanels, thermostats, wireless gateways, control cards, and expansion modules
The PAC2 provides for the integration of non-Crestron devices and subsystems through a host of control interfaces. Eight isolated relays and eight I/O Versiports are built in to accommodate motion sensors, contactors, door strikes, and other low-voltage controls. Additional relays, I/O ports, RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, IR, and MIDI interfaces can be added by installing up to two Y-Bus control cards. Crestron also offers a full line of expansion modules to facilitate the placement of serial COM ports, relays, DTMF interfaces, and shade controllers at any location throughout a residence or commercial facility.
Sidebar Photo: Hi-res photo located at the bottom of this page: http://www.crestron.com/products/show_products.asp?type=commercial&cat=14&subcat=1071&id=1034
