- This past summer, The Venetian Las Vegas embraced the art of 3D projection mapping during its Carnevale festival by premiering a nightly show animating the facade of its clock tower, a replica of the one in Venice's Piazza San Marco.
The show, known as "Light of Venice," was the first of 10 short commissioned son et lumiereworks conceived by projection artist Ross Ashton who teamed up with London-based UnitedVisualArtists Ltd. and Tucson, Arizona's Darling Ltd. on the creative implementation. AVDB Group of Las Vegas further supplied the technical components of the production, including a new L-ACOUSTICS ARCS II system.
Hidden behind a scrim to preserve architectural appearances during the day and not interfere with the video mapping at night, eight ARCS II enclosures are positioned in a horizontally oriented constant curvature array at the feet of the Madonna and Child statue located above the clock face. Three SB18i subs per side are stacked behind acoustically transparent doorways on the far left and right edges of the array, and three LA8 amplified controllers collectively power all enclosures.
"Our Venetian Showroom uses an original ARCS system and we've been impressed with its overall audio quality," said Paul Vella, Venetian/Palazzo director of technical operations, audio visual services. "So when Tyrone Kelley, my assistant director, and I were researching manufacturers' product specs looking for a low-profile box for our clock tower, we were pleased to see that the ARCS II with its improved K1 drivers stood out because of its coverage pattern and audio bandwidth, especially when coupled with its sub counterpart, the SB18.
"Even though the ARCS II array is really quite small, its coverage pattern predicted in SOUNDVISION was impressive. In fact, when the consultants looked at our initial model, none of them believed it would cover as well as the software predicted, so they recommended that we modify our design with some supplementary systems. But when the system was fired up for the first time, they agreed that no change was needed
"So far, there's been nothing but compliments. The audio is intelligible and crisp, even in coverage over a throw of nearly 200 feet. The people in the closest patios are getting the same clarity as those on the canal bridge and even those out on the driveway. Our executive staff at the Venetian and Palazzo has very high expectations for audio here at the property. They’ve been impressed with the results we've been able to achieve with L-ACOUSTICS."
