2018 Installs of the Year

Manufacturers are continually recognized for their latest innovations—be it a glowing review in a magazine or a more formal award presentation. But integrators are often the unsung heroes of the AV world. You spend hours perfectly aligning that video wall, staying late getting the audio pitch perfect, you make technology just simply work. While a botched installation gets a lot of attention, the best ones go unrecognized because they function perfectly. That hard work did not go unnoticed by SCN—we’re saluting the top AV installations of 2018. Kudos to you, the installer, on a job well done.

Carnival Cruise Line

Long Beach, CA

Spinitar helped turn Carnival Cruise Line’s newly refreshed Long Beach Cruise Terminal in to a storybook California experience for cruising passengers. Within the walls of the historic dome (formerly home to the Spruce Goose seaplane), Spinitar was able to design and build an AV solution that guides passengers from land to sea and back again in record time with the use of wayfinding technology. Staged throughout the dome, LG Electronics 1080p LCD displays are used for digital signage, wayfinding, and cruise line information, making it easy for passengers to navigate through the terminal. A multi-zoned Bose audio system is in place to play live or pre-recorded messages from the clients furnished phone system to any or all zones, and Biamp’s Vocia serves as the facilities multi-purpose paging system. The Crestron control and network-based routing system unites the technology, making it easy for the client to access over their wireless network using a desktop, iPad, or smartphone.

Stony Brook University

Long Island, NY

At Stony Brook University, the largest conference room on campus is located in the school’s Computer Science department, and it needed a serious communication system upgrade. The department also wanted to add a video wall to its main lobby. To bring the conference room's communication capabilities up to speed, a ClearOne Beamforming Mic Array 2 was installed and perfectly addressed the previous echo issues. In smaller rooms, ClearOne UNITE 200 PTZ Cameras were installed to upgrade video conferencing capabilities. For the video wall, ClearOne’s VIEW Pro video processing and management solution allowed the department to do virtually anything with the displays. With these new enhancements, the university was able to make major upgrades quickly and cost-effectively—with the ability to add on more features in the future.

Eglin Air Force Base

Florida

The control room used by the U.S. Air Force's 96th Range Control Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base to designed to improve capabilities for monitoring and control of the base's Test and Training Range. RGB Spectrum's Zio AV-over-IP architecture was chosen by AVI-SPL, the project integrator, to provide secure AV-over-IP transmission. This included the ability to decode and display more than 150 live visuals from test range cameras integrated with sensor, telemetry, and tracking data. Key to the project, the Zio D2000 decoders handle multicast IP camera feeds of varying resolutions up to 4K. In addition, customizable presets allow operators to select incoming streams and easily arrange them into applicable groups for viewing.

United Shore Headquarters

Pontiac, MI

Walking into the new United Shore headquarters, guests are greeted with a custom LED display. Bluewater provided this and the rest of the AV throughout the state-of-the-art building. New spaces include: the auditorium, which will boast rear projectors, new audio, and Crestron control; the fitness center and full basketball court, with audio and monitors throughout; and 11 training rooms, all of which have a presentation area, control, and audio. Bluewater gave the same treatment to the cafeteria, security room, conference rooms, and the common areas throughout all three floors. In total, Bluewater installed over 175 displays and dozens of speakers throughout the building. The finished product is a completely tech-savvy office for the modern worker.

Pier 17

New York, NY

Pier 17 at Seaport District NYC is poised to be the next iconic New York City destination. A year-round public space that features restaurants, outdoor bars, and a venue for concerts, it’s also home to over 2,000 square feet of 4mm outdoor LED—installed and managed by ANC. The building’s two-story atrium space, which is one of the main arteries to the rooftop terrace, consists of an LED ceiling and three levels featuring ribbon displays. These displays are customized to fit the various heights and slants of each atrium level’s façade, creating a new type of experience as consumers are engaged with eye-catching visuals as they move from floor to floor. The media network also includes column displays that feature four flat sides which come seamlessly together at the corners without a gap, enabling content to transition from one column face to another without interruption. Controlled by ANC’s LiveSync operating system, the displays have the ability to feature individual content or synchronize together to act as one canvas.

Nolita Hall

San Diego, CA

The goal for the owners of the Nolita Hall Bar & Restaurant was to ensure their customers were entertained and engaged while visiting. For the entertainment part of this equation, an ELAN Entertainment & Control system was installed, which allows the staff to focus on running the 6,000-square foot venue without worrying about the AV technology. Because of the flexibility of ELAN, the staff is able to interface with the entire AV system—including multiple 165-inch screens paired with 14,000 laser projectors, a full professional audio system, and five thermostats—through the ELAN app on their iPhones and iPads, allowing them to respond to patron’s requests on the fly. The owners have remote access to the venue’s cameras to keep track of daily functions and be notified of details within the venue’s AV system.

Sprinklr Headquarters

New York, NY

As the social media management system for many brands, Sprinklr wanted its headquarters’ lobby to make a strong visual impression and to showcase its Sprinklr Displays as well as its work. The solution was a data visualization wall, utilizing eight Peerless-AV video wall mounts and eight 55-inch NEC monitors. Between the quick and easy installation, the quality of the products, and minimal challenges, the 16-foot-wide video wall was installed in just two short days.

Texas Live!

Arlington, TX

Texas Live!—a 200,000 sq. ft. dining, entertainment, and hospitality district nestled between the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park and the Dallas Cowboys AT&T Stadium—partnered with AVI Systems for its AV technology needs. The $250 million venue opened in August 2018 after a year of construction—a deadline that demanded commitment from everybody on the project. AVI Systems integrated a range of audiovisual solutions across various venues in the district. In the Live! Arena stands a 90-foot HD LED TV. AVI managed the video source routing, window processing, presets and control for the TV, all of which are designed to enhance the game-watching experience; the system can be split up a number of different ways to show games stats, replay footage, and more.

Medallia Global Headquarters

San Mateo, CA

Medallia needed to implement a scalable, easy-to-use conferencing system it could easily standardize for its meeting rooms—serving over 1,200 employees across more than 15 offices worldwide. The team at Teecom recommended QSC to deliver the full signal chain for audio reproduction: DSP, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. The Q-SYS Platform from QSC offered a scalable, IT-friendly approach to audio, video, and control and provided a simple way for Medallia to integrate Zoom and the rest of its meeting room devices (microphones, cameras, TVs) without the need for additional hardware. As the company upgrades offices around the globe, the Q-SYS Platform allows Medallia to easily scale it AV infrastructure without having to rip-and-replace any programming.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte Douglas International Airport completed a $200-million renovation and expansion of its Concourse A. The expansion features ENGAGE Series and Performance Series LED displays from NanoLumens, and digital artist Refik Anadol’s unique “data sculptures” that turn the airport’s invisible patterns of data into captivating and ever-changing content featured on the three NanoLumens solutions. The displays are synchronized with the larger concourse display as each has its own distinct visual chapter. This alluring installation, dubbed “Interconnected,” expertly fuses technology, art, and design to reimagine modern travel.

Wolf Trap Park

Sterling, VA

Wolf Trap Foundation, the organization that supports the park, engaged Avitecture to develop the plan for bringing large LED screens and a broadcast-grade camera production system to this open-air amphitheater. Avitecture installed five Absen LED screens—three for viewing from the lawn seats and two for the balcony—as well as a ten-camera production system using Panasonic cameras permanently and discreetly mounted. Avitecture also designed a new production center control room and developed customized mounting brackets to place cameras on columns and on stage walls.

Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing & Health Sciences

Quincy, IL

The design for the college’s new Simulation Center—a sophisticated learning environment for students as they master clinical skills—was based on a networked architecture for video and control signals across nine patient rooms and five control stations, and a separate hybrid IP and legacy wired system for audio. Southwest AV integrated the project and set its sights on an AVoIP solution. The installers merged Biamp audio systems from a previous location with a networked architecture for video, driven by Atlona’s OmniStream platform. OmniStream eliminated the latency concerns of point-to-point transmission of 1080p video between patient rooms and control stations immediately on deployment.

Megan A. Dutta

Megan A. Dutta is a pro AV industry journalist, and the former content director for Systems Contractor News (SCN) and Digital Signage Magazine, both Future U.S. publications. Dutta previously served as the marketing communications manager at Peerless-AV, where she led the company’s marketing and communications department. Dutta is the recipient of AVIXA's 2017 Young AV Professional Award and Women in Consumer Technology's 2018 Woman to Watch Award. Dutta is co-founder of Women of Digital Signage, an organization designed to provide a pathway to promote networking, mentoring, and personal growth.