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GROWING NEEDS, EXPANDING SYSTEMS |
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Wisconsin Dells’ Kalahari Resort and Convention Center more
than doubles meeting space capacity and expands AV and security capabilitiesBy
Dawn AllcotCompliments of Sound and Communications
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It’s a water park! It’s a hotel! It’s a convention
center! When it first opened in the year 2000, the Kalahari Resort
and Convention Center boasted the largest indoor water parkin the
Wisconsin Dells, along with an African-themed hotel, shops and restaurants.
Even today, the park includes some of the best water rides in an area
that, since the 1990s, has become well known for its water parks,
each one bigger, wetter and more exciting than the last. The Kalahari
Resort’s ambience —made complete by an audiosystem that
plays African-themed music—gives it a unique edge over its competitors
in the area.
In Phase II of the construction project, which took place just a few
months later, a convention center was added to the resort, with 18,000
square feet of meeting space. The original convention center consisted
of eight separate rooms split by dividablewalls, allowing the rooms
to be organized in any configuration, including as one large room
capable of holding 1300 people. A lot has changed in four years, but
the Kalahari Resort remains a top year-round attraction for families
on vacation as well as for businesspeople. In the past several years,
its appeal to businesspeople has grown. The resort recently expanded
its convention center and meeting space to 55,000 square feet, more
than double the original size allocated for convention guest services.
This brings the total facility size to 125,000 square feet.
One Contractor
Fearing’s Electronic Services is the audiovisual and security
contractor that won the bid to complete the design and installation
for the resort’s original opening four years ago
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and has fulfilled the Kalahari’s audiovisual
and security demands on an ongoingbasis since then. The Portage
WIbased company, located just 15 minutes away from the Dells,
was called on again to expand the audiovisual and security systems
to meet the resort’s growing needs.
Kevin Shanley, director of convention services, noted the benefits
of having one contractor take care of the installation, maintenance
and upgrades of the resort’s AV and security systems.
“The service is impeccable at Fearing’s,”
Shanley said. “Any time, day or night I can call [them]
and get situations resolved.” |
Fearing’s has provided systems for a number
of resorts in the area. Fearing’s president, Doug Fearing,
prides himself on the level of service he can deliver to his
customers. “We are located about 15 minutes away, and
always have trucks running from the Dells. We can deliver service
like no one else can,” he said. “We do all of their
AV, TV and security, and have techs onsite at Kalahari one or
two days a week.”
When Fearing installed the new systems in the Kalahari’s
new convention space, he was working under a tight deadline.
“We had a time frame of about two months. We started in
March and had to be done in May,” he said. To meet the
time crunch, Fearing’s brought in extra staff. “We
expanded our staff by about four people, two of whom we kept
afterwards, because our business has grown so much.” Along
with the temporary help, the regular Fearing’s crew put
in long hours, especially toward the end of the project. “The
last two weeks, after we were done with all the cabling, we
were averaging 55 to 60 hours a week, working Saturdays, whatever
it took to get the job done,” Fearing said.
Fearing’s familiarity with the systems helped the task
go smoothly, even under the time constraints. Because the client
requested uniformity between the existing systems and the new
equipment, one of the goals was to specify similar gear in the
new space while still providing state-of-the art technology
that would keep the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center ahead
of the curve.
Multiple Configurations
The new space was designed with the goal of hosting
large trade shows, as well as simply being able to accommodate
higher numbers of convention guests. Construction of 18 new
rooms included eight large rooms with moveable walls that could
be combined into one room. Two additional suites of four rooms
each are also combinable through ICON FS-E room combine systems.
Finally, two high-end boardrooms were added to give convention
guests even more meeting room options. |
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Shanley was happy with the initial systems, and wanted the
new installation to be similar in form and function to the existing
equipment. “We really came out of the gate three years
ago with a lot of good stuff,” he said. “One of
the important things was integrating our existing system with
the new system. We needed to be able to host large functions
and have an audiovisual presentation going on in one room and
be able to broadcast it to all of the other satellite rooms
that we needed to.”
In the initial installation, this was accomplished through an
ICON FS-E16L8L system. For the expansion project, Fearing went
back to the same system. “It’s been rock solid since
it was installed,” he said. “We wanted to continue
using it.” |
In the new space, one FS-E 24L16L serving the
eight convention rooms and a hallway, one FS-E 24L8L serving
four rooms and one FS-E 24L8L serving another four combinable
rooms, allow the user to control mic and line levels separately
in each room. The system also offers an option of background
music through the MusicChoice subscription service. Background
music is routed across 10 different audio zones. Audio and video
signals can be routed throughout the entire combination of rooms
or to anyvariation of rooms. The systems allow the installer
to customize the programmingfor the facility. “You’re
not taking boiler-plate configurations,” Fearing said.
“You can write custom software to fit your client’s
needs.”
Additionally, Fearing said, “The system integrates well
with the Crestron controller.”
For years, according to Fearing, most convention centers used
separate wall-plate controllers to operate sound, lighting and
video. In 2001, Fearing aimed to simplify the control process
at the Kalahari resort. “The Crestron cleans up the walls.
Instead of separate panels for lighting, audio and video control,
it puts it all on one small touchpanel.” The system offers
the ease of use that Kalahari’s technical staff wants
to offer its clients.
The Crestron system was installed in the new space as well.
Each room uses an LC-1000 3.8-inch screen with a grayscale touchpanel
and 10 push buttons.
As simple as the system is at the front end for the user, “the
back end’s gotta have the teeth to do more involved shows
with multiple audio and multiple video signals coming and going
at the same time,” Shanley said. The combination of the
FS-E roomcombine systems and the Crestron controllers makes
this possible.
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Technology Upgrades
Although most of the AV specified was the same as in the
original installation, some upgrades were made due to technology
improvements. The new systems offer the clients at the Kalahari
an unprecedented ease of use. “We have, in the new center,
the ability to send any signal—both audio and video—from
any point in the convention center to any other point in the
convention center,” Shanley said.
Fearing explained: “One big thing we did differently
was that we ran VGA cabling via Cat5.” In the previous
installation, RGBHV cabling was used. The VGA across Cat5
allows the user to set up different configurations with any
computer system, including laptops, and then route it through
the existing floor boxes.
Shanley commented, “It was amazing the difference that
a few years can make in what we wanted to accomplish.”
Many of the changes involve improvements in the quality of
the equipment because of the level of technology currently
available. An Altinex PNP402C Pop N’ Plug Table Top
Interconnect Box, for instance, in each of the boardrooms,
is a fully integrated system that allows the end user to press
a button in the center of the table; this exposes a box into
which the user can plug in any required inputs. |
| Perhaps the most drastic changes were in the IT
system. “When we first opened up, we had analog phone
lines coming in for internet access,” Shanley said. “Within
the first sixmonths of opening the convention center, we added
a dedicated T1 line for data in the convention center, and here
we are three years later, not only with the dedicated T1 line,
but we’ve added Wi-Fi. We’re a hotspot throughout
all the common areas of the resort and throughout the convention
center. It’s great addition, which allows our clients
to set up networks on the fly, from anywhere, without having
to deal with locating a data port and activating a data port.” |
Audio Challenges
Convention center rooms 1 through 9 rely on JBL Control 26C
ceiling speakers mounted above the drop ceiling. These worked
well in the original installation, and fulfilled the client’s
needs in the new space, as well. However, the larger, eight-room
space required a different audio solution. The area was designed
for large trade shows, banquets, dinners. Overall, the space
had to be extremely flexible in both its design and its AV
systems.
“In that room, we do everything from hosting large trade
shows that have huge exhibits and need the space, to boat
shows and wedding receptions,” Shanley said. The room
features high ceilings with exposed trusses, rather than the
drop ceilings that were installed in the other rooms. In addition,
the type of events held in this room, by their nature, create
a high level of ambient noise. For this portion of the installation,Fearing
selected 32 SoundTube HP8IT64 8-inch high-power open-ceiling
speakers, which are specifically designed for open truss ceilings.
“These provide the power capabilities that we need for
the space,” Fearing said. “Our goal was to be
able to get audio levels to reach 95 to 100db at the floor
level.”
Customer Service
In addition to the integrated systems, the Kalahari Resort
also has a wide array of rental audiovisual gear available
to its guests, along with a trained technical staff that is
accustomed to providing whatever level of service the customer
requires. “From the simplest tasks, just plugging in
a DVD player or setting up a Power-Point presentation, our
in-house audiovisual techs will work with the clients to give
them a comfort level to be able to do what they need to do,”
Shanley said. “If they don’t have that comfort
level or they just don’t want to do it, our audiovisual
technicians will run the show for them.”
The systems Fearing’s installed makes it easy for Kalahari
to provide that level of customer service to their clients.
“We gave Doug [Fearing] an outline of what we wanted
to accomplish and how easy we wanted it to be for them. That
was really it.” Fearingadded that the learning curve
on the new equipment is minimal.
Security and More
In addition to providing topnotch customer service to its
clientele, the Kalahari Resort strives to offer a high level
of comfort and security to its guests. When it first opened
in 2000, the water park and hotel utilized 16 surveillance
cameras for security and employee management. For the most
part, the cameras were not monitored continuously, but could
be checked as needed by hotel staff. With the expansion project,
however, the resort’s security systems were expanded.
Phil Wenzel, a retired state trooper, was brought on as director
of Security Services, and 10 uniformed employees were hired.
“We now have 24/7 coverage, 365 days a year,”Wenzel
told Sound & Communications. Security capabilities were
enhanced dramatically. “What we now have onboard is
a total of 240 cameras around the complex,” Wenzel said.
Sony cameras were placed in all public- access areas, including
hallways, lobbies, restaurants and the meeting rooms. Ten
separate 21-inch monitors at the head-end of the system show
16 frames on each screen, varying frames every six seconds.
“We can have 32 cameras on one screen,” Wenzel
explained.
The cameras are used in the event of theft, to locate lost
children, for employee management, and for the overall security
of the staff and guests. In addition, the outdoor pan/tilt/zoom
cameras also serve a unique function: weather monitoring.
“We can tilt these cameras in various locations around
the resort toward the skylines and monitor any severe weather
that’s coming in,” Wenzel said.
In the future, Wenzel plans to combine the resort’s
Wi-Fi capabilities with the extensive surveillance system
to provide additional security. The Kalahari resort will use
webcams to connect the security system with the local police
department. “If we have a problem here at the resort
and we call the local police department, they’ll be
able to see the problem we have on the screen before they
even get here,” Wenzel said.
Biggest in the Dells
Whether the Kalahari Resort is offering a day of fun or a
variety of business services, management knows it is providing
guests with quality systems that allow them to achieve their
goals. Both Wenzel and Shanley reported that they are happy
with the new systems. “I am not an audiovisual expert,”
Shanley said, “but I like the fact that I don’t
have to be, and I can still provide the level of service that
we do to our clients. It makes it very easy for our clients
to put on the production, meeting or event that they want
to, and it gives us the confidence of knowing that we have
the biggest and the best that’s out there.”
About Fearing's Electronic Systems
Just as many of its clients in the Wisconsin Dells area,
Fearing’s Electronic Systems is growing rapidly. Founded
in June 1997 by owner Doug Fearing and his wife, Lois, thecompany
moved into a 3500-squarefoot facility in Portage in 1999.
Fearing’s was named the Columbia County Small Business
of the Year in 2003. The company specializes in commercial
and residential audio, video and security systems, and has
serviced many of the hotels and resorts in the Wisconsin Dells
area. Its client list includes Datex- Ohmeda, Covance Labs,
Pedro’s Mexican Restaurants and Gerber Industries. When
the Kalahari Resort made plans to open a second location in
Sandusky, resort management called on Fearing’s as a
consultant on the project. Fearing’s is also currently
working with the Columbia City Highway Department, several
sports bars, chain restaurants andresidential homes. Additionally,
Fearing said, “We are completing a huge volume of security
work.”
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