KUWAIT CITY – Electrosonic designed, supplied, installed and programmed extensive LED lighting, digital signage, video projection, special effects, audio and show control for the circular 360 Mall's Family Entertainment Center complex. Created by Tamdeen Entertainment Company and designed by Concept i Design, the Family Entertainment Center offers rides, video games and other family amusements. Electrosonic played a role in the complex's Infunity area, Bowl Room and Freeze Club over the course of 18 months.
In Infunity, 67 Studio Due LED fixtures wash the games area and generate color changes. Columns of Lagotronics LED strip lights at the entrance also change color as guests arrive.
Twelve NEC LCD displays feature advertising and mall info. A wall of 18 displays made from a 103-inch Panasonic plasma screen surrounded by smaller NEC LCD displays serves as an art installation in the middle of Infunity's large atrium.
Electrosonic constructed two custom low-resolution LED video walls featuring over 5,000 Artistic License LED "pucks" attached to Plexiglas panels. Their abstract, color changing imagery ties in with the excitement generated by nearby rides.
Infunity's Yaham 10mm LED video wall, measuring 7.68 by 4.8 meters, is one of the largest in Kuwait. It's used mostly for advertising, but it can also display live feeds from popular sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup games from South Africa.
Electrosonic also helped with the two Party Rooms, each with their own audio, video and lighting systems, and the Special Event Stage, which features a dedicated sound system and simple lighting package.
In addition, Electrosonic provided smoke and snow machines and strobe lights for the roller coaster, rope course and climbing wall, and in a kids' play area, a Christie DS+750 projects onto the floor with GestureTek technology to let children interact with content, such as popping balloons and swimming fish.
The complex's 20-lane bowling area also features digital signage systems including 56-inch NEC LCDs installed by Electrosonic. Behind the registration counter a low-resolution Schnick-Schnack-Systems LED wall provides visual effects, color changes and logo displays.
Pulsar LED fixtures in each lane point upward and wash the ceilings. Pulsar LEDs also shine through a Plexiglas floor to illuminate a separate gaming area with pool tables.
The bowling area also features nine custom fiber-optic chandeliers provided by Electrosonic and suspended over the entrance, seating and food service areas. A Martin fixture sources all the lights for the chandeliers, which have more than 3,500 individual strands of color-changing fiber. The tables in the dining area are equipped with buttons that guests can use to alert servers. The buttons interrupt the chandeliers' changing colors and flash a red and white pattern.
The Bowl Room also has a separate VIP bowling area with a modern, streamlined look. These lanes are also lit with Pulsar LED fixtures, and an iPod docking station integrated with a JBL background music system lets guests mute the sound and plug in their own music for parties.
The Freeze Club, with its North Pole motif, is a venue designed teen-friendly arcades, video games and simulators.
Electrosonic installed 15 LCD digital signage systems in the club to display advertising and information. An interactive video wall at the entrance features two Christie DHD700 projectors and GestureTek cameras and tracking systems that invite interaction with the content. A fog machine generates ground fog underneath the video wall.
A low-resolution Schnick-Schnack-Systems wall with more than 2,000 meters of LEDs wraps around room and displays fire, rain and other graphic patterns. A laser system, installed by Electrosonic, recreates the Aurora Borealis on the domed ceiling and is enhanced by smoke effects.
Nine sound domes create isolated audio zones over the seating areas so guests can plug in their iPods and listen to the music they want to hear. Throughout the complex, over 100 JBL speaker arrays provide background music.
Infunity, the Bowl Room and Freeze Club each has a central control room with several special-purpose satellite EERs. The main EER for Infunity, for example, also includes a DJ booth with a window overlooking much of the facility; the DJ booth controls system power, music and lighting changes and screen content. Centrally located Medialon servers control digital signage throughout the complex.
At Electrosonic, Marcelo Videla was the original project manager for the Bowl Room and Freeze Club. Jackson Benedict came on board as project manager halfway through the job's 18-month life cycle. Stan Gilson served as project engineer and Boris Holscher and Paul Winters were the site managers.
Ryan Sims performed the Medialon programming for systems control and digital signage. Nigel Holbrough and Paul Birks were the grandMA lighting programmers. Local labor and support was provided by aDawliah Universal Electronics.
For more information, please visit www.electrosonic.com.
