BINGO! LET THE GAMES BEGIN
The Marco Polo gaming complex invites the visitor to set out on a voyage of discovery – aided by a vast array of subtle and effective audio visual, sound and lighting effects
Sandton – the heart of smart in Johannesburg – added to its sophistication with the opening of the Marco Polo in September. This upmarket and opulent themed gaming venue draws its inspiration from the life and times of the famous medieval Italian explorer, and revives the art and architecture of ancient Venice in its design and décor.
The Marco Polo, located in Legacy Corner in Nelson Mandela Square, provides top-class entertainment between 10am and 2am daily. It also offers an exciting development in the gaming industry, taking the game of Bingo to a new level of entertainment with 300 state-of-the-art Electronic Bingo Terminals (EBT).
The venue is owned by Galaxy Bingo International SA (Galaxy SA), a UK company with more than 15 years experience in Bingo. Managing Director, Steven McCain said, “It has taken us nine years to receive this license and we are delighted to be finally opening this venue. Our partners are Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), one of South Africa's largest black empowerment companies.”
Desmond Thomas, general manager of the Marco Polo, added: “We are licensed by the Gauteng Gambling board and adhere to the policy of being a world-class organization”.
Venetian style
Encompassing 2 500 square metres over two levels, visitors have the option of gambling in the Crystal Room or being entertained with live music in the Venetian Show Bar upstairs, or in the intimate Piano
Bar downstairs.
At the entrance to the venue, visitors are greeted by security staff dressed in costumes styled on medieval Italian fashion, and the ambience is heavily reminiscent of ancient Venice, from the intricately designed marble floor to the massive ornamental ceilings.
There are carved Venetian pillars, an ornate water fountain, mirrors framed in gold, and a Renaissance style painting of the ancient city of canals. For directions to the various gaming areas, visitors look up for guidance – to the ‘old Venetian’ maps on the ceilings pointing you in the direction of the treasures you seek.
The main gaming area, the Crystal Room, derives its name from the large crystal chandeliers illuminating high ceilings adorned with 24-carat gold-plated leaves and painted with blue skies and clouds.
On the walls are paintings in the Renaissance style, depicting people gathered together to share food and drink. The furnishings combine fabrics in turquoise and gold colouring to complement the ‘old paintings’.
Changing colours
Visitors can enjoy live music over a leisurely cup of coffee or a late night drink with friends in the Venetian Bar upstairs. The bar is fitted with carpets in deep red and gold, leather chairs and round tables, and LED colour changers to create mood.
Curved marble stairs take you down to an entirely different world. Beyond here be dragons!
You’ve stepped into an Oriental world of red, gold and green, with pillars carved in oriental patterns and dragons on the ceilings.
This is the Piano Bar, which is also available for private functions. With two baby grand pianos on raised platforms, a stage and a dance floor, as well as colour-changing LEDs adding to the ambience, it is the ideal environment in which to host a party or simply be entertained by artists such as John & Joel, the Supremes, Cappuccino or The Fabulous Baker Boys.
The smooth functioning of any gaming venue relies on an inordinate amount of audio, visual and control equipment, and impressively in the Marco Polo, none of it is visible except the display devices. The technology is subtly hidden, with audio and control elements designed to be ‘invisible’ so that the interior aesthetics are not compromised in any way.
On the recommendation of Keystone Productions, the team selected for the installation combined personnel from Audiotech, Three Blind Mice and Electrosonic SAs lighting team. Audiotech supplied, installed and programmed the AV equipment, including projection, lighting control and digital signage (the signage in conjunction with TBM).
Navigating the way…
At the heart of the operation are two control systems which are linked, so that whatever occurs on the upper level is duplicated on the lower level, and vice versa. The system consists of Crestron CP2E
control processors and Crestron TPS6X touchpanels.
The Crestron Control system is designed to provide full functionality of light dimming, audio sources and volumes, stage cameras, digital signage and video – controllable from both upper level and lower level desks.
Creston control operates the stage curtains, projector and 2 x 1.5m rear motorised screens in the Piano Bar, the video sources and DSTV in the Bingo area, as well as the projector and the 3.5m x 2.7m screen in the Venetian Bar.
Also controlled by the Crestron system are the stage cameras, which are routable to any projector or LCD screen in the venue. In addition, presets on the Crestron control system manage audio and light functions for any live shows or events, as well as light dimming at pre-determined times.
Lighting the course …
The architectural lighting consists of downlighters and chandeliers (4 upstairs and 2 downstairs), all dimmable and controlled by a Crestron iLux lighting system. A total of 25 lighting circuits are dimmed by
Crestron dimmers with a capability of 30 circuits.
Three Blind Mice supplied the equipment for the digital signage, including plasma screens – presented more like works of art in heavy gold frames on a black background – projectors, and screens on which information is displayed. Where the escalator is located, information is projected onto a 2m x 1.5m fixed frame screen. All audio feeds are via satellite.
Three Blind Mice installed a managed 4-channel digital signage system connected to a Sierra PRO XL 16x32V5RXL matrix video switcher which allows any of the multiple inputs to be displayed on any of the multiple displays throughout the venue, and makes it simple for any integration.
The Sierra PRO XL 16X32V5RXL routing switcher is one of Sierra Video’s Reverse Matrix switchers, allowing for higher bandwidth routing with very low crosstalk. It is designed for applications routing a small number of input devices to a larger number of output devices and is ideal for hospitality industry applications such as sports bars, hotels and convention centres, as well as for educational environments and digital signage applications.
Sound
The head end equipment is controlled from a Bi Amp Nexia CS Digital Signal Processor programmed to control all equalising and limits, allowing full control of source and volume for any zone. A Barix
Extreamer provides a constant MP3 music source from the main rack.
There are 8 sound zones throughout the venue; each programmed differently to allow for different volumes in the various areas. Providing background music throughout the venue are 32 x Bose DS16F, 16 x satellite cubes with 4 x Bass module FS3 speakers, 4 x Bosch speakers and 5 x Bittner amplifiers with a capability of 1.6Kw.
The digital signal processors have the option of being accessed remotely for software updates, which means that any problems that may occur can be instantly attended to, giving the client immediate satisfaction.
In the Piano Bar on the lower level, 16 x Bose DS16F flush-mount ceiling speakers were installed. There are also 6 x Bose DS16F flush-mount ceiling speakers in the escalator foyer, 5 x Bose DS16F speakers in the Venetian Bar and 5 x Bose DS16F speakers in the foyer.
In the Crystal Room are 4 x FS3 Bose Freespace 3 systems with 4 x ceiling mount Bass Module flush-mounted speakers, each of which control 4 x Bose satellite speakers precisely aimed for maximum audio coverage.
Both DJ booths – on the upper and lower level stages – have a Soundcraft 2 channel desk with Lexicon sound effects mixer for live shows, 2 x 15” speakers and 2 x 10” stage monitors providing live audio.
Lighting the sky …
After a series of mock-ups on the building site, the decision was made to use LED effect lighting around the venue. Electrosonic SA's lighting team supplied and installed 365m of Electron FLED (colour changing flexible LEDs) in the Piano Bar and Venetian Bar counters, at the top of the stages, and in the ceilings as dynamic cove lighting.
In addition 215m of warm white static LED was supplied in some areas as cove lighting. An interesting challenge was highlighting the stairs with strips of warm white LED on the staircase. The wiring was complex because it had to be done before the stairs were completed.
Electron LED PSUs were used, networked via DMX, and connected back to 2 PC based Martin LightJockeys. This assisted in rapid programming and allowed for flexibility in adding other fixtures in the future. The LightJockeys were in turn interfaced via RS232 to Crestron, with presets set up on the touchpanels for simple operator usage.
Conclusion
A project such as the Marco Polo requires thorough research, superb planning and the right team. In terms of the new technology being introduced – both at the front end in the form of Electronic Bingo Terminals, and at the back end in the form of the Sierra Pro XL matrix – it was a first in South Africa. This introduced new challenges for the team, and although stress levels were high and tempers flared at times, they did what they do best and the end result is spectacular.
Just as Marco Polo discovered and explored new worlds, the venue which takes his name is showing the way forward for sophisticated entertainment and gaming venues in the future.
MARCO POLO EQUIPMENT LIST
Control
• 2 x Crestron CP2E wall mounted control processors
• 2 x Crestron TPS6X wireless touchpanels
• 2 x Crestron CNXB8B button panels
• 1 x Crestron CLSIC6W 6-channel dimming module
• 4 x Crestron DIN1DIMU4 4-channel universal dimming module
• 1 x Crestron CAEN4X1 dimmer module
• 1 x Crestron CAENBLOCK Crestron Cresnet network converter
• 1 x Crestron CLXI1DIM4 4-channel dimmer
• 1 x Crestron CLXI1DELV4 4-channel dimmer
Sound
• 1 x Nexia CS biamp digital sound processor
• 3 x XV400 Bittner power amplifiers
• 2 x XV200 Bittner power amplifiers
• 4 x FS3IISub Bose Freespace 3 bass units
• 16 x FS3Sat Bose Freespace 3 satellite speakers
• 30 x DS16FW Bose ceiling speakers
Digital Signage
• 1 x Sierra PROXL16x32 V5R XL matrix switcher
• 5 x Kramer VP413XL scalers
• 14 x Kramer PT110 Cat 5 transmitters
• 14 x Kramer PT120 Cat 5 receivers
• 3 x Kramer TP141 VGA audio transmitters
• 3 x Kramer TP142 VGA audio receivers
• 3 x Sanyo XU305 video projectors
• 2 x Universal ceiling mount kits
• 1 x 1.5 x 1.2 rear projection screen
• 1 x 2 x 1.5 fixed frame screen
• 1 x 3.6 x 2.7 motorised screen
• 1 x Kramer RX81R wall control panel
• 4 x channels of custom digital signage
• 2 x stage cameras
• 2 x DVD players
• 3 x 47" LCD screens
• 5 x 26" LCD screens
• 2 x 32" LCD screens
• 3 x DSTV Decoders
Effect Lightning
• 365m Electron Colour RGB FLED
• 215m Electron Monochromatic warm white FLED
• 6 x Electron PSU RGB rack mount
• 2 x Electron PSU monochromatic rack
• 2 x Martin LightJockey controller