The latest roll-out of the Rock & Brews American bar/diner concept, specialising in classic rock, has opened at the Potawatomi Casino Hotel in Carter – the premier gaming and entertainment destination in Northern Wisconsin. This follows its success at the nearby Casino Hotel, Milwaukee, where the Potawatomi Tribe first embraced the concept a year earlier.

Both operations call on extensive use of Martin Audio products, installed by Green Bay-based partner, CCCP (Camera Corner). At both sites they were sub-contracted to carry out the installation by principal contractors, Dublin-based Audiotek, who supplied the visual media.

CCCP has a long-standing relationship as an A/V provider to the Forest County PotawatomiTribe. According to CCCP Project Designer, Scott Tomashek, the client had been keen to maintain consistency with Martin Audio having been impressed with the results in Milwaukee. Sufficiently successful was the Rock & Brews concept there, that the operators duly decided to convert the restaurant at the Carter site.

‘We were pleased to see that a lot of Martin Audio equipment had already been specified by Audiotek, as we have been partners for a number of years. Everyone was happy to be working again with a brand with which we were already familiar and trust.’

At Potawatomi Casino Hotel Carter, CCCP again worked with architects, I-5 Design. But, faced with a smaller (3,000sq-ft) footprint than Milwaukee, a reduced stage and restricted ceiling height, a change of approach was required. CCCP turned to an flown system other than Torus, which had served them so well in Milwaukee. ‘FlexPoint became the obvious solution, and it worked out really well,’ Tomashek says.

The primary system is the largest FP15 – a single box flown left and right with the two subs set adjacent in the centre. ‘This is a relatively compact box that still has plenty of output. And because we had to fly subs directly in front of the stage area, the ability to use the SXC115 cardioid versions meant we could keep some of that low frequency energy off the stage area.’

A pair of FP8 are located on either side of the two large Taylor videowalls. Five additional FP6 and the final pair of FP8 point out from the Rock & Brews restaurant into the main casino area on a delay ring, to attract customers in. ‘The coverage is excellent,’ the installer confirms.

The set-up is served by Martin Audio iKon DSP amplifiers – a pair of iK42 are assigned to the main FP15 rig, the SXC115 sub and FP6 fills, while an iK81 powers all six FP8, one per channel.

There is the capability for bands to plug in to a digital console, and a wireless mic audio system can set up for announcements or special events. However, the venue essentially operates a strident, video accompanied ‘classic rock’ playlist ‘which is why we needed the kind of energy generated by the FP15,’ Tomashek says.

In terms of SPL, he says, ‘it can get way louder in there than they’ll probably ever run it…’

Signal transport is on a Dante backbone sent from the primary DSP core to the Dante-capable Martin Audio iKon amplifiers and the entire system is under master Crestron control. As an alternative to running music content, sports events or TV channels can be fed from the hotel hub.

The FP15 had earlier made its mark at the Milwaukee operation, notably in the Sportsbook venue, where Audiotek provided an 116ft x 18ft LED screen for betting. Elsewhere in the casino, further Martin Audio loudspeakers include CDD, Blackline and Torus.

For both projects, Martin Audio’s Display3 optimisation software was used: ‘FlexPoint has been so easy to set up and tune, and the presets are really good in the [iKon] amplifiers,’ Tomashek says. ‘That really helps to maximise our time‚ which is extremely important as the A/V team is always the last in when timelines and deadlines are getting very compressed. To have a product I can set up really quickly and get really good results from is vital.’

Display’s compatibility with SketchUp provided a further boost: ‘It’s been great to get SketchUp models of these rooms directly from the architect so we could drop the speakers right into that design and know they were going to work the way we needed.’

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