Margaritaville at Lanier Islands

Distributed AV for lake-based entertainment complex

CLIENT

Safe Harbor Development

INDUSTRY

Commercial

LOCATION

Buford, GA

DATE

May 2018

TECH

Audio · Video · Control

Our Solution Story

Margaritaville at Lanier Islands is a diverse entertainment complex at northeast Georgia’s Lake Lanier. Formerly known as LanierWorld, the site has been reinvigorated as a joint venture between Safe Harbor Development and Margaritaville, one of the fastest growing theme-based venues and a global brand. Margaritaville at Lanier Islands’ features include a water park, restaurants and bars, beaches, golf, boat rentals, camping, and more.

AUDIO + VIDEO + CONTROL

Partners Safe Harbor Development and Margaritaville Holdings opted to revamp the newly acquired Lanier Islands with the construction of a LandShark Bar & Grill, a large tiki bar, and a beach bar as well as renovation of Paradise Beach Cantina, two large tour boats, and a floating live performance stage, plus other improvements to existing retail and food/beverage services. A widely distributed audio and video system was needed that would provide cohesion with the Margaritaville brand for all visitors to the park.

Safe Harbor Development contracted with dB Integrations just one month before Margaritaville’s grand opening, confident that dB could design and deliver a well-integrated system for the park, on time and on budget.

dB Integrations entered the process with a thorough walk-through of the extensive property with Safe Harbor staff. AV would be spread across several spread-out locations, all connected via fiber network infrastructure. The client asked dB to design a centralized system of audio and video management that could communicate over a network. Input from Margaritaville on its vision of customer experience further informed dB’s design.

Video

The video distribution system includes displays in various locations such as restaurants, bars, and two large LED walls. Media sources range from Direct TV receivers to BrightSign digital signage players to a special, customizable, playlist-based media player that Margaritaville uses as its main source of audio and visual entertainment. The client needed a system that could direct content from any media source to any or all displays throughout the park. A Video Over IP system with encoder/decoders by Visionary Solutions was deemed the best solution for Margaritaville’s needs. End users can control video distribution via a simple interface on QSC’s touch panels.

Audio

The park required a similarly robust system for audio distribution, with the ability to direct feeds from various sources to multiple audio zones. We achieved this by using QSC’s Q-Sys Core and Q-Sys-enabled amplifiers, which allow for the routing of audio sources, via the network, directly to specific amp channels. The park’s audio is now subdivided into numerous zones; just within the LandShark Bar & Grill, for example, speakers are separated into four zones — Main Dining, Bar, Fireplace Dining, and Patio. In locations where amplification was already in place, we simply used QSC’s network I/O interfaces to deliver line-level audio to those amplifiers for distribution to speakers.

Margaritaville has a longstanding relationship with Klipsch, a manufacturer of speakers that have become part of the Margaritaville brand. Klipsch speakers are used extensively in all venues throughout the water park. The floating stage next to LandShark Bar & Grill is the lone exception. This unique performance space for live music employs Danley Sound Labs speakers and subwoofers, providing enough power and pristine audio to rock any crowd.

Control

The core of the entire system is a QSC Q-Sys platform, providing audio processing and control for both audio and video. The QSC system has the best combination of power and flexibility for this large system.

This large entertainment complex has a large staff, many of whom must be able to interact with the AV system. Touch panels throughout the park allow for simple adjustment of source selection and volume. The user control interface (UCI) has a completely customizable layout, easy to use with practically no training required. Administrators control park-wide AV via computer. Scheduling software works with the AV system to mute and unmute audio at scheduled times, removing that task from daily to-do lists.

Recap

Thanks to the distributed AV system from dB Integrations, Margaritaville at Lanier Islands now offers its visitors an immersive experience of summer fun. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Margaritaville and Safe Harbor in future phases of this high-end development endeavor.