Inside $2.3M Hard Rock Hotel Install

Everything is supposed to be hard at the Hard Rock Hotel. But listening to music just became whole a lot easier. Guests in the new 16-story South Tower suites only need to use their in-room touchpanels to play music from the hotel's own music library or access digital audio from their own iPods.

But while listening is easy, the design and installation of new in-room audio entertainment systems was hard … or slightly difficult to say the least. But the crew at FBP Systems in Las Vegas used their collective creativity to overcome the daunting challenges in the design and installation of the unique audio system.

The new wing of the hotel, which opened last December and contains 318 luxury suites, presented numerous challenges for FBP, including:

• Designing a system that includes an intuitive touchpanel interface (AMX) and an in-wall iPod docking system (iPort) easy enough for hotel guests to operate with zero training
• Working within an extremely limited budget that ruled out the possibility of dedicated music servers for every room
• Supporting a requirement that the installation team be composed of union workers
• Abiding by an extremely tight installation timeline (two weeks!)
• Following an edict that the audio system not include monthly service fees (i.e., no Rhapsody, satellite or cable TV music feed)
• Creating a system that uses in-room digital audio players (Alcorn McBride) to access an off-site music server run by the music guru of the Hard Rock (a server that doesn't include access to album art)
• Using other contractors to pull and test the low-voltage wire runs in the tower
• Carrying an insurance bond on the job and having to purchase the equipment upfront

Hard? You bet. Impossible? Nope. Even with only six full-time employees, FBP Systems pulled it off. The result is a $2.3 million installation ($1.4 million dedicated to the South Tower) that rocks … literally.

Partnering with Union Electrician

FBP Systems has been in business for nearly four years, with its specialty focusing on servicing existing systems, mainly restaurant and lounges. Often while he was on-site doing repairs of installations, Bob Athey realized he could have done the installations differently in many cases. So, he migrated to installations.

FBP, which has six employees, provides repair service for the Hard Rock Hotel. That relationship, along with a history of on-budget performance, put the company in position to be considered for the South Tower job. In the new tower alone, FBP not only did the in-room systems, but also installed three of the fashionable live stage venues - Vanity, Wasted Spaces and Body English - complete from lighting to audio, including DJ systems. The Vanity nightclub installation earned FBP about the same revenue as the in-room installations in the new tower, according to Athey.

About six months ago, FBP became a subsidiary of The Morse Group, a large electrical contractor in Las Vegas that was ranked as the 35th largest electrical contractor in the U.S. in 2009 with over $100 million in revenue. That partnership, in essence, made FBP the low-voltage arm of Morse, which has 600 employees. Athey says joining Morse Group was vital in helping FBP secure the South Tower contract for several reasons.

First, it improved FBP's efficiency by providing operational resources, freeing up the staff's time to concentrate on getting new business. Second, The Morse Group gave FBP the financial resources to be able to purchase the equipment and an insurance bond necessary for the Hard Rock installation without causing a cash flow crunch. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Hard Rock Hotel job required the use of a union contractor. Since Morse Electric is a union shop, FBP was able to utilize the company's C2 license to secure the job.

Designing the System

The executives of the Hard Rock didn't know exactly what they wanted, they just knew they wanted something to help solidify the venue's reputation as the "music hotel" in Las Vegas and they wanted to bring that experience to the guests in every room. It was up to FBP to design a system that filled that need and stayed within the slim $2.3 million budget.