Inside $2.3M Hard Rock Hotel Install

FBP trained the hotel staff to update the dynamic image graphics (change the ads) using custom Photoshop templates. An FTP server updates every panel two to three times per day. The touchpanels ping the 3100 master to go out and search for the updated dynamic images for the daily weather forecast.

All the audio emanates from a Sound Matters sound bar located under one of the two Sony flat panels in the room. There are no in-ceiling loudspeakers or subwoofers. In-ceiling speakers would have blown the budget, Athey says.

In total, 115,000 linear feet of Cat 5e wire was run in the new tower. Everything is Cat 5. Every three floors has its own Intermediate Distribution Frame (ID F) closet that houses the Hard Rock Hotel network gear and switches. From there, the wiring runs to each room where a four-port switch connects to the AMX touchpanel and the AMX master in each room. They both have IP addresses and are talking to each other. In fact, all the systems talk to each other over IP so Hard Rock will be able to upgrade to some sort of a management feature in the future, for example, for networked TV s.

It's not unusual to have a compressed timeframe on any commercial job, but imagine having only two weeks to do 318 rooms!

Fortunately, FBP was involved early on in the project. According to Ed Barrera, sales manager at FBP and former AMX exec, the Hard Rock Hotel first proposed the concept of a music library/iPort system back in October 2008, but it wasn't until August 2009 that Morse received a signed contract. The first equipment was delivered to the integrator a few months later in October 2009, and the crew immediately began configuring all the AMX masters and the AM4s. In all, it took about five weeks of programming, according to Clemons. Electrician setbacks led to FBP's installation window being squeezed from eight weeks to just two.

"The wiring was finally certified on Christmas Eve 2009," recalls Athey. "The [Hard Rock Hotel] opened six floors of the tower three days later on December 27."

To get everything up and running, the crew worked 20-hour days and actually had several of the in-room systems operating standalone versus networked. By mid-January, everything was complete.

Since completion, there have been six broken touchpanels … all caused by (possibly inebriated) guests punching their hands through the panel. In all six instances, FBP was able to confirm that the system was working perfectly.