With its legacy audio system fragmented and failing, and no comprehensive understanding of its installation, the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida was increasingly unable to cope.
The resort is expansive, with 12 restaurants, two championship golf courses, fitness centre, spa and multiple meeting/conference facilities. With music and audio quality of critical importance to the guest experience, it was time to call for help.
K Systems took on the project, beginning with a lengthy exploration of the property and its issues, which the team dubbed a ‘treasure hunt’. ‘We started with the mechanical elements,’ says K Systems owner Mitchell Piper. ‘Where is all the equipment? What speakers are working; what speakers aren’t working? What wires are broken... And that level of discovery takes a long time. It’s like peeling away a gigantic onion. And frankly, you are always still discovering things.
‘That’s just how these properties work, because there’s no institutional knowledge. So you have to pick it up in dribs and drabs, you have to talk to everyone, understand what their frustrations are and what they want to accomplish.
‘Eventually a pattern emerges where you can see the overarching concerns.’
While different engineers had fixed issues over the years, these ‘band-aid’ solutions had only aggravated the problems. The resort had finally understood its need for a more sophisticated solution to provide guests with a sound experience to match a resort that occupies three miles of peaceful, private beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.
His investigations showed Piper that there were two main problems – a mechanical problem and, as he terms it, ‘a vibe problem.’ In terms of the mechanical issues, there was a severe lack of understanding as to how many of the systems of the property operated. On top of this, many of the current systems needed to be constantly rebooted. From speaking with the management, Piper realised the resort needed a system that could be centrally controlled through the cloud and would be reliable enough to eliminate the constant rebooting. If all of these things were in place, he was confident he could restore the musical experience for guests and ultimately fix the ‘vibe’ problem.
In response, K Systems gutted the entire system and designed a replacement. One of Piper’s first tasks was to find and spec equipment that could connect to the cloud.
‘On a property like this, where there are 20 different closets of equipment, it is important for management to be able to “see” the entire property, either through a cloud or through a network, and then be able to control the equipment on the property through that connectivity.’
From the outset, Piper knew the amplifiers for the project needed to be Dante enabled, easy to install, reliable, and have the ability to connect to the cloud. Shortly before the install began he was introduced to LEA Professional by Jim Mingo of TMP Pro. LEA Professional Dante Connect Series ticked all the boxes. With a choice of two-, four-, and eight-channel systems, these Dante-ready amplifiers feature direct HiZ (70V or 100V) or LoZ, selectable by channel. In addition, the LEA Professional Cloud Platform allows users to securely access and control individual amplifiers or entire venues of amps from anywhere in the world without the need to VPN into a Local Area Network.
K Systems subsequently installed 28 LEA Professional Dante Connect Series amplifiers, which comprse a combination of 354D, 704D, 84D and 702D models.
The amps are paired with upwards of 300 NEAR loudspeakers installed in the outdoor areas, with Martin Audio installation series used inside and some areas that are under cover.
Those from the NEAR catalogue include LB4TM, LB6T, IGS100M, IG6s2M and IG8s2M, while the Martin Audio models include C8.1T, C6.8T, ACP-55T, A55T, A40T and SX212.
‘I was pleasantly surprised by how simple the set up was,’ Piper reports. ‘We’re a small business, so each member of the team wears a lot of hats. Frankly we do not have time for complexity when it comes to install protocol. When we went to install an LEA amp, I think it took me maybe five minutes to connect it to the cloud.’
LEA Professional amplifiers have a built-in Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT Core. This cloud platform allows integrators to control and monitor critical operational data points that are integral to maintaining system health securely and remotely. The capability delivers greater visibility and response time, which enhances preventative maintenance, simplifies troubleshooting, and cuts down or even eliminates on-site maintenance requirements. With the AWS IoT Core, system integrators can import their Connect Series systems into the LEA Professional Cloud with 256 bit SSL encryption.
Not only did the resort benefit from the cloud platform, but saved rack space by using Connect Series amplifiers, a plus since equipment footprint was a major consideration. The spa alone had 50 audio zones between its 24 treatment rooms, nine wet rooms, and 12 common spaces.
‘In the spa area I didn’t need a lot of energy, I just needed a lot of independent zones,’ Piper recounts. ‘So in five or six rack units with a few network cables routed into a switch, I could completely wire the space. I had a tiny rack space to contend with so having that much power available in a limited space was an important consideration.’
What Piper couldn’t have anticipated, however, was Hurricane Ian, one of the costliest hurricanes in US history. Its arrival not only halted completion of the project nine months in, but required redoing work already completed. ‘By using the LEA Professional Cloud Platform, we were able to remotely monitor the status of the amps through the storm, even after power was switched over to generators,’ adds Piper.
While Marco Island and the Marriott property were spared the worst of Hurricane Ian’s wrath, the resort did sustain damage and worked quickly to make repairs to get the property reopened.
‘The folks at LEA were terrific through all this,’ says. ‘They were able to get us replacement amplifiers for the affected areas quickly. In working for world-class organisations like Marriott, I like to provide a level of service that they give their resort guests–pure excellence. To do that, I need to partner with companies like LEA Professional.’
When LEA Professional was founded in 2019, the company establisheda ‘brains trust’ of pro audio veterans who understood the pain points faced by partners and customers such that they could ensure that every touchpoint with LEA would be simple, seamless and offer a positive experience. They achieved this through simple, one-click transactional processes and by creating a world-class support network, including a wide array of online resources. Piper is adamant that others in the industry should follow suit.
‘The tools and resources available to me from LEA are terrific,’ he says. ‘I recently installed the company’s Sharkware application software, which makes it easier to locally connect to all of the amps on the property and make adjustments.’
Of particular help is the simplicity of troubleshooting. Each amplifier features an indicator – a smiley face where everything is good, and a frown or yikes if there is potential trouble. ‘On a property like Marco where you have two dozen amps running through the cloud, a quick scan of smiles or frowns makes identifying trouble spots a snap.’
As a small business, every little bit helps. ‘We’re a microenterprise. I don’t have time to set a guy alone for seven hours just to learn everything, read every manual, etc. When we have a question, microenterprises are more dependent on help from manufacturers and trusting that you’re going to get that support when you need it in a timely manner is exceptionally important. The technology I provide gives people joy and I need partners like LEA who can help me get there.’
Overall, the resort’s management has been impressed with their upgraded audio system – one that is now centrally-controlled, reliable and sounds good. Piper is proud to report that the positive musical ‘vibe’ on the island has been restored, and that the sound experience is now a pleasure as well as treasure.
