Upgrade Your Install with Q-SYS

Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes

Experience seamless, streamlined, and scalable installation solutions with Q-SYS components from Sound Productions! Q-SYS is a cloud-manageable Audio, Video, and Control platform ideal for a wide range of contractor-integrator applications, including corporate, entertainment, and more, as well as live events and venue installations. SoundPro recently interviewed Frequency Productions’ founder and president Mike Utter about how he implemented Q-SYS in the audio systems for the Gaylord Hotel ICE! Attractions.

Frequency Productions manages all aspects of production for corporate events as well as consulting, installation, hybrid events, live stream events, and custom LED lighting projects. Whether it’s a conference for thousands of attendees or a permanent sound system for daily use, Frequency Productions takes a detailed and personalized approach to find the best solution possible.

Frequency Productions focuses on offering tailored solutions for each of their client’s unique needs. When Marriott International contracted them to outfit their audio setup for multiple Gaylord Hotels ICE! attractions, Mike reached out to SoundPro Account Manager Kris Landrum to gather the necessary components to make this project’s goals a reality. SoundPro’s Meg Golz and Gretchen King spoke with Mike about the ways Q-SYS met this project’s needs.

SP: What is the scope of your project, and what is being controlled with Q-SYS and the system that you're using?

MU: The project consists of five different properties across the country, with us deploying Q-SYS in four of those (that weren’t already running Q-SYS). We cover Washington DC, Nashville, Denver, and Dallas – and the resort that already used Q-SYS is in Kissimmee. This is the first year that every Gaylord Hotels ICE! tent has been controlled by Q-SYS and completely cohesive from the audio control standpoint.

The project varies by scope across locations, but a good majority of it is running the ICE! attraction audio systems. Much of it controls background music in the cold tent attractions, which have anywhere from two to ten audio tracks depending on the theme of the attraction. We're using Q-SYS as a digital audio mixer to control the zoning and the scheduling of when the audio turns on and off. We have also given our clients (in most locations) the ability to override the schedule with a mute switch.

SP: How long have you been with this specific project?

MU: We got brought into ICE! in 2022 and started with the Washington DC location. Then we moved to work on the Texan location and got their equipment using the Q-SYS system and then added the remaining two locations this year (2023).

SP: What was the most important factor in choosing Q-SYS as your solution for this project?

MU: Deploying this project effectively and making the audio systems cohesive throughout all locations was the most important goal. As I was looking into control systems for this project, I really liked the architecture of Q-SYS, plus one location was already utilizing it through their in-house AV company, so all signs pointed to Q-SYS.

We also wanted to ensure existing audio systems were able to work cohesively with the Q-SYS ecosystem. At the Nashville attraction, a third of the building is the cold side (with the attraction), while two-thirds of it is designated as the warm side (retail, queue lines, and everything else that goes with that portion of the attraction). Our scope for that location was just the cold side, which went on its own system strictly for control and flexibility, while a different system ran the warm side. Knowing Q-SYS’ capabilities - it can be an audio mixer, it can be a scheduler, and it can have an interface – made it an easy choice to make sure we could interface those systems with zero trouble.

Another huge selling point of Q-SYS is that when you hop on the network, you know what you're looking for. You have the control that's been built. Whether it's a UCI interface or physical external switches, it's going to be up to the task for everything we're going to throw at it, and it's not going to break a sweat because we're not pushing its limits. 

SP: How convenient was this system to implement regarding time, space, and ease of setup?

MU: I pride ourselves on building compact, efficient systems and Q-SYS allows the entire brain of your system to live in a single rack unit. Most people will see this rack and think, “That's what's driving this from the audio side?” It’s very impressive.

SP: Kris mentioned that you purchased some licenses that unlock specific control and scripting. How are you utilizing these licenses?

MU: The main scripting license that we needed was for use at the previously mentioned Nashville attraction. The warm side uses a London BSS system, and there was no way to interface the two systems other than connecting over-network. The scripting license from the Q-SYS side allowed us to send and receive network control commands.

Also, there were certain things we had to make sure would shut down if needed. They have a fire alarm system; if the alarm is triggered, there's a relay that takes a contact and goes through the whole system. The London system needs to be able to send out commands to stop all audio. And so that's one of the triggers that comes into Q-SYS. 

Another specific element that needed programming is the nativity scene within the ICE! attractions. It has specific light cues over a two-minute track that has a voiceover, and that has to start in sequence with the lighting commands. So there’s a lighting Cue Server, and that server and Q-SYS are listening for the same command. There’s a command in London that fires their command that fires to Q-SYS seamlessly as well. 

From a user control side, we did implement a User Control Interface (UCI) for one location on an iPad. They needed zone-specific ability to control the music level, mic level, and mutes. I gave them those broad controls, and I was also able to refrain from adding specific controls such as EQ and dynamics, that needed to remain consistent without change.

This location also has a couple of Q-SYS remote boxes over fiber because of the distance from the rack to the attraction. They have control over all attraction outputs: they can start and stop the entire attraction and background music, and then they have a mixing area.

SP: In what ways do you see future benefits from switching to Q-SYS as you continue working on this project and it keeps growing?

MU: One of the biggest things—and this is something we plan to implement next year—is using Reflect Enterprise to be able to remotely monitor and make audio adjustments from anywhere. This requires all locations to get a dedicated Internet connection—whether it’s a VLAN or a dedicated network port.

Next year some of the growth will also include UCIs everywhere. This way, if we need to perform maintenance, we can adjust from an iPad. We can add cloud-based cameras so that if there’s an issue, we can pull the camera up, and Reflect would provide that capability to see what’s going on. This year focused on building the Q-SYS foundation, and now we can continue adding features because there’s so much more that it can do.

This specific Q-SYS setup included Q-SYS Core 110 Processors, Q-SYS Core 8 Flex, 4 &8-channel amplifiers from QSC, SKB Rack Cases and Power Conditioners, and licenses for unlocking specific features. For a personalized take on what components would best fit your system’s needs, contact SoundPro at info@soundpro.com or 800.203.5611.

A special thanks to Mike Utter of Frequency Productions for taking the time to expound on this project, and to Marriott International for the additional information about Gaylord Hotels ICE! 

Photo of Q-SYS rack unit provided courtesy of Mike Utter. Photos from the "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"™ attraction provided courtesy of Marriott International.