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GROWING NEEDS,
EXPANDING SYSTEMS:
Wisconsin Dells’ Kalahari Resort and Convention Center more than doubles
meeting space capacity and expands AV and security capabilities
By Dawn Allcot
Compliments of Sound and Communications
It’s a water park! It’s a hotel! It’s a convention center! When it
first opened in the year 2000, the Kalahari Resort and Convention
Center boasted the largest indoor water park in the Wisconsin
Dells, along with an African-themed hotel, shops and restaurants.
Even today, the park includes some of the best water rides
in an area that, since the 1990s, has become well known for
its water parks, each one bigger, wetter and more exciting
than the last. The Kalahari Resort’s ambience —made complete
by an audio system that plays African-themed music—gives it
a unique edge over its competitors in the area.
In Phase II of the construction project, which took place just a few
months later, a convention center was added to the resort,
with 18,000 square feet of meeting space. The original convention
center consisted of eight separate rooms split by dividable
walls, allowing the rooms to be organized in any configuration,
including as one large room capable of holding 1300 people.
A lot has changed in four years, but the Kalahari Resort remains
a top year-round attraction for families on vacation as well
as for businesspeople. In the past several years, its appeal
to businesspeople has grown. The resort recently expanded
its convention center and meeting space to 55,000 square feet,
more than double the original size allocated for convention
guest services. This brings the total facility size to 125,000
square feet.
One Contractor
Fearing’s Electronic Services is the audiovisual and security
contractor that won the bid to complete the design and installation
for the resort’s original opening four years ago and has fulfilled
the Kalahari’s audiovisual and security demands on an ongoing
basis since then. The Portage WIbased company, located just
15 minutes away from the Dells, was called on again to expand
the audiovisual and security systems to meet the resort’s
growing needs.
Kevin Shanley, director of convention services, noted the benefits
of having one contractor take care of the installation, maintenance
and upgrades of the resort’s AV and security systems. “The
service is impeccable at Fearing’s,” Shanley said. “Any time,
day or night I can call [them] and get situations resolved.”
 Fearing’s
has provided systems for a number of resorts in the area.
Fearing’s president, Doug Fearing, prides himself on the level
of service he can deliver to his customers. “We are located
about 15 minutes away, and always have trucks running from
the Dells. We can deliver service like no one else can,” he
said. “We do all of their AV, TV and security, and have techs
onsite at Kalahari one or two days a week.”
When Fearing installed the new systems in the Kalahari’s
new convention space, he was working under a tight deadline.
“We had a time frame of about two months. We started in March
and had to be done in May,” he said. To meet the time crunch,
Fearing’s brought in extra staff. “We expanded our staff by
about four people, two of whom we kept afterwards, because
our business has grown so much.” Along with the temporary
help, the regular Fearing’s crew put in long hours, especially
toward the end of the project. “The last two weeks, after
we were done with all the cabling, we were averaging 55 to
60 hours a week, working Saturdays, whatever it took to get
the job done,” Fearing said.
Fearing’s familiarity with the systems helped the task go smoothly,
even under the time constraints. Because the client requested uniformity
between the existing systems and the new equipment, one of the goals was
to specify similar gear in the new space while still providing
state-of-the art technology that would keep the Kalahari Resort and
Convention Center ahead of the curve.
Multiple Configurations
The new space was designed with the goal of hosting large trade shows,
as well as simply being able to accommodate higher numbers of convention
guests. Construction of 18 new rooms included eight large rooms with
moveable walls that could be combined into one room. Two additional
suites of four rooms each are also combinable through Intelix MARC room
combine systems. Finally, two high-end boardrooms were added to give
convention guests even more meeting room options.
Shanley was happy with the initial systems, and wanted the new installation
to be similar in form and function to the existing equipment.
“We really came out of the gate three years ago with a lot
of good stuff,” he said. “One of the important things was
integrating our existing system with the new system. We needed
to be able to host large functions and have an audiovisual
presentation going on in one room and be able to broadcast
it to all of the other satellite rooms that we needed to.”
In the initial installation, this was accomplished through
an Intelix MARC16L8L system.
For the expansion project, Fearing went back to the same system.
“It’s been rock solid since it was installed,” he said. “We
wanted to continue using it.” In the new space, one MARC 24L16L serving the eight convention
rooms and a hallway, one MARC24L8L serving four rooms and
one MARC24L8L serving another four combinable rooms, allow
the user to control mic and line levels separately in each
room. The system also offers an option of background music
through the MusicChoice subscription service. Background music
is routed across 10 different audio zones. Audio and video
signals can be routed throughout the entire combination of
rooms or to any variation of rooms. The systems allow the
installer to customize the programming for the facility. “You’re
not taking boiler-plate configurations,” Fearing said. “You
can write custom software to fit your client’s needs.”
Additionally, Fearing said, “The system integrates well with the
Crestron controller.”
 For
years, according to Fearing, most convention centers used
separate wall-plate controllers to operate sound, lighting
and video. In 2001, Fearing aimed to simplify the control
process at the Kalahari resort. “The Crestron cleans up the
walls. Instead of separate panels for lighting, audio and
video control, it puts it all on one small touchpanel.” The
system offers the ease of use that Kalahari’s technical staff
wants to offer its clients.
The Crestron system was installed in the new space as well. Each room
uses an LC-1000 3.8-inch screen with a grayscale touchpanel and 10 push
buttons.
As simple as the system is at the front end for the user, “the back
end’s gotta have the teeth to do more involved shows with multiple audio
and multiple video signals coming and going at the same time,” Shanley
said. The combination of the MARC room
combine systems and the Crestron controllers makes this possible.
Technology Upgrades
Although most of the AV specified was the same as in the original
installation, some upgrades were made due to technology improvements.
The new systems offer the clients at the Kalahari an unprecedented ease
of use. “We have, in the new center, the ability to send any signal—both
audio and video—from any point in the convention center to any other
point in the convention center,” Shanley said.
Fearing explained: “One big thing we did differently was that we ran
VGA cabling via Cat5.” In the previous installation, RGBHV
cabling was used. The VGA across Cat5 allows the user to set
up different configurations with any computer system, including
laptops, and then route it through the existing floor boxes.
Shanley commented, “It was amazing the difference that a few years
can make in what we wanted to accomplish.”
Many of the changes involve improvements in the quality of the
equipment because of the level of technology currently available. An
Altinex PNP402C Pop N’ Plug Table Top Interconnect Box, for instance, in
each of the boardrooms, is a fully integrated system that allows the end
user to press a button in the center of the table; this exposes a box
into which the user can plug in any required inputs.
Perhaps the most drastic changes were in the IT system. “When we first
opened up, we  had
analog phone lines coming in for internet access,” Shanley
said. “Within the first six
months of opening the convention center, we added a dedicated
T1 line for data in the convention center, and here we are
three years later, not only with the dedicated T1 line, but
we’ve added Wi-Fi. We’re a hotspot throughout all the common
areas of the resort and throughout the convention center.
It’s great addition, which allows our clients to set up networks
on the fly, from anywhere, without having to deal with locating
a data port and activating a data port.”
Audio Challenges
Convention center rooms 1 through 9 rely on JBL Control 26C ceiling
speakers mounted above the drop ceiling. These worked well in the
original installation, and fulfilled the client’s needs in the new
space, as well. However, the larger, eight-room space required a
different audio solution. The area was designed for large trade shows,
banquets, dinners. Overall, the space had to be extremely flexible in
both its design and its AV systems.
“In that room, we do everything from hosting large trade shows that
have huge exhibits and need the space, to boat shows and wedding
receptions,” Shanley said. The room features high ceilings with exposed
trusses, rather than the drop ceilings that were installed in the other
rooms. In addition, the type of events held in this room, by their
nature, create a high level of ambient noise. For this portion of the
installation,
Fearing selected 32 SoundTube HP8IT64 8-inch high-power open-ceiling
speakers, which are specifically designed for open truss ceilings.
“These provide the power capabilities that we need for the space,”
Fearing said. “Our goal was to be able to get audio levels to reach 95
to 100db at the floor level.”
Customer Service
In addition to the integrated systems, the Kalahari Resort also has a
wide array of rental audiovisual gear available to its guests, along
with a trained technical staff that is accustomed to providing whatever
level of service the customer requires. “From the simplest tasks, just
plugging in a DVD player or setting up a Power-Point presentation, our
in-house audiovisual techs will work with the clients to give them a
comfort level to be able to do what they need to do,” Shanley said. “If
they don’t have that comfort level or they just don’t want to do it, our
audiovisual technicians will run the show for them.”
The systems Fearing’s installed makes it easy for Kalahari to provide
that level of customer service to their clients. “We gave
Doug [Fearing] an outline of what we wanted to accomplish
and how easy we wanted it to be for them. That was really
it.” Fearing added that the learning curve on the new equipment
is minimal.
Security and More
In addition to providing topnotch customer service to its clientele, the
Kalahari Resort strives to offer a high level of comfort and security to
its guests. When it first opened in 2000, the water park and hotel
utilized 16 surveillance cameras for security and employee management.
For the most part, the cameras were not monitored continuously, but
could be checked as needed by hotel staff. With the expansion project,
however, the resort’s security systems were expanded.
Phil Wenzel, a retired state trooper, was brought on as director
of Security Services, and 10 uniformed employees were hired.
“We now have 24/7 coverage, 365 days a year,” Wenzel told
Sound & Communications. Security capabilities were enhanced
dramatically. “What we now have onboard is a total of 240
cameras around the complex,” Wenzel said. Sony cameras were
placed in all public- access areas, including hallways, lobbies,
restaurants and the meeting rooms. Ten separate 21-inch monitors
at the head-end of the system show 16 frames on each screen,
varying frames every six seconds. “We can have 32 cameras
on one screen,” Wenzel explained.
The cameras are used in the event of theft, to locate lost children,
for employee management, and for the overall security of the
staff and guests. In addition, the outdoor pan/tilt/zoom cameras
also serve a unique function: weather monitoring. “We can
tilt these cameras in various locations around the resort
toward the skylines and monitor any severe weather that’s
coming in,” Wenzel said.
In the future, Wenzel plans to combine the resort’s Wi-Fi
capabilities with the extensive surveillance system to provide
additional security. The Kalahari resort will use webcams to connect the
security system with the local police department. “If we have a problem
here at the resort and we call the local police department, they’ll be
able to see the problem we have on the screen before they even get
here,” Wenzel said.
Biggest in the Dells
Whether the Kalahari Resort is offering a day of fun or a variety of
business services, management knows it is providing guests with quality
systems that allow them to achieve their goals. Both Wenzel and Shanley
reported that they are happy with the new systems. “I am not an
audiovisual expert,” Shanley said, “but I like the fact that I don’t
have to be, and I can still provide the level of service that we do to
our clients. It makes it very easy for our clients to put on the
production, meeting or event that they want to, and it gives us the
confidence of knowing that we have the biggest and the best that’s out
there.”
About Fearing's Electronic Systems
Just as many of its clients in the Wisconsin Dells area, Fearing’s
Electronic Systems is growing rapidly. Founded in June 1997
by owner Doug Fearing and his wife, Lois, the company moved
into a 3500-squarefoot facility in Portage in 1999. Fearing’s
was named the Columbia County Small Business of the Year in
2003. The company specializes in commercial and residential
audio, video and security systems, and has serviced many of
the hotels and resorts in the Wisconsin Dells area. Its client
list includes Datex- Ohmeda, Covance Labs, Pedro’s Mexican
Restaurants and Gerber Industries. When the Kalahari Resort
made plans to open a second location in Sandusky, resort management
called on Fearing’s as a consultant on the project. Fearing’s
is also currently working with the Columbia City Highway Department,
several sports bars, chain restaurants and
residential homes. Additionally, Fearing said, “We are completing a huge
volume of security work.”
Visit Fearing's online:
www.fearings.com
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