Technology solutions provider Elite Design Systems (EDS) proudly announces the successful completion of an extensive multi-year multi-media project in collaboration with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). This transformative initiative encompassed a wide range of cutting-edge installations and enhancements across the two-mile, 147-acre island in New York City’s East River, between Manhattan and Queens.
The project – spanning key Roosevelt Island locations, including the Youth Center, the newly constructed Sportspark recreational facility, the Roosevelt Island police station, the Mosaic Church, RIOC’s Operating Center, Tramway and even the island’s iconic lighthouse – included EDS-implemented LAN networking infrastructure, digital signage and state-of-the-art AV technology. Core hardware was provided by Key Digital, the award-winning developer and manufacturer of leading-edge digital video processing and video signal distribution solutions, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
EDS team leader Bobby Imkhanitsky designed and implemented a technology upgrade that easily integrated with RIOC’s existing infrastructure for a seamless transition. Each of the AV systems implemented on Roosevelt Island is independent to its building or area, though the Key Digital Compass Control Pro integrated iOS-based control system, which can extend iPad control to include a host of Compass Alliance partner systems even beyond the AV network, unifies all aspects of the system through shared networking.
The Youth Center AV solution on Roosevelt Island utilizes a 4 x 20 AV over IP system composed of four KD-IP922ENC encoders (one for each source) and 20 KD-IP922DEC decoders (one for each display). 50-inch televisions are mounted throughout the facility (12 in the 2 x 6 video wall alone), along with one drop-down projector. Three of the televisions have local table mounted KD-X3x1WUTX multi-format switcher/extender three-gang plates that allow the selection between a pair each of gaming systems or the BrightSign digital signage system. “One of the things that I designed for them,” shared Imkhanitsky, “was the ability to have a gaming night. if two people are competing against each other, it can be displayed throughout the whole place.” Facility-wide sound reinforcement is controlled by dBx processors with amplification by Crown, all RS-232 controlled from the built-in control ports of the AV over IP hardware and executed by the user iPads running the Key Digital Compass Control Pro app.
The largest installation in the system is in the Roosevelt Island Sportspark complex, where a Key Digital KD-IP922-based 8 x 16 AV over IP system was deployed. Most of the monitors are again 50-inch televisions, including a 4 x 4 video wall. One monitor is housed in an enclosure outdoors. Sources include five cable-television boxes and two BrightSign digital signage players. “Another KD-X3x1WUTX Key Digital wall plate switcher/extender allows you to locally plug in a computer for display on all the TVs or just one,” said Imkhanitsky.
“In the gymnasium” Imkhanitsky continued, “I put a really large amplifier with some big, big speakers. So, they can have a dance on the basketball court, among many options.”
“Sportspark is a deeply important part of the Roosevelt Island fabric.” stated RIOC president and CEO Shelton Haynes. “Since 1977, the facility has provided the community with a place to exercise, play, gather, and have fun. Over time, it had deteriorated significantly, necessitating a well-capitalized overhaul. The transformation is remarkable.”
Cameras, mostly from around the building, are fed into the police station. There’s digital signage as well, in a modest AV over IP system installed in part to ensure a “proper backbone,” says Imkhanitsky. “They want the capability of expanding in the future and adding more displays everywhere. They also set up a command center in one of the rooms.” On the command center wall is an 85-inch TV fed by a Key Digital KD-MLV4x4Pro. “The Key Digital processor takes the display and cuts it into four. You can have multiple feeds from the camera system and then Compass Control Pro is managing whether one image fills the screen, if there are insets or four separate images all form preprogrammed presets.
Imkhanitsky has specified Key Digital solutions for 15 years: “All of my control, all of my baluns, all of my switchers, all of my HDMI cables, they’re all Key Digital.” This standardization is, in no small part, “because their tech support team is really good,” he says. Key Digital preconfigures all AV over IP systems shipped from the factory. The turnkey AV over IP systems “drop right into place. It comes all on a rack shelf. You literally just take the rack shelf, bolt it in, plug in three cables into each one of them and that’s the extent of it, it’s so simple.”
“I do all my Compass Control programming,” he elaborates. “Key Digital has two iOS based apps for controlling systems, one, which is the standard Key Digital App is made for simple installations. And it’s free. My problem is that I don’t get those kinds of clients. Mine are always the complicated ones – my installations are more based on experience and knowledge which Key Digital’s full Compass Control App is the perfect solution for. What experience gets you is knowing how well all of the products intermingle with each other – which ones work with each other, and which ones don’t.”
Even with all that experience though, Imkhanitsky says, “I’ve had situations like a TV that had a firmware update and then it didn’t work with anything else. The major brands don’t really care about helping you with anything. A solution is often just a phone call away to Key Digital. Then I call up Key Digital and they say, ‘Well, it sounds like you need the little device called an HDMI connectivity fixer.’ One in, one out, and it just fixes the problem.”
