Elation EZ4 LED Display Provides Visual Versatility for Qzone at Quil Ceda Creek Casino

	Qzone at Quil Ceda Creek Casino with Elation Professional. Photo: Agility AVL

Quil Ceda Creek Casino, located on the Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Seattle, had one overriding requirement for Agility AVL (http://agilityavl.com) for the lighting and video package in their new Qzone entertainment venue -- make it high tech. And that they did, installing a state-of-the-art Elation Professional EZ4 LED video screen along with Elation Platinum Spot LED II moving heads and EPAR Series LED fixtures.

Opened in April 2014, Qzone is a new multi-purpose venue that functions as sports bar, café, and music venue and even holds corporate meetings from time to time. The space, which originally started as a nightclub before being converted to a gaming room and now Qzone, is located just off the main Quil Ceda Creek Casino gaming floor. The client wanted to use the space to provide different options and events that appealed to customers in order to draw them onto the property.

Six months prior to opening, Agility was called in to design, build, and install the high-tech lighting and video package and initially planned on a 6mm pixel pitch panel for the all-important centerpiece LED video screen. "Venues of this type are relying more and more on LED walls," states Agility's Rob Johnson, account manager on the project. "Because the LED screen in Qzone was to be the centerpiece of the room and be used for a variety of purposes, we were a bit concerned about the pixel pitch. We took a trip to the Elation headquarters in Los Angeles where we had the chance to compare the 6mm screen with the 4mm -- and came away convinced the 4mm EZ4 was the best choice for this install."

Installed directly behind a 20' wide by 13' deep stage used to host live music and assorted acts, as well as serve as the main presentation platform, is an 8' x 12' EZ4 LED screen, an eye-catching visual that's hard to miss from the venue's entrances. "It's the focal point of the room and looks great when you enter. It even looks good when you're close to it at the front of the stage," Johnson states, who also names the EZ4's price point, easy assembly, and versatility as factors in its choice. "The old club had a projector and screen but you can't use that type of technology when you have a performer or speaker on stage. The EZ4 is a real multipurpose screen for a multipurpose room and gives the venue a lot of options."

The EZ4 is the highest resolution LED panel offering from Elation with a high density of 10,816 pixels (104 x 104) per panel ensuring a clear and sharp picture with an array of vivid colors. Its superior image quality and 1,200 Nits of brightness allow guests to Qzone to get up close and personal with all their favorite sports teams, but also provides the high quality visual backdrop bands and performers need to run video and graphics, which is managed and played back via an Elation Media Master Express media server.

The EZ4 screen has many other uses, for example as a visual juke box to play music videos or simply to watch TV. It also acts as a big computer screen for corporate meetings and presentations, its fan-less design and convection cooling assuring quiet operation.

Installing the LED screen actually allowed Agility to go lighter on the rest of the lighting system, Johnson says, who specified LED lighting for its many benefits including power savings and the fact that he wouldn't have to deal with the added cost and hassle of using dimmers. The Qzone lighting system includes Elation 135W Platinum Spot LED II color and pattern changing moving heads, as well as EPAR Tri LED lights, both mounted on a Global Truss system that hangs over the dance floor and stage.

Johnson says he chose the Platinum Spot LED II's, positioned on finger trusses over the dance floor, for their attractive price point and compact size, which fit in well with the room's size and short trim heights. "They actually make the room look bigger and taller," he says. Providing color wash from 20' upstage and downstage trusses are EPAR Tri RGB LED lights used for band washes, while EPAR QA fixtures with their added amber LED, which extends the color range and gives effective color temperature control, are used for highlighting speakers on stage.

The EZ4 LED screen and LED lighting's versatility and reliability gets tested daily at Qzone with a host of bands, DJs, comedy acts, and other performers and events, not to mention the myriad of sports programming, keeping the system busy. Johnson reports that the system has held up very well since being installed earlier in the year.

See Elation Professional at PLASA Focus: Orlando, February 17 - 18, 2015.