New York City's Roosevelt Island Modernizes Pro AV Technology with Key Digital

Technology solutions provider Elite Design Systems (EDS) recently completed a multi-year, multi-media project in collaboration with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). This transformative initiative encompassed a wide range of  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 lighthouse—included EDS-implemented LAN networking infrastructure, digital signage , and new, innovative Pro AV technology, with core hardware provided by Key Digital .

[Connectivity to the Core]

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 4x20 AV-over-IP system composed of four KD-IP922ENC encoders (one for each source) and 20 KD-IP922DEC decoders (one for each display). Fifty-inch televisions are mounted throughout the facility (12 in the 2x6 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.

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The largest installation in the system is in the Roosevelt Island Sportspark complex, where a Key Digital KD-IP922-based 8x16 AV-over-IP system was deployed. Most of the monitors are again 50-inch televisions, including a 4x4 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,” said 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.”