Framingham, MA, August 27, 2018 – The Las Vegas Strip is one of the most heavily trafficked tourist destinations in North America, with an average of 17,700 pedestrians per hour on any given day, peaking at 40,000 people from 8-9 p.m. Needless to say, the property owners on the Strip are in competition for who can garner the most attention from the visitors’ eyes and ears. At The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace – a major 664,000-square-foot shopping mall – this gentle game of one-upmanship recently took the form of a massive AV upgrade at the entrance on Las Vegas Blvd., involving a massive vertical marquee, a complement of digital visuals evoking ancient Rome, and eventually a large-scale distributed audio system employing over two dozen loudspeakers from Bose Professional – including modules from the Bose Panaray and FreeSpace lines. These upgrades were initiated by property owner Simon, with graphics, visual design and content created and implemented by Moment Factory with support from Acquire Digital. Simon and Moment Factory subsequently worked with Mood Media and Bose Professional to design, spec and install the robust audio system.

Moment Factory outlined their goals on the visual aspect of the project: “Our challenge was to design content that would stand out on one of the busiest streets in the world, so we added digital visuals to the classical architecture by crafting a modern twist on The Forum Shops’ own Ancient Roman aesthetics. Our team built 22 animated capsules using 3D architectural illusions to capture tourists’ attention from all angles where the Marquee can be seen.” But after the installation of these visual elements, all agreed something was missing to take this landmark to the next level: powerful, clear audio design.

Christian L’Heureux, Producer at Moment Factory, noted, “The visual elements were an outstanding success. Immediately we had visitors stopping to look and take pictures, and that increased traffic to the shops. But we wanted a more immersive experience, so we added a sound layer to the project – that’s where Mood Media and Bose came in, and we worked together to create the audio system. I think the best way to tell a story and have a captivated audience is to have sound, because it crystalizes the experience for the visitor.”

Mood Media is the world’s leading in-store media solutions company dedicated to elevating the customer experience. Craig Breigle, Mood’s Director of Retail and Development System Sales, has regularly worked with longtime Mood client Simon, handling sound systems on their various projects. On The Forum Shops project, he notes, “It’s the biggest and brightest thing on the Strip right now! It’s always about one-upping the next guy in Vegas, and the audio and visual content at The Forum Shops are second-to-none. Once they brought on Mood for the audio phase, we looked at Moment Factory’s design, and began evaluating system options from multiple brands. For all of us, especially given Simon’s very high standards throughout their properties, Bose was the clear choice in terms of sound systems and support.”

The system includes 16 Bose Panaray 402 Series IV loudspeakers in white, four additional Panaray 402 Series IV loudspeakers in black, four MB12 WR weather-resistant modular bass loudspeakers, and several FreeSpace 360P Series II full-range environmental loudspeakers. Power is handled by four Bose PowerMatch PM8500N configurable amplifiers, and processing is handled by a Bose ControlSpace ESP-880 engineered sound processor with Ethernet and a Bose ControlSpace CC-64 control center.

Breigle continues, “Simon was definitely looking for high-quality sound in an outdoor space with lots of bass. They really wanted to make a big splash and have it be impactful. The system is simple yet comprehensive in terms of its coverage. The Panaray 402’s in white are arranged on the building’s façade, and the 402’s in black are on the bottom of the marquee. The MB12 subwoofers are up inside the marquee, not visible, and they project the bass frequencies down and out through the bottom of the marquee. The FreeSpace 360P environmental loudspeakers are in the landscape beds in-ground along the sidewalk, located between the show area and Las Vegas Boulevard.”

Throughout the course of the project, Mood worked closely with Bose Professional personnel to ensure that the audio system would meet the goals that Simon had outlined and complement the visually arresting graphics created by Moment Factory. Breigle recalls, “After coming up with the initial system design, we ran it through Bose Modeler software to see exactly how the system would perform, and after verifying the results, we moved to the installation phase.” In January, Bose, Mood and Moment Factory all worked together to get the system commissioned, and one evening, they loaded in the audio content, fired it up, and “it was the loudest, best-sounding, most attention-grabbing attraction on the Strip,” notes Breigle.

The result has been a unanimous success. Chip Harding, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Simon, remarks, “Our new marquee has had a very positive impact for The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace – it has elevated our presence on Las Vegas Blvd in grand style. The marquee’s unique design has changed the digital signage landscape in Las Vegas. We have definitely raised the bar in a market that is notorious for audio and visual stimulation.”

Neil Farr, Managing Director at Acquire Digital, the digital signage company involved in the project, agrees. He notes, “The performance is amazing. It is a very challenging location, as it’s right on the Strip, with numerous other attention-grabbing elements all around it. Having clear and crisp sound with arresting graphics really creates a standout effect for the Forum Shops.”

Breigle concludes, “Everyone at The Forum Shops is very happy. A manager at Simon was helping us get the final elements set up that night, and I asked him about implementing some of the scheduling features of the system, to maybe automatically turn it down during the wee hours. He told me, ‘No, I’d like to turn it up then, actually. This is Vegas!’ Since the installation, we haven’t heard a peep from them, which is a great sign. It was a really strong, successful partnership between Simon, Moment Factory, Acquire Digital, Mood Media and Bose – one we are all proud to have supported.”