A Sports Bar AV System Built Around Biamp Tesira in Pleasanton, California

Why a sports bar needs a real audio system

Pivot is a craft kitchen and sports bar in Pleasanton with a lobby video wall, ten screens across the dining room and bar, LED tickers and private suites. The sound has to cover a lobby, a bar, dining space and restrooms at once, with each area at its own level and every game in step with the picture. We built the audio around one Biamp Tesira processor and three Voltera amplifiers and put the video on the network with Crestron NVX. This hospitality AV project ran in two phases: the bar and entry first, then the suites and a Topgolf Swing Suite upstairs.

What made it hard

Four things shaped the job. The signed scope had ten owner-furnished cable boxes feeding the screens, so the design had to take the owner's sources as they were. Audio had to serve the lobby, bar and restroom speakers, more than twenty in all, without one zone's level disturbing another. The owner's scope covered power, network and structure, so our rack design had to state exactly what it needed from each. And the second phase added suites and an upstairs Swing Suite to a system we had already built.

How we designed it

The core is one Biamp Tesira SERVER-IO AVB with a DSP-2 card. We filled its I/O with twelve four-channel cards: two SEC-4 mic/line inputs with echo cancellation, four SIC-4 analog inputs and six SOC-4 analog outputs. That is 8 mic/line inputs, 16 analog inputs and 24 analog outputs, which uses the 48 channels of I/O the pick list rates the chassis for.

Three Voltera D 1200.8 amplifiers sit under the processor. Each has eight channels and 1,200 watts of total power, so the three give 24 channels, one for each output. The speakers they drive are Biamp Desono ceiling speakers in the lobby, bar and restrooms, so the processing, amplification and loudspeakers all come from one manufacturer. Browse Biamp's Tesira, Voltera and Desono range for the same building blocks.

Video rides the network too. Twenty-seven Crestron DM-NVX-360 units carry 4K video, and a Crestron CP4N runs control behind a touch panel at the control desk and an iPad, so staff pick the screen and the source without touching the DSP.

Why Tesira suits a sports bar, in plain terms

Here is what the Biamp platform means for an owner, without the jargon.

• One cable per device. Sound travels over ordinary network cabling instead of a separate bundle of audio wires. Tesira uses a network standard called AVB/TSN, and it also works with Dante and CobraNet equipment.
• One program for audio and video. Biamp says Tesira is designed in a single software environment, so the sound and the screens are planned together.
• Room to grow. The processing power is shared across the system, so you only pay for what you need. Speakers or processing can be added later without starting the design over.
• Sound that stays with the picture. Biamp lists guaranteed delay through the system and tightly synchronized timing, which keeps the audio lined up with the video.
• Clear voices. Echo and noise cancellation help the system tell speech from background noise, which matters in the suites.
• Five-year warranty. Biamp covers Tesira for five years. That is the manufacturer's coverage, separate from our own installation warranty.

The suites and the Topgolf Swing Suite upstairs

Phase 2 brought the private suites online. Each suite has a 98-inch Sharp display, a PTZ camera, four Biamp Desono ceiling speakers with a Desono subwoofer, a Crestron NVX 360 and a 10-inch Crestron tabletop panel. Two Biamp Parlé pendant microphones in each suite, a Parlé TCM-1 and a TCM-1EX, terminate into the existing Biamp processing, and a Tesira EX-UBT expander per suite puts USB and Bluetooth audio on the network.

The Topgolf Swing Suite upstairs received five 55-inch displays, four 4-inch Biamp Desono ceiling speakers in two audio zones, one per bay, NVX video distribution and touchscreen control from the closet. The Topgolf sign behind the control desk points guests up to it.

Equipment by function

Network and IT

Three Netgear M4250 GSM4248PX switches, each with 40 PoE+ ports and 8 SFP+ ports, carry the network, with one AVB license for the Tesira audio transport. Five Wi-Fi 6 access points cover the venue. Power, network cabling and structure were the owner's scope, so the rack spec listed the circuits and drops we needed.

Rollout

We staged and tested the Biamp equipment in our shop, then moved to the site for the rack build, cable pulls, and speaker and display installs. Technicians pulled the ticker cabling, added a speaker at the entryway and stayed on site while our engineer tested. Phase 2 finished the two suites, including cameras and the devices behind each display. The table-side connections waited until the owner settled on tables.

What the owner has today

Lobby, bar, dining and restroom audio now runs from one Biamp Tesira processor. Ten dining and bar screens and the lobby wall take their sources from the network, and staff change them from a touch panel. Each suite has its own microphones and expander, and the Swing Suite upstairs has two zones.

Support and handover

The scope included two training sessions and a 90-day warranty, with an optional Corporate 8/5/2BD service plan and optional remote monitoring offered. Later changes go through our maintenance and managed support plans, and Tesira and Crestron programming changes go to our control and DSP programming team. For the processing layer behind a public room, see our Oakland council chamber Tesira project, and read how we approach commercial audio and video walls.