From AV.technology
Fortress Games Sydney is as ambitious as a Call of Duty suicide mission and as epic as an Assassin’s Creed weekend with unlimited beer and pizza. From an AV perspective it’s a large hadron collider loaded with broadcast, live production, hospitality, networked audio and control.
Where other esports venues have been less than convincing is when one or more of the key AV disciplines are underwhelming. When everything meshes, then the results can be spectacular.
Sydney-based integration firm, The AVIT Group, was introduced to Fortress when its Technical Director Adrian Davis bussed down to the Melbourne outlet to assist in a special weekend of competition. He left a positive impression and AVIT was invited to bid on the AV aspects of the upcoming build of Fortress Sydney.
The more Adrian and The AVIT Group’s CEO Brad Magri heard about Fortress, the more they were convinced it was right in their sweetspot — a multi-disciplinary AV pile-on that would require as much creative thinking as it would clear thinking.
“From inception it was very clear that these these guys were doing esports but with a broadcast mentality,” reckons Adrian Davis. “It’s something I wish more webcasters or streamers would take seriously. We have 60-plus years of broadcast history and experience, which is often completely forgotten in a new world of streaming — to our detriment.
“Fortress, on the other hand, wants to marry the two worlds, in a big-league way.
“From a broadcast perspective, Fortress is a Ross Video house, which is a wonderful top-tier broadcast manufacturer. But the difference with Fortress is it’s not a traditional broadcast studio because, of course, it’s also an AV site and an events venue. So the combined system sits under a layer of, in this case, Q-SYS control. In fact, we’ve had a lot of fun with Q-SYS — it was almost a case of brainstorming ‘what else can we get Q-SYS to do?!’ But it’s designed with the end users in mind to make sure that we refine it for their operation — it’s not a programmer-led solution; it’s a user-led programming solution.”
CONTACTS
Fortress Games: fortress.games
The AVIT Group: theavitgroup.com.au
EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS
- Ross Video broadcast systems
- Q-SYS control & audio DSP
- Marshall miniature broadcast cameras
- RF Venue wireless distribution
- Nexo & Quest Audio loudspeakers
- Lab.gruppen power amplifiers
- Allen & Heath mixing console