• Case Studies

The Fun Art Blokhus activity park combines smart building functionality with the flexibility to deliver memorable days out, comprehensive stage shows, and familiar meeting room environments for corporate events.

Located in North Jutland, Denmark, the Fun Art Blokhus is an innovative combined indoor/ outdoor activity park, merging a sustainable, smart building approach with games, events, and catering to deliver a leisure park with an intelligent edge.

Here, visitors can enjoy trampolining, play boules or minigolf, or even turn their hands to the park’s in-house ceramics workshop or attend one of the venue’s many concerts. For business visitors, the park even offers several bookable meeting spaces, offering a solid leisure and work experience.

As a project that puts adaptive design at the centre of its philosophy, the Fun Art Blokhus required an integration partner that was no stranger to designing for spaces with varied needs on the fly.

Enter Profox, a systems integrator with a storied history both in the fixed installation and touring worlds. Profox was able to bring its extensive experience in designing for live events to bring the venue’s vision to life.

Søren Kabbel Dalgaard, CTO, Profox, explains: “There is one owner at Fun Art, and he decides what goes in. He approached us with the concept for the project, and we saw the initial designs on paper. The owner had some ideas in his head and a piece of paper, so we didn’t know what we were getting in to. There was a tender, the owner asked around, and we were chosen. We do touring as well, so we know what to do and what not to do, and we try to design a project so that we can work on it afterwards.

“We were involved with this project from the very beginning. We helped to design the iron beams in the main hall’s ceiling so that they fit our trusses. We helped to design the stage, and for a company like us this was a fantastic opportunity as we could get involved fromthe get-go. Many times, on installations, the AV is the afterthought, but we were able to pick the cables in the walls, the number of cables, the amount of power, everything was there from the very start.”

With the AV design baked into the very construction of Fun Art, Profox set to work to deliver a high quality installation without compromise. Dalgaard continues: “The owner did not want to do this cheaply, he wanted to use equipment that lasted a long time. He wanted high quality, so that when bands arrive at the venue, it is up to the same standard that they are used to working to while also limiting energy consumption as much as possible.

“All of the projectors are LED, and the building is run by solar power through solar panels on the roof, so that the venue can be run all summer without using other power sources. We are also using Q-Sys to toggle equipment on and off, so the whole building is a smart building. All of the billboards and screens are run by Q-Sys, so with a touch of a button, everything goes on to standby. When the job is done in the evening, everything turns off.”

The outdoor area features smaller buildings divided into hotel rooms, with outdoor speakers. “We have Audac amplifiers, using Dante, running from inside,” says Dalgaard. “The whole network is made from Dante and Q-Sys products, with every product running a Dante backbone. We did this because the owner has so many ideas, so we tried to make the equipment as versatile as possible. You can make Q-Sys bigger and bigger, and we chose Dante so we can route to wherever we want to go. We have two main server racks with fibre running in between, and we can just plug in. If the owner wants to expand, the cables are already in the wall, because we did that before the start. We doubled up on the cabling today so if the owner wants to expand tomorrow, we can do it without challenges.”

Profox selected Audac amplifiers for both their Dante compatibility and the flexibility to run eight Ohms and 110 volts. The in-house ceramics workshop offers visitors the chance to get creative with their own artwork, using the same Q-Sys system, with the option for visitors to connect via Bluetooth to play their own music while painting.

The ceramics workshop, as well as other indoor areas of the venue, are fitted with 85-in iiyama screens, offering the Fun Art team the ability to present advertisements and other content that is relevant to each space.

Dalgaard explains: “Every screen in the venue is run by a NordicScreen Q-Play media player. Every screen has a player, so the team can choose advertising or other content in-house. There is no subscription required for this.

“It was very important that the products do not have subscription services. The amount of money to keep the venue running had to be as low as possible, and the owner wanted to make the system cheap to run without additional cost overheads.”

Professional performance 

The crown jewel of the installation is the venue’s main hall and stage area. As a space that is used for both concerts and art exhibitions, accurate colour reproduction and high quality sound were of the utmost importance.

Profox supplied 60 Cameo F1 FC Fresnel spotlights to deliver clear visuals, using the F1 FCs as audience lighting in concert operations and as ambient lighting for the alternating art exhibits at the venue.

F1 T Fresnel spotlights with tungsten LED were selected for the front truss above the stage, with Azor S2 Spot moving heads placed on other truss positions including in the two rear trusses. Additionally, Profox supplied Zenit Z120 G2 LED PAR fixtures that are also located here, providing a large zoom range to offer a range of unique looks for concerts.

The event hall lighting offering is completed by H1 FC LED house lights, placed along the walls from above and below to give the room a warmer tone, especially for special events such as Christmas.

“All the trusses are Litec,” explains Dalgaard. “The main hall has a lot of lamps and we have installed seven trusses that can go and up and down. There are ten lamps per truss with individual controls, so we can take the truss down and put some art pieces up there, or during seasonal events like Christmas, we can put Christmas lights up.”

For audio in the main hall, Profox supplied a Coda audio system comprised of Linus 10+14 amplifiers, N-RAY, N-APS and SCP speakers, as well as CUE2 monitors to support live events.

“We went with Coda because of the high audio fidelity, and the high output in a small form factor. We also have good experience with the brand from our rental department,” explains Dalgaard.

The main stage also features a JVC PTZ camera to provide a camera feed in the building from the main stage, running NDI into the Q-Sys system. Sennheiser wireless microphones are available inthe building, running both on Q-Sys and Allen & Heath’s AHM-32 audio matrix processor. An Epson projector is also installed in the ceiling which can provide additional illumination or content when required.

Keeping flexibility at the centre, Profox ensured that the audio system can offer additional punch where it is needed for events of larger scale. Dalgaard says: “In normal use, somebody can come in to use a microphone, turn it up, then you can hit a switch to give the power from the wireless microphones to the Allen & Heath SQ-5 console. If you get an experienced technician in that wants to do more EQ with a small band, they can just switch them around. If an outside band comes in that wants to use their own CAT-5 cabling, we have five available connecting to the stage that they can just plug in.”

The park is also home to five meeting rooms of varying sizes,offering BYOD functionality. These meeting rooms feature Barco Clickshare, and iiyama screens varying between 52-in and 86-in. Profox delivered Adam Hall SAT loudspeakers, specifying either SAT 242 G2s or SAT 442 G2s based on room sizes, supported by wall-mounted Dante amplifiers.

“Eighty per cent of the system is from Adam Hall on this project,” adds Dalgaard. “They are building great products, and we had great communication from Adam Hall’s Denmark team. Many times, it comes down to the person behind the product, and we had the right support, delivery time, and good prices.”

Audio in the foyer and meeting rooms is also enhanced through Adam Hall CFL 62 two-way installation speakers, supported by several DQOR installation speakers for the public play areas, supported by the Q-Sys backbone.

“We have two meeting rooms side by side, and you can flip one room to mirror the other. If a guy with a laptop plugged in, it can be mirrored in the other room via the Q-Sys control system. Every room also has three internal radio channels with an Adam Hall player, run and routed all over the building. The conference rooms are kept the same, so that if you can use one room, you can use any room.”

Ultimately, Profox harnessed its expertise to work hand-in-hand with the client and other contractors to deliver a quality system that not only meets the needs of today but has the capacity to be expanded as the venue’s needs evolve over time.

Dalgaard closes: “The install went very well. Because we had been there from the start, we knew what we were getting in to and we were connected directly to other contractors which saved a lot of hassle.

“Getting the chance to choose the right products from A to Z was a huge advantage for us. The customer trusted us to choose the right products, they trusted that we knew what was best for them and that is the biggest success. We were trusted to make the right decisions, and we are now helping the client with putting on concerts as we like to work the system, and it’s a great system to work on. Audio engineers that come in agree that it’s a great PA system.”