NEAR THE “DIAMOND IN THE DESERT”
IS A GEM OF A BAG END SOUND SYSTEM

Not far from the “Diamond in the Desert” can be found a gem of a sound system.

The "Diamond in the Desert" is the fabulous Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The gem of a sound system? That's at the nearby Speedway Casino and Ramada Inn, 3227 Civic Center Drive in North Las Vegas.

Five years ago, the casino's better days could only be seen in its rearview mirror, but with the opening of the 300-acre Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1996, the northeast corner of the metropolitan area underwent a metamorphosis. The speedway, with its exciting, high-profile NASCAR and Indy class racing, revitalized the area, bringing in hundreds of thousands of people - and things were hopping like never before.

Mountaineer Gaming saw a golden opportunity and purchased the 118-room hotel/casino and refurbished it from the front doors to the rear, creating a colorful racing motif, highlighted by a new logo with a checkered flag flying over a looping race track. The gaming area was remodeled and renamed the "Speedway Casino," complete with a "Stockcar Frenzy" simulator right in the casino. The overhaul reached every corner and names like the "Speedway Cafe," "Pit Stop" lounge, and the "Finish Line" bar were created.

A not unimportant part of the remodeling project was the installation of an all-new sound system - and that chore fell to Tim King of Illumination Station, a sound design and sound reinforcement installation firm from Phoenix, Ariz. "Sound systems in Las Vegas are the largest, quietest systems around," King said. "That sounds like a contradiction, but gaming depends on communication and concentration on both the part of the customers and the pit crews. You want to be able to focus sound in particular areas. You want great sound in the entertainment areas, but you don't want it to bleed into the gaming areas and become a distraction."

Sound control is particularly critical at the Speedway Casino. The gaming area is essentially one large rectangle. The "Pitstop" lounge is at one end of the gaming area, and no walls separate it from the gaming area.

"We initially chose BAG END loudspeaker systems because we knew they were musical and loud, but at at the same time, because of their design, could be highly directional so we could contain where the sound would go," King said. The main focus of the sound system is in the "Pit Stop" lounge where nearly nonstop entertainment is provided. The stage is above the bar, facing out into the gaming area. "We chose the four BAG END Opals for our top-end cabinets in the lounge," King said. "For the bass system, we used a pair of double-18 BAG END D18E-I subwoofer cabinets and a BAG END ELF-1 bass processor because it images the subs in stereo so when you're in the center of the room there is no cancellation - and that's kind of unique to ELF."

On stage, King used four BAG END TA2000 floor monitors, a BAG END TA5000 floor monitor for the drum pit and two BAG END TA2000s for side-fill monitors. A master of understatement, King said, "We have a lot of monitors on the stage."

Even selectively, sound is still a necessity in the gaming area - for background music, paging, and so on. King strategically located six more BAG END TA2000s wired on three separate delay circuits. "We have music going into the pit areas at a very quiet level, and each zone is controlled separately so if, for example a pit calls and wants the music shut off, it can be done very easily." But King's pride and joy is the stage monitor system in the "Pitstop Lounge." "The monitor system works so well that if we have a band that is really loud and obnoxious, we don't even turn on the mains," he laughed. "Seriously, all of the musicians who have played through the BAG END monitors have commented on their performance - they're very compact and durable (I've never blown one up - and that's an accomplishment) but the sound quality is better than monitors that cost twice as much." After he headlined for the first time in the new lounge, famous ragtime jazz pianist Big Tiny Little called the BAG END monitor system "the best sounding system in town." Now in Las Vegas, that's saying something.

BAG END is no stranger to Las Vegas. BAG END systems can be found in the spectacular $460 million NEW YORK-NEW YORK hotel and casino as well as the MGM Grand Hotel's Grand Theater.