Bars, restaurants and hotels · Seamill, West Kilbride · 2019
The Firth Pavilion, Seamill Hydro: control, audio and video for a wedding venue on the Clyde
Seamill Hydro built the Firth Pavilion as a wedding and conference venue looking across the Firth of Clyde to Arran. Lairds designed and installed the control system, audio, video, shading and signage behind it, including the one-button bridal entrance that opens the door, starts the music and brings the lights up in sequence.
Client
Seamill Hydro Hotel, family owned
Venue
The Firth Pavilion, Seamill, West Kilbride
Scope
RTI control, audio and video distribution, projection, shading, signage
Recognition
Featured in Essential Install; AV Awards finalist; on RTI’s website
The building
Seamill Hydro is a Victorian-style hotel on the Ayrshire coast at West Kilbride, family owned and long established as a wedding venue. The Firth Pavilion was built on the hotel grounds as a dedicated wedding and conference venue: a ceremony room, a reception hall with a stage, two conference rooms and breakout rooms, bars, a buffet area and kitchen, offices for sales and administration, and the Glenashdale bridal suite upstairs. Every room was planned around the view, a panorama of the coastline and the mountains of Arran.
The brief was a building that carried the most current technology without any of it showing against a clean, classical interior: lighting, shading, audio, video, signage and security, all run from one control system that staff could operate during a wedding without a technician in the room. Lairds had already designed and installed the RTI control system in the hotel’s Glen Rosa suite, and the owners asked us to do the same, on a larger scale, for the Pavilion.
What we designed
Control
The system is built on an RTI XP-8s processor. From it the owners and general manager have control of the lighting, the Nuvo audio distribution, the WyreStorm video distribution, the QMotion shades, the automated entrance door and the cameras. RTI touch panels and keypads are placed where they are needed: a KX7 panel in the first-floor foyer, KX3 panels in the kitchen, green room and breakout room, KX2 panels in the ceremony rooms, reception hall and foyer, and RK1+ two-button keypads at the bar and lounge bar. Some panels give staff and guests limited control; others are password protected so that settings cannot be changed by accident mid-event.
The bridal entrance
The owners’ priority was the moment the bride enters. One press on a touch panel opens the ceremony door, starts the entrance music and brings the lights up in sequence. The same system opens the shades and lowers the lights on cue for sunrise and sunset over the water. Programmed in RTI Integration Designer, these are precisely timed sequences, and the staff run them with a single button.
Audio and video
Sonance loudspeakers are used throughout the Pavilion, with an M&K Sound surround system in the Glenashdale suite and Nuvo distributing audio to the zones. Video runs over a WyreStorm NetworkHD distribution system to Sony commercial displays, with Epson laser short-throw projection for presentations and Spinetix digital signage for the public areas. SyncBoxes and VirtualOn mirror optics finish the rooms so that screens disappear when they are not in use.
Shading, doors and security
QMotion motorised blinds are on the control system so that the room follows the light. The entrance door is automated and part of the entrance scene. CCTV covers the venue and is viewed from the same interface; we do not publish how any building is protected beyond that.
The Pavilion
What we handed over
A venue the hotel staff run from touch panels and keypads: scenes for ceremonies, receptions and conferences, the bridal entrance on one button, audio and video to every room from one rack, and shading and lighting that follow the day. The project was featured in Essential Install magazine, was a finalist in the AV Awards and was showcased on RTI’s website. WyreStorm, whose system distributes the video, have published their own account of the Firth Pavilion.
“When the owners of Seamill Hydro Hotel shared their vision for this space, we knew every element had to be perfect. After experiencing the capabilities of RTI systems within the Glen Rosa suite, they really put their imaginations to work for the Firth Pavilion. The system allows technology to be integrated and controlled in a truly elegant way, a natural fit for the ambiance of such a grand venue and a magnificent landscape.”
Mark Laird, Founder and Managing Director, Lairds
Equipment
- Control RTI XP-8s processor; KX7, KX3 and KX2 in-wall touch panels; RK1+ two-button keypads
- Audio Sonance loudspeakers throughout; M&K Sound surround in the Glenashdale suite; Nuvo audio distribution
- Video WyreStorm NetworkHD video distribution; Sony commercial HD displays; Epson laser short-throw projection
- Signage and finish Spinetix digital signage; SyncBoxes; VirtualOn mirror optics
- Shading and access QMotion motorised blinds; automated sliding entrance door
- Security CCTV on the control interface
Related projects
Glen Rosa suite, Seamill Hydro
The RTI system that came first
Ayrshire Hospice Ball, Seamill
The Pavilion on its biggest night
Hendrick’s Gin Palace, Girvan
Building-wide audio, 4K video and a secure network
Building a venue?
A wedding venue is judged on moments, and the moments are made by control: the door, the music, the light, on one button. Tell us about the building while it is still on the drawings.