The Digital Media Arts Center is open, and the milestone our team is proudest of happened before the doors did. Every broadcast studio, the projection theater and each immersive gallery was wired, tuned, tested and accepted by the owner's operators before the first audience arrived.
A cultural building with a data center inside
The center looks like a gallery and runs like a technical facility. Studio lighting, camera and audio systems, projection, immersive media servers, networking and the building's own controls all depend on clean power, steady cooling and a fiber backbone that cannot fail during a live show.
Delivered under a CM at-risk contract, the project gave us a seat at the table early. We coordinated MEP systems with the AV, broadcast and low-voltage scopes in one model, claimed pathway space for the technology trades before the ceilings were drawn and placed the owner's media vendors on our pull plan from the start.
Most of the best work on this building is work you will never see. It is the clean power behind the projector and the cable that tested perfect the first time.
Project superintendent, ScottHarry
Tested like it was opening night, every night
Commissioning ran in levels. Equipment was verified at install, started up and tested system by system. Then the team ran integrated tests: full shows in the theater, live production in the studios and every gallery running content at once, with power transfers and cooling changes underneath. The owner's technical staff ran those tests with us, which made them the best-trained operators the building could have on opening day.
We are grateful to the owner and the design team for their trust, and to every trade partner and integrator who built this center. The best measure of the work is a show that simply starts on time.
