When Takedown — a locally owned gym located in Brainerd, Minnesota — first opened its doors in 2014, one of the highlights of the 15,000-square-foot facility was an engrossing audiovisual experience designed to wow members and motivate them to move their muscles into shape. Integrator Digital Horizons performed the installation, relying on RTI solutions to provide staff with simple and intuitive control over the powerful AV system.

Three years later, Takedown broke ground on an extensive renovation and expansion project that would ultimately triple the size of the gym. Recently completed, additions include a new wrestling room; spin studio; field house — complete with removeable artificial turf — for a wide variety of sports and training programs; smoothie bar; Select Therapy Center for on-site physical therapy, chiropractic care, and regenerative services; and a child-care center. With the expansion came the need to extend audio, video, and lighting systems across these new spaces, while maintaining effortless control for staff. Once again, Digital Horizons got the call.

The revamped facility sports 14 displays and two projectors, which play out content from six cable boxes, two Apple TVs, two Blu-ray players, and data from members’ Myzone wearable heartrate-based systems. For audio, each of the gym’s seven main areas is equipped with a Sonos sound system, a Crown Audio CDI or XLS series amplifier, and either JBL or ElectroVoice speakers and subwoofers. All audio processing and routing is handled by ClearOne Converge SR 1212 digital matrix mixers.
A Lutron RadioRA® 2 system provides control over lighting, in addition to temperature, ceiling and exhaust fans, air purification and heating panels, and make-up air dampers. An additional two DMX controllers in the spin room allow for a reactive experience, with lighting pulsing and changing color based on the music playing. Components are housed in two Middle Atlantic Products ERK-4425 racks — one at either end of the facility. Each is equipped with WattBox® power conditioners.

“Takedown’s owner was very happy with the ease of use and sleek look of their original control system, so relying on RTI for the expansion was never in question,” said Scott Johannes, owner at Digital Horizons. “The RTI platform is our go-to solution for commercial projects because it’s simple to scale to virtually any size. That was especially important in this project, where we needed to create a consistent user experience across the gym, while also customizing control to specific areas.”
At the heart of Takedown’s control system lies RTI’s XP-8v control processor, which Digital Horizons paired with an XP-8s secondary processor. Both are used in conjunction with PCM-4 port control modules. The gym’s Sonos systems, ClearOne mixers, RadioRA system, and WattBox units are fully integrated into the RTI platform via IP drivers. Control over sources, displays, projectors and screens, and DMX controllers is provided by a mix of RS-232, IR, and contact closure relays.

Takedown staff have complete control over AV and environmental systems throughout the facility via seven iPads running RTI’s RTiPanel app, in addition to a KX2 2.8-inch in-wall touchpanel keypad in the kitchen/conference room. Six of the iPads are custom-programmed for specific areas of the gym. In these areas, staff can easily change audio and video sources as needed for their classes, and monitor components currently in use — viewing the status of the volume, microphones, speakers, lighting, and more. When a class is complete, tapping the “End Class” button returns components to their stand-by state.
The seventh iPad serves as a master controller for all areas of the gym, as well as providing access to maintenance operations and system start-up and shut-down routines, which greatly simplify the opening and closing of the gym for staff. In the morning, a single button tap turns on music across the gym to pre-set levels, and powers on lighting and displays where needed. At the end of the day, another tap of a button shuts everything down.

“Takedown just had its grand re-opening, which drew about 1,500 people,” added Schucker. “Guests were blown away by the AV experience at the gym and staff can’t believe how easy it is to operate such sophisticated equipment. They can easily customize their classes how they want and return all equipment back to its stand-by state at the end. In addition, the one-touch routines save them considerable time at the beginning and end of each day. And if the gym expands further in the future, we will easily be able to accommodate that growth with RTI.”