Featuring a state-of-the-art 200-seat concert hall and an intimate jazz lounge, Ravenscroft Hall is Scottsdale, Arizona’s newest premier performance venue. The 30,000 square-foot music venue and multi-use space showcases some of the finest jazz performances in the Salt River Valley and hosts music from popular and up-and-coming local musicians.

Key to designing Ravenscroft Hall was building a performance venue that would also incorporate a recording studio and be best-in-class in terms of performance. Centered on the idea of jazz and improvisational music, Ravenscroft Hall required audio and video technology that could produce musical performances of the highest quality.

Ravenscroft Hall offers an unparalleled musical experience with superb acoustics featuring the renowned Meyer Constellation sound system. The new complex consists of the concert hall, the Jazz Café, a first-class jazz lounge; a recording studio equipped with the “best of the best” equipment including Ravenscroft pianos, and a video production control center featuring a Panasonic KAIROS IT/IP live video switching and processing system, professional displays including 65” and 55” units, and a 17” Panasonic production monitor.

Recommended by the dBa Design Group, Ravenscroft Hall installed a powerful Panasonic KAIROS system to handle the complex’s varied video functions including producing and archiving performances, video streaming, and IMAG for the hall and for the overflow area in the Jazzbird cafe. To capture performances and other activities, Ravenscroft installed seven Panasonic AW-UE150 4K 60p pan-tilt-zoom cameras (four UE150s deployed in the hall, two UE150s in the Jazzbird café, and one UE150 in the multi-purpose space);  and an AK-UC3300 4K HDR studio camera in the hall. The cameras have 3G SDI and 12G SDI interfaces to allow recording in 1080p and 4K.

The state-of-the-art flexibility throughout Ravenscroft Hall called for a comparably advanced video production system to complete the immersive experience. Having prior experience using Panasonic’s professional AV solutions, dBa Design Group recommended KAIROS as the centerpiece of Ravenscroft’s video production system due to the platform’s IT/IP open architecture, user-friendly interface and intuitive operation, and future-proofed design. Unlike a traditional hardware switcher, KAIROS offers flexible system configuration and intuitive operation, delivering exceptional video performance and production value to captivate audiences. 

“Ravenscroft at its core is really about creativity, jazz and improvisation. And like art, it’s centered on the idea of being creative,” said Glenn Peacock, managing principle, dBa Design Group. “Because of KAIROS’s versatile architecture, we have a lot of flexibility. We can dial KAIROS in to meet the vision and the understanding of the creative team for each performance. Whereas with traditional systems, you have a final, static architecture and only limited changes are possible with existing hardware.” 

Panasonic’s KAIROS platform offers an open architecture system for live video switching with complete input and output flexibility, resolution and format independence, maximum CPU/GPU processor utilization and virtually unlimited ME scalability. As a native IP, ST 2110 system, KAIROS supports transitions to live IP workflows and can eliminate dedicated hardware constraints.

The Ravenscroft team’s first experiences with KAIROS has provided a great deal of vision for what it’s capable of when it comes to creating an immersive visual environment for performances. “The agility to reconfigure the production environment seamlessly and not be limited by static architecture allows us the creative freedom to suit the appetite of whatever the production,” added Peacock.

For future performances at Ravenscroft Hall, KAIROS will assist in video projection via projection mapping and environmental projection to create a multisensory experience. Visuals will be projected onto the hall’s walls and stage during concerts, adding another immersive element into the overall musical performance. 

“Immersive technology creates memorable inspiration with people’s time and that’s an important thing, because we’re competing for people’s time. We want a person to walk into this performing arts venue and be entertained and inspired and walk out saying, ‘I’m going to do that again. That’s memorable, that’s amazing. And I’m going to tell all my friends.’ That’s the sweet spot we’re working for at Ravenscroft. Many creative aspects can be propelled with technology like KAIROS and the system can do it quickly and efficiently.”

For more information on Ravenscroft Hall, visit theravenscroft.com. The Ravenscroft performance space is an outreach of MSW Ministries, a nonprofit private foundation the Ravenscrofts started in 2006. To learn more about dBa Design Group, visit dbadesigngroup.com.

Ready to equip your live music space for live video productions? Reach out to a Panasonic livestream production expert to schedule a consultation!