Let’s start with the system commissioning date of Nov. 23^rd, 2003.  Final tuning and balancing is complete the Hotel and Club are scheduled to open Thanksgiving week.  

Fast-Forward to Wed. Dec. 26^th 8:00 AM my home phone rings and it’s our Installation Manager Danny with news from the Ritz that our Ballroom racks had just spent 4 or 5 hours powered up and getting a shower from a fire head sprinkler located directly above our racks!  Initial reports are “it smells really bad in there”.

With over $60,000 in equipment and time invested in these racks my mind starts to race.  We were closed for the Holiday week (as were a number of suppliers) and the bulk of the Hotel system was down.  Danny loaded the truck with all our heat guns, shop lights, tools, hairdryers, towels and the like and headed for the Hotel, I gather our as-built manuals and start calling the suppliers for the gear we had installed in the racks.  

At 2:00PM 12/26 I get my first update from the site.  Danny has removed the components and opened and drained chassis’ and has a preliminary damage report; 2-Crown amps and 1-VRAMEQ dead but everything else is looking O.K. after the initial evaluation. 

In the meantime I was contacting suppliers to see what the possibility of replacement gear would be.  I found a number of manufacturers closed as well, but several had emergency contact numbers on their phones.

I had made arrangements with FSR BiAmp, and Shure for replacement gear to be over-night delivered to the site if needed, but found Crown unavailable. 

Klipsch Speakers Installed in 4th-Floor Member’s Club Stained to Match Ceiling Finish

As it turned out the AME computer was also dead, but all in all a lucky break for all parties concerned.  By 4:00 PM 12/26 Danny had dried and reconnected the working components, rerouted signal to provide critical area coverage and a portable CD was providing at least a single source of BGM to the Deli rack systems and the Restaurant.  

12/27 AM our BiAmp and new QSC power amps arrive at the site and Danny completes the installation of available replacement gear.  The new AME would need to be reprogrammed and tested before shipping.  Although we were not able to provide more than two CD sources of music the entire system was back on line by Saturday 12/28 for New Years Eve and Day.  Kudos to my suppliers for the help, especially QSC for being able to provide a cross for the Crowns amps. Special thanks to Danny for his exceptional above and beyond the call of duty dedication.