Toronto’s new Air Jordan location is more than just a store — it’s an experience. That was the goal when designing the three-level retail space, which is equipped with an underground kids-only concourse, an industrial-designed retail level, and an upper athletic training facility. In order to immerse guests on every floor, Nike hired local AV integrator and digital signage specialist Advanced to build and install an engaging AV system.
“Our early conversations were all geared to the user experience, and Air Jordan understands that AV can significantly contribute to the look and feel that a store conveys,” explained Advanced executive vice president Mark McPherson. “We were able to create nuanced and carefully distinguished spaces on each floor that truly transform this traditional brick-and-mortar store into an engaging customer experience.”
The store’s biggest AV priority was music. Air Jordan wanted to incorporate a multi-room audio system that would be flexible depending on the space, yet extremely easy to use for the store’s staff, so Advanced built the system around a Crestron multi-room audio controller, powered by 22 QSC AD-S12 and 18 QSC AD-S12-SW-B wall-mounted speakers hung with custom-built mounts in the building’s columns, and 11 QSC AD-6PT ceiling speakers. Advanced installed an Apple iPad Mini equipped with Spotify and a custom-designed GUI so staffers can easily change the song or volume.
“The main retail level and the kids-only concourse share an audio zone because they play the same ambient music at a low level,” explained Advanced senior project manager Scott Wouters. “We also added in some unique zones that are accessible to staffers if needed.”
The third floor, named Center 23, acts as a full-service training facility complete with a gym, locker room, and two Jordan Standard games — interactive display-based grid tests that measure each player’s agility level compared to Michael Jordan’s. Visitors can participate for free and be put to the test with a range of speed, endurance, and agility tasks.
“In order to distinguish the two game grids’ audio from the rest of the training facility area, we integrated a pair of QSC speakers that sends audio directly into the ear of the participant,” Wouters continued. “We designed drop-down speakers at the corner of the grid and targeted them directly to the center, which removes the entire floor’s background music as if the user were wearing noise-cancelling headphones.”
Additionally, in collaboration with an experiential design firm, Advanced turned four of the main level retail space’s eight-foot tall windows into digital canvases by installing perforated projection film screens – which allow natural light to come through – on each, with four custom-mounted Panasonic 8500 Lumens 1-Chip DLP projectors in portrait format. The store exhibits a display of motion projection images and video on the windows facing the street.
“We did pixel-mapping to separate the images to each window, and integrated a dedicated BrightSign player to send content to each projector,” said Advanced director of design engineering, Ibrahim Saad. “The projectors and the BrightSign media players are integrated directly into the store-wide Crestron control system so that, if need be, staffers can easily turn it on or off and change the content.”
PRODUCT AT WORK
QSC AD-S12
This indoor/outdoor loudspeaker features QSC’s DMT (Directivity Matched Transition), which ensures smooth, uniform frequency response over the coverage area.
