What sound system is being installed at Grand Prix Plaza in Las Vegas?

A 25-room distributed audio system across F1 Hub, F1 X and F1 Drive: 147 speakers, mostly pendant speakers and pendant subwoofers for the high commercial ceilings, with two Fulcrum Acoustic point-source rooms and Martin Audio line arrays in the two largest halls. The amplification is Q-SYS and Extron. No XSCACE hardware is used; the system was designed in the XSCACE Floorplan Sound Simulation. Installation is scheduled for next month.

Who designed the audio for Grand Prix Plaza?

The integrator on the project designed it in the XSCACE Floorplan Sound Simulation, tracing each floor's architectural drawings at scale and placing 147 third-party speakers across 25 rooms. The simulation produced the coverage predictions, the bill of quantities and the client presentation.

Are the speakers at Grand Prix Plaza XSCACE speakers?

No. The speakers are Sonance pendants and pendant subwoofers, Fulcrum Acoustic GX1595 and Sub218L, and Martin Audio A40, chosen for high, open commercial ceilings, and the amplification is Q-SYS and Extron. No XSCACE products are used. XSCACE's part is the design tool: the Floorplan Sound Simulation holds third-party speakers in its catalogue with their measured data and predicts coverage for whatever is actually installed.

Can the XSCACE planner design a system with no XSCACE products in it?

Yes. The Floorplan Sound Simulation carries a catalogue of third-party speakers, amplifiers and sources alongside the XSCACE range, each with sensitivity, dispersion and power, and treats them identically in coverage, headroom, RP22 and bill-of-quantities calculations. Grand Prix Plaza uses it for Sonance, Fulcrum Acoustic, Martin Audio, Q-SYS and Extron hardware.

Why do some rooms show poor intelligibility in the design?

Five rooms were entered as bare shells before finishes, and the simulation models them at 2.8 to 5.5 seconds of reverberation against targets near 0.5 s. That is the unfinished building, not the speaker layout. The furnished rooms model at or near target with good to excellent STI. The predictions are checked against measurements at commissioning.

Which rooms were checked against CEDIA RP22?

The simulator room in F1 Hub and Zone 9 in F1 X were set up as cinemas, so the planner ran its RP22 checks on both. Seat angles and coverage passed; both are flagged on low-frequency design because the simulator room's subwoofers are pendant units and Zone 9 has none, and background noise and calibration are measured on site.

How much speaker cable does a 25-room venue need?

The planner's schedule for Grand Prix Plaza is 2,240 metres: 490 m of 12 AWG for the long heavy runs, 340 m of 14 AWG and 1,410 m of 16 AWG, in 78 runs with 224 terminations. It also lists 60 m of network cable, one HDBaseT extender for the long HDMI run and sixteen dedicated mains outlets.

Can I design a venue this size in the XSCACE planner?

Yes. The Floorplan Sound Simulation handles multiple floors, traced rooms of any shape, music, cinema, conference and outdoor applications, third-party speakers alongside XSCACE products, racks and cable schedules, and produces the bill of quantities and a client presentation. Grand Prix Plaza is one project file with five floors, twenty-five rooms and no XSCACE hardware in it.

Grand Prix Plaza Las Vegas: 25-Room F1 Sound Design

Contents6 sections

Grand Prix Plaza is Formula 1's permanent home in Las Vegas: the pit building of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, open all year as F1 X, the interactive exhibition; F1 Drive, an indoor-outdoor karting track; and F1 Hub, with eleven racing simulators, the flagship F1 store and a bar and lounge. Twenty-five of its rooms were designed as one sound system in the XSCACE Floorplan Sound Simulation. There is not one XSCACE speaker or amplifier in the building: the hardware is Sonance, Fulcrum Acoustic, Martin Audio, Q-SYS and Extron, and the planner designed it all the same. Installation is scheduled for next month. This is the design.

Night aerial view of the Las Vegas Strip — Las Vegas at night. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, public domain

The brief, in numbers
	Figure
Rooms with audio	25, across five floors
Floor area covered	2,127 m²
Speakers	147 (116 pendant, 17 pendant sub, 6 point-source, 6 line array, 2 subwoofer)
Experiences	2 cinema · 21 music & multiroom · 2 meeting
Hardware	Sonance PS-S63T MKII × 116 · PS-S83WT MKII × 17 · Fulcrum GX1595 × 6 · Sub218L × 2 · Martin Audio A40 × 6 · Q-SYS CX-Q 4K8 · Extron NetPA · BrightSign
XSCACE products	None. The design, the predictions, the BOQ and the client view came from the planner
Equipment racks	5 (IDF-C, FP1 Livery, FP1 ETC, FD1 Lobby, F5)
Speaker cable	2,240 m in 78 runs · 224 terminations
Status	Design complete · installation scheduled

The client view of the Grand Prix Plaza project in the XSCACE Floorplan Sound Simulation, with every room laid over the venue's own architectural drawings — Every room traced over the architect's drawings, at scale, on one project

F1 Hub: eleven simulators, a store and a bar

The Hub is the open part of the building: the simulators, the store and the lounge. The simulator room is the one treated as a cinema in the design so that the room-mode and reverberation checks run against the stricter cinema targets. Twelve pendant speakers and two pendant subwoofers hang over the sim bays; the bar next door gets eight and two.

3D render of the F1 Hub simulator room in the XSCACE planner: twelve pendant speakers and two pendant subwoofers over the sim bays, with predicted coverage on the floor — F1 Sims · 56 m² · 14 speakers · predicted coverage on the floor

3D render of the F1 Hub bar in the planner, eight pendants and two subwoofers over the bar floor with coverage shown — F1 Hub Lounge · 50 m² · a column modelled in the corner, slatted walls on two sides

Floor plan of the F1 Hub lobby with eight pendant speakers and one subwoofer placed over the architectural drawing — Lobby · nine speakers over 24 m² at the entrance

F1 X: nine experiences along one hallway

F1 X is 20,000 square feet of exhibition: the Hall of Champions, the Pit Wall, a pit-stop challenge, the Design Studio where visitors paint a livery, a driver briefing room, a 4D theatre and the broadcast-centre replica. Each is its own zone with its own source, so every exhibit carries its own soundtrack. The hallway that links them is the biggest single zone in the building.

3D render of the Pit Wall experience room with six speakers, two in the ceiling and four on the walls, and coverage on the floor — Pit Wall · ceiling and wall speakers mixed, six pendants in a 22 m² room

3D render of the 4D Theatre with two Fulcrum point-source speakers flanking a 202-inch screen and a video wall, and a subwoofer at the front — 4D Theatre · two Fulcrum GX1595 and a Sub218L either side of a 202-inch screen

3D render of the Design Studio room with five speakers along one wall over the livery stations — Design Studio · five speakers in a line above the livery stations

Floor plan of the R&B hallway, a 57-metre corridor with twelve pendant speakers and five pendant subwoofers evenly spaced along it — R&B Hallway · 57 m · twelve pendants and five pendant subwoofers on one line

F1 Drive: the karting lobby

The karting lobby is L-shaped, bare-finished and four metres high, which is the hardest acoustic brief in the building. The planner's reverberation estimate for the unfinished shell is well above target, and that number is in the technical section rather than hidden: it is the reason the finishes matter, and it is what the commissioning measurements will be checked against.

3D render of the L-shaped F1 Drive lobby with twelve pendant speakers and three subwoofers along its two arms — F1 Drive Lobby · 314 m² · the L-shape traced corner by corner from the drawing

Floor plan of the F1 Drive pit area, a meeting zone with four pendant speakers over the architectural drawing — The Pit · set up as a meeting zone, four pendants

Not one XSCACE product in the building

The speakers are Sonance PS-S63T MKII pendants and PS-S83WT MKII pendant subwoofers for the high, open ceilings, Fulcrum Acoustic GX1595 point-source boxes with a Sub218L in the 4D Theatre and on Floor 5, and Martin Audio A40 in the two largest halls. The amplification and sources are the integrator's: Q-SYS CX-Q 4K8 network amplifiers, an Extron NetPA and a BrightSign player where the plan calls for them. The planner carries all of it in its catalogue alongside XSCACE's own range, with each product's sensitivity, dispersion and power, so the coverage and headroom predictions are for the speakers that are actually going in.

The hardware
	Product	Qty	Where
Pendant speaker	Sonance PS-S63T MKII	116	every music, cinema and meeting zone
Pendant subwoofer	Sonance PS-S83WT MKII	17	Hub, F1 X and Drive lobby
Point-source	Fulcrum Acoustic GX1595	6	4D Theatre, Floor 5
Subwoofer	Fulcrum Acoustic Sub218L	2	4D Theatre, Floor 5
Line array	Martin Audio A40	6	Factory, Legacy
Amplifier	Q-SYS CX-Q 4K8	4	Retail, Sims, Drive lobby
Amplifier	Extron 1002 NetPA	1	Legacy
Player	BrightSign XD235	1	Legacy
Displays	202-inch screen · 110-inch video wall	2	4D Theatre

Where a zone in the plan still shows a placeholder source or amplifier, that is the planner reserving channels until the integrator's rack schedule is final; it is not a product being supplied.

The technical section

Everything below is predicted by the simulation from the traced rooms, the speaker data and the finishes entered. Nothing has been measured yet; measurement is what commissioning with XSCACE Studio is for. Uniformity is half the 10–90 % spread of level across the floor, so ±3 dB or better is even. STI is speech intelligibility, 0 to 1. RT60 is the mid-band decay against the planner's target for that room type.

Predicted performance by room
Floor · room	Use	m²	Speakers	Amplification in plan	SPL (dB)	±dB	STI	RT60 mid (target)
Hub · Lobby	Music	24	8 pendant + 1 sub	—	102.7	4.6	0.37	2.78 (0.49)
Hub · Retail	Music	35	4 pendant + 1 sub	Q-SYS CX-Q 4K8	98.2	2.8	0.34	3.30 (0.51)
Hub · Sims	Cinema	56	12 pendant + 2 sub	—	101.6	3.1	0.68	0.65 (0.39)
Hub · Bar	Music	50	8 pendant + 2 sub	—	100.3	3.0	0.78	0.40 (0.43)
F1X · Livery	Music	17	4 pendant + 1 sub	—	101.2	3.3	0.78	0.40 (0.46)
F1X · Podium	Music	17	4 pendant	—	100.7	1.6	0.78	0.40 (0.46)
F1X · Driver Briefing	Music	7	1 pendant	—	94.6	3.7	0.83	0.29 (0.41)
F1X · Pit Wall	Music	22	6 pendant	—	101.3	2.8	0.76	0.43 (0.47)
F1X · Pit Stop	Music	21	4 pendant	—	100.2	5.5	0.77	0.42 (0.47)
F1X · Design Studio	Music	17	4 pendant + 1 sub	—	99.3	4.4	0.78	0.39 (0.46)
F1X · Hall of Champions	Music	28	6 pendant	—	101.4	5.3	0.86	0.25 (0.48)
F1X · 4D Theatre	Music	28	2 Fulcrum GX1595 + Sub218L	by others	117.2	8.0	0.75	0.45 (0.48)
F1X · Zone 9	Cinema	38	9 pendant	—	99.6	1.8	0.83	0.29 (0.35)
F1X · Factory	Music	202	4 Martin Audio A40	—	84.5	8.6	0.25	5.34 (0.60)
F1X · Legacy	Music	337	2 A40 + 1 pendant	Extron NetPA	83.9	7.4	0.25	5.53 (0.60)
F1X · ETC	Music	86	4 pendant + 1 sub	—	93.3	5.8	0.65	0.76 (0.57)
F1X · Registration	Music	37	4 pendant	—	97.0	2.9	0.73	0.52 (0.52)
F1X · Hall of Champions (pt 2)	Music	134	4 pendant	—	92.2	13.3	0.65	0.51 (0.59)
F1X · R&B Hallway	Music	166	12 pendant + 5 sub	—	96.4	3.2	0.75	0.47 (0.58)
Drive · Lobby	Music	314	12 pendant + 3 sub	Q-SYS CX-Q 4K8	94.8	4.1	0.28	4.62 (0.60)
Drive · Driver Briefing	Music	42	3 pendant	—	95.1	3.5	0.33	3.42 (0.53)
Drive · Cool Down	Music	28	2 pendant	—	95.5	3.7	0.75	0.45 (0.48)
Drive · Pit	Meeting	119	4 pendant	—	93.0	6.2	0.69	0.61 (0.56)
Floor 5 · Zone 1	Music	94	1 Fulcrum GX1595	by others	113.0	3.6	0.72	0.54 (0.55)
Floor 5 · Zone 2	Meeting	210	3 GX1595 + Sub218L	by others	106.2	2.9	0.68	0.65 (0.59)

What the numbers say

The furnished rooms sit where they should: RT60 within or close to target, STI good to excellent, coverage inside ±3–5 dB.
The five rooms entered as bare shells (Hub Lobby and Retail, Factory, Legacy, Drive Lobby) model 2.8–5.5 s of reverberation and poor intelligibility. That is the unfinished building, not the speaker layout, and it is the strongest argument in the report for the finishes and treatment going in before the audio is judged.
Two rooms were run as cinemas so the CEDIA/CTA RP22 checks apply. Both passed the seat-angle and coverage checks; both are flagged for low-frequency design, because the simulator room's subwoofers are pendants and Zone 9 has none. Background noise and calibration are site items by definition.
The planner's bill of quantities flagged amplifier channels short in the simulator room and in Legacy, and no amplifier yet assigned to the 4D Theatre and Floor 5. Those lines go to the integrator's rack schedule; the plan reserves the channels until it is final.
The 4D Theatre predicts 117 dB mean with 35 dB of headroom from two Fulcrum GX1595, which is what a ride wants and what nothing else in the building needs.

Predicted sound-pressure coverage heatmap for the F1 Hub simulator room at ear height, warmer colours louder, with speaker positions marked — Simulator room · coverage at ear height · 50 dB blue to 115 dB red · predicted, not measured

Cabling and racks

Five racks serve the building: IDF-C for the Hub, FP1 Livery and FP1 ETC for the two halves of F1 X, FD1 Lobby for F1 Drive and one on Floor 5. The planner's cable schedule runs to 490 m of 12 AWG for the long, heavy runs, 340 m of 14 AWG and 1,410 m of 16 AWG, 78 runs and 224 terminations including the mid-chain taps on the distributed lines, 60 m of network cable, one HDBaseT extender for the long HDMI pull, and sixteen dedicated outlets at the rack head-ends and powered gear.

How it was designed

Each floor's architectural drawing was loaded into the planner, scaled, and every room traced over it, including the L-shaped karting lobby and the broadcast-centre room with its irregular corner. Rooms were given their use (music, cinema, meeting), their ceiling height and their finish. Speakers were placed, racks assigned, amplifier channels counted, and the planner predicted coverage, reverberation and intelligibility room by room, then produced the bill of quantities, the cable schedule and the client presentation in one pass.

The simulator room's floor plan in the planner, traced over the venue's architectural drawing with the twelve pendants and two subwoofers placed — Traced at scale over the drawing: the geometry is the building's, not an approximation

Five floors, twenty-five rooms, one project file and one bill of quantities.
Two rooms assessed against RP22 as cinemas; the rest against music and conference targets.
A read-only client view, with the 3D model, the plans and the quote, is what the client reviews.
Commissioning after installation is done in XSCACE Studio, and the measurements are handed over with the system.

Open the Floorplan Sound Simulation to design a room the same way, or read how XSCACE Studio measures and tunes it afterwards.