Editor’s Note: Here, Commercial Integrator’s editors highlight one of our 2025 Integration Award-winning projects. Alpha’s work for the Legends Theater, located within the Route 66 Casino Hotel, earned top honors in the Best Casino category. Read on to learn why our judges deemed this project the most impressive casino project of the past year!
The Route 66 Casino Hotel has transformed its 2,900-seat Legends Theater into what it calls the Southwest’s premier indoor live event space, completing a comprehensive audiovisual integration project that establishes new benchmarks for regional entertainment venues.
The four-month integration, completed in November 2024 by Alpha, represents the culmination of a six-year relationship between the casino and the AV integrator. What began as a casino floor audio and video update in 2018 evolved into successive projects spanning convention spaces, meeting rooms, sportsbooks, restaurants and VIP areas before reaching the theater’s complete transformation.
Legends Theater Project Scope and Timeline
Alpha’s work encompassed facility integration, engineering, fabrication and installation services, cable infrastructure, four LED screens, audio integration, digital signage and control systems. The integration took place concurrently with final construction phases by other trades, requiring careful coordination among architects, general contractors, electricians and various specialty contractors.
Working alongside I-5 Design Build and Integrated Lighting Systems, Alpha commenced integration in July 2024 with a mandate to deliver a “wow factor” that would distinguish Legends Theater from competitors throughout the region. The venue’s infrastructure had to be prepared to accommodate concerts, comedy performances, game show tapings, meetings, presentations and corporate gatherings.
Technical Infrastructure of Legends Theater
The theater’s technology foundation centers on an all-digital network of Dante audio and NDI video that enables touring acts to integrate their own lighting and sound boards while providing Route 66 flexibility to host diverse events with house equipment.
The installation features Scala digital signage for pre-show graphics and menu boards. Photo by Frank Frost Photography.
Key components include a Meyer Sound Panther audio system, Yamaha DM7 mixer, four Primeview videowalls, a Varilite lighting package, QSC audio systems for back-of-house operations, a Tricaster live video production system and Panasonic PTZ remote cameras. The installation features Scala digital signage for pre-show graphics and menu boards, an RTS intercom system, Applied Electronics motor control and truss systems, and LEX stage power systems.
Visual Impact and Flexibility at Legends Theater
The guest experience begins with a giant direct-view LED videowall functioning as the theater marquee. Inside, the main stage features a 28-foot-wide videowall backdrop flanked by two 16-foot by 19-foot IMAX screens and custom-tuned Meyer Panther speaker arrays.
The flexibility provided by NDI, HDSDI, Dante and network control, combined with numerous stage connections, company switches and portable distribution boxes, allows performing acts to achieve their desired production values. Photo by Frank Frost Photography.
DMX controllable lighting trusses on and in front of the stage accommodate various lighting fixtures for any event type. The flexibility provided by NDI, HDSDI, Dante and network control, combined with numerous stage connections, company switches and portable distribution boxes, allows performing acts to achieve their desired production values.
Engineering and Design Process for Legends Theater
Alpha’s engineering and specification services began with comprehensive advisory work and extended to design services covering the auditorium, stage, control booth, lighting grid, dressing rooms, dimmer and relay controls, equipment rack rooms and other production areas.
Collaborating with client architects and engineers, the Alpha team prepared detailed drawings and specifications for every aspect of the technological solutions. Throughout the project, Alpha’s team worked with all the trades to ensure seamless implementation and integration.
Partnership Foundation
Alpha’s initial engagement with Route 66 in 2018 has evolved into a longstanding relationship built on a record of reliability and transforming client visions into compelling guest experiences. This consistent success across other property areas over six years proved crucial in winning approval for the theater design build.
The integrator’s demonstrated ability to meet project deadlines and performance expectations became especially notable considering the wide range of concurrent activities, from stage construction to power disruptions necessitated by other system installations.
Market Position for Legends Theater
The Route 66 Casino Hotel positions Legends Theater as a regional destination for its size, flexibility, state-of-the-art technology and year-round accommodation capabilities. The venue’s technical specifications and operational versatility represent a significant investment in establishing market leadership within the competitive Southwest entertainment landscape.
According to Maxine Velasquez, CEO, Laguna Development Corp., “The new Legends Theater allows us to host any top-tier act that we want to bring in and provide a ‘Wow’ performance for our guests. The entire team has worked well to adjust and overcome any issues, as there always are with this type of project. We have a venue that we can firmly say is the best in the southwest, and we appreciate all our partners that made it happen.”
Alpha contributed immensely to the final result, providing full testing and commissioning with vendor partners to certify the solution met all requirements for product and warranty certification, and completing the project on time and on budget despite the coordination requirements inherent in integration projects with this level of complexity.
