Art Ovation Hotel, Sarasota
For almost a century, the city of Sarasota has been a magnet for art lovers. In 1925 John Ringling, the circus magnate, built the city’s Museum of Art and in 1931 funded the Ringling College of Art and Design. Both flourished and established the city as an artists’ colony and mecca for art, theater, music, film, animation and design.
Now the Art Ovation Hotel, through a partnership with the Ringling College, is combining luxurious accommodations with rotating art collections, an Artist in Residence program, and VIP packages to area art, music and theater events and experiences.
The 162-room boutique hotel, located steps from the bayfront and downtown arts district, also includes a 6,100 square-foot ballroom, restaurants, bars and a beautiful rooftop bar and pool.
The AV technology, designed and installed by Think Simple, is unique and powerful. As you enter the porte-cochère, your eye is drawn to six SunBrite outdoor TVs installed in the ceiling, showing digital artwork. The lobby is gorgeous with paintings and sculptures, and it includes projector hang points for temporary displays of animations and videos produced at the college. Learn more about the porte-cochère.
We also installed background music in the lobby, bars, restaurant, fitness center and other public areas, including a small performance music system in the lobby, based on two Bose Panaray powered speakers. Learn more about the lobby and restaurants.
On the pool deck, we installed a 15-speaker performance music system with plug-ins for DJs who perform on Friday and Saturday nights. There’s also a Crestron lighting system that produces uniquely beautiful nighttime effects. Learn more about the rooftop pool and bar.
The ballroom, able to seat 430 for a banquet or wedding or 678 for a lecture, is divisible into seven smaller rooms, a process made easy by the sound system we installed. Learn more about the ballroom.
To simplify operations of the audio, video and lighting systems in the conference center, rooftop, and bars and restaurant, Think Simple installed the Bodhi Intelligent Building Management System. Bodhi gives property managers the ability to schedule sound and lighting levels and scenes and control them in real time, together with analytics, system health alerts, and extensive security controls.
Managers can access Bodhi from touch screens in the ballroom, pre-function space, boardroom, fitness room, bars, restaurants, pool area and concierge desk, plus iPad controls they can take with them from room to room.
Since its opening in April, 2018, the hotel has garnered outstanding reviews, including a 4.5-star average on TripAdvisor and Orbitz and 4.8 on Marriott.com. “I really enjoyed being surrounded by the incredible art within the hotel,” writes one guest on TripAdvisor. “The staff was amazing and helpful in every way…You can really see that management was thinking of their guests when they designed this gorgeous hotel. The ballroom was exquisite and was the centerpiece of all the events I attended.”
Porte-Cochère – Lobby & Restaurant – Rooftop Bar & Pool – Ballroom
