SAVI iQ Unites Audio, Video, and Lighting Control to Redefine Venue Integration at Puttshack Minneapolis

Puttshack is rewriting the rules of contemporary venue-based entertainment with its one-of-its-kind, upscale tech-infused mini-golf game, powered by proprietary Trackball technology. Founded in London, England in 2018, Puttshack is rapidly expanding into a global entertainment powerhouse with locations across the UK and North America.

In today’s competitive entertainment landscape, the solutions that power guest experience often come with a hidden cost. The more immersive and technology-driven the venue, the higher the demand – and for operators balancing tight margins, those system costs can quickly erode profitability. Until recently, there was little that could be done to reduce consumption without dimming the impact: high-voltage infrastructure was simply the price of creating atmosphere. That equation changed with the arrival of the QoraLux™ Low-Voltage Lighting Platform from SAVI iQ, whose control and automation technology has already redefined how venues automate and manage AV systems.

By applying that spirit of intelligent design to lighting, SAVI made it possible to deliver the high-impact visual experiences guests expect, while dramatically cutting power draw, installation complexity, and long-term operating costs.

So, when Puttshack prepared to open its new 29,000-square-foot Minneapolis venue in the fall of 2025, it faced that same challenge: how to deliver a high-energy, visually striking experience without the high-voltage overhead. The lighting design was initially drawn up around a conventional 277-volt system, reflecting the approach used across other locations. But as construction costs rose and sustainability targets tightened, the brief evolved to preserve the design team’s creative intent and signature lighting effects while achieving them with simpler infrastructure, lower power demand, and seamless integration across lighting, audio, and video systems.

Working with the SAVI iQ team, Puttshack re-evaluated the original high-voltage specification against a low-voltage alternative built on SAVI QoraLux™, a power-over-category (PoC) lighting platform that carries both power and control over standard Cat cable. What began as a lighting rethink quickly expanded into a full audio-video-lighting (AVL) integration, all centrally managed through the SAVI platform. The result achieved the same dramatic visual impact the designers envisioned, while eliminating the conduit farms, panel rooms, and high-voltage coordination that had complicated previous builds and laying the foundation for a new generation of smarter and more profitable Puttshack venues.

Puttshack Minneapolis consequently marked the brand’s first full-venue deployment of SAVI QoraLux, encompassing 101 lighting zones and 588 loads.

Lighting as Creative Core

Puttshack’s venues are defined by their layered, theatrical lighting, from the soft ambience of the main bar to the color-rich accents that bring each mini-golf course to life. The creative brief demanded a nuanced, highly zoned environment that could shift seamlessly between everyday operation and special-event settings.

SAVI QoraLux enables full-spectrum RGBWW color tuning, allowing staff to re-theme courses, lounges, and dining areas with a few taps: washing rooms in Coca-Cola red for a buyout, turning the venue emerald for St Patrick’s Day, or dialing in subtle ambers to complement interior finishes.

“What makes SAVI QoraLux so powerful for designers is that it removes the old electrical constraints without sacrificing nuance,” said Derek Wilson, SAVI’s Chief Strategy Officer. “You get micro-zone control, smooth dimming, and rich RGBWW rendering, all on low-voltage cabling. It’s a single, coherent ecosystem rather than a patchwork of panels, drivers, and third-party interfaces.”

“Lighting has always been the last, most complicated piece to integrate and unify in a large entertainment build,” added Byron Baird, General Manager of SAVI Commercial. “QoraLux changes that equation. You get precise zoning and cinematic, full-spectrum color at scale, while stripping out the heavy electrical infrastructure that slows projects and inflates costs. For Puttshack Minneapolis, we honored the designer’s intent with a system that installs faster, uses less power, and is dramatically easier to operate day-to-day.”

Measurable Performance and Savings

During the design phase, the team modeled a direct comparison between a conventional 277-volt high-voltage scheme and a low-voltage SAVI QoraLux alternative of identical scale. The difference was measurable at every stage. The fixture package showed a 43% reduction, while installation costs saved 45%.

In operation, the model showed total draw dropping from 188,357 watts to 54,400 watts, a 71% improvement for lighting alone across the year. The entire load now runs on just eight standard 20-amp circuits, with all other power and control travelling over Cat back to the drivers and controllers neatly housed in the AV rack.

Beyond the modelling, the real-world results proved even more compelling. Compared with Puttshack venues built using high-voltage fixtures, the low-voltage design delivered close to $500,000 in combined fixture and installation savings, while also reducing upstream switchgear demand by roughly 200 amps. The shift not only simplified electrical coordination but also underscored how a purpose-built PoC system could achieve the same visual impact at a fraction of the cost and complexity.

Efficient Construction, Controlled Costs

Previous Puttshack builds often wrestled with long panel lead times, conduit coordination across multiple trades, and ampacity upgrades that could ripple through the entire construction schedule. By shifting to low voltage, the Minneapolis team eliminated many of those dependencies. The design replaced hundreds of outlets with simple Cat runs, reduced field labor, and simplified inspection.

“QoraLux let us keep the aesthetics and lighting effects our designers specified, but it removed layers of field complexity that historically put pressure on our schedule,” said Dominic Crespo, VP of Design & Construction at Puttshack. “We didn’t need big panel rooms or miles of conduit, and that simplified the hand-offs between trades. The result was a cleaner build, fewer points of failure, and a clearer path to opening on time.”

“We asked for a higher-tech, lower-cost lighting system without diminishing the guest experience,” Crespo added. “The SAVI team helped us get there by cutting fixture and installation costs dramatically and simplifying service costs down the road.”

Unified Control & Automation

While lighting led the project, the full advantage came from bringing audio, video, digital signage and lighting under one unified control environment powered by SAVI.

“In other venues, we have to juggle three or four different user interfaces just to manage lighting, audio, video, and signage,” said Cory Lovern, Technology Project Manager at Puttshack. “Historically, each system had its own workflow, which made even simple changes more time-consuming than they needed to be. With SAVI, everything now lives together in one place. From virtually any device, we can adjust the lighting, change the music, or manage video playback. It’s faster, far more intuitive for the team, and it keeps the vibe consistent across the entire venue.”

Integration is the backbone of the project, traversing audio, video, lighting, and control (AVLC), including the venue’s entire LG commercial display network powered by SAVI Canvas. Because SAVI Canvas runs natively on LG webOS displays, no external media players or control processors are required to deliver the desired content to each screen. This direct integration eliminates latency, simplifies configuration, and enables real-time synchronization between video, lighting, and audio cues across the venue.

The LG webOS display mix includes a range of sizes and functions, from 32-inch touch displays to 75-inch models. This creates a visually unified digital signage ecosystem powered entirely by SAVI Canvas, capable of everything from menu boards and brand takeovers to synchronized ambient visuals that reinforce the overall guest experience.

For Puttshack staff, that translates to faster responsiveness, fewer points of failure, and a seamless, app-like control experience that mirrors the polish of the guest environment itself.

“Having SAVI as a single control interface has completely changed the way we think about managing our venues,” Lovern added. “In previous builds, our teams had to learn and maintain several separate systems; two (0-10v & DMX) for lighting, another for audio/video, another for digital signage. It works, but it isn’t seamless. In Minneapolis, all of that now comes together. From a tablet or a phone, we can set the lighting, music, and video to create the exact mood we want for any event. The whole environment feels coordinated and intentional, and it’s easy for new staff to learn because the interface is intuitive and consistent across everything we do.”

A Blueprint for Future Venues

With Minneapolis serving as a proof point, Puttshack is incorporating the same architecture into all new builds and evaluating selective retrofits for existing locations. For operations and design teams alike, the combination of both low- and-high-voltage QoraLux Lighting Solutions and SAVI’s unified control system has set a new baseline for what smart venue infrastructure means, merging creative freedom with measurable efficiency.

“QoraLux is the low-voltage solution with high-voltage impact,” Crespo said. “We kept the artistry and gained a simpler, leaner build. What’s exciting is that it doesn’t just look great, it also changes how we plan and deliver future projects. We’ve proven that you can achieve the same atmosphere and visual energy our brand is known for, but with less wiring, fewer trades, and far greater control. That’s a big win for our design and construction teams, and for operations once the doors open.”

The experience in Minneapolis has also reinforced how technology partnerships can shape design thinking long before a venue breaks ground. By involving SAVI early, Puttshack was able to collapse layers of complexity, align creative and technical priorities, and set a foundation for a new generation of smarter, more connected entertainment spaces.

“Puttshack embraced an entirely new way of thinking about venue lighting,” concluded Baird. “They saw the opportunity not just to save money or streamline installation, but to build a smarter, more adaptive environment that connects lighting, audio, and video into one cohesive ecosystem. It’s a forward-looking approach that gives them flexibility today and a clear path for growth tomorrow, a model that’s already informing the design of future venues.”

The Connected Guest Experience

For guests, the result is effortless immersion. Every light, display, and sound cue now plays in sync, all coordinated through the SAVI platform, turning each hole, bar, and booth into part of a coordinated show. As Puttshack expands, its AVLC strategy ensures that what happens behind the scenes, in cables, servers, and software, directly enhances what visitors feel in the space: precision, energy, and play, all working as one.