When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down Las Vegas properties in early spring, the Westgate Resort & Casino did a full audiovisual system upgrade of its famed sportsbook.
But the plans hatched in the pre-Covid days in December. Westgate Vice President, Race and Sports Operations Jay Kornegay, along with video systems manager Kelly Hall met with their South Jersey-based partners from NMR Events, according to AVNetwork.
Westgate sought a system worthy of Las Vegas scale, something to outdo its existing video wall. What NMR came up with is a fully new SDVoE AV-over-IP infrastructure, with enhanced RF modulation, that will feed monitors throughout the room, while improving control.
Work began in April and was finished in less than three months thanks to the lack of patrons during this time frame.
The massive video wall consists of 1,428 Daktronics LED tiles for a total of 26,000 x 2,200 pixels. The original backend was replaced by ZeeVee ZyPer4K SDVoE encoders and decoders, which run through Netgear M4500 switches to provide advanced routing, flexibility, and multi-matrix switching for a wide array of content.
The upgrade allowed NMR’s Doug Whelan, director of systems integration, to engineer 175 different multi-views, or a dozen such views per screen. The result displays an endless combination of images simultaneously. With fewer devices necessary, it saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in processing alone.
“We are very proud of the enhancements we made to the Super Book video wall in particular,” Whelan said. “It’s an awesome display that captivates viewers’ attention with more multi-views than any other project we know of in Vegas—or anywhere else, for that matter.”
Overall, the system handles more than 100 video sources including DirecTV, Dish Network, and Contemporary Research ATSC receivers, as well as COX Cable TV tuners and additional PC feeds, via 142 inputs. In turn, it feeds 61 monitors throughout the sportsbook, and others at the betting windows and throughout the casino floor.
Samsung and Dell monitors placed atop each of the racks in the control room enable Westgate’s IT team to see what content is being shown on the video wall and individual screens. There’s no need to reboot the entire system to address a problem in one specific area. The advanced design includes a high level of built-in flexibility and complete redundancy, further guards against system failure.
“We are extremely happy with the outcome of this project on several fronts,” Kornegay said. “Our video wall’s eye-popping dynamic content is helping to draw in bettors. Add that to the user experience we offer at each Super Book kiosk and the improved control and maintenance capabilities.”
