The Challenge

“Buffalo Wild Wings” is a brand-new sports bar located in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Before the overall decoration of the sports bar, the bar owner planned to install about 40 sets of television in the dining area, as well as some cable boxes in the equipment room for streaming sports games and news to the TVs. The owner also preferred to control all the sources and displays simultaneously on a mobile device, like a smartphone. In short, the bar owner was looking for an audio/video solution that can meet the needs of A/V signal extension, distribution, matrix switching, and centralized control.

Technical Assessment

Sound Media, an American audiovisual equipment integrator was in charge of the sports bar project and was responsible for the installation of A/V equipment. First of all, some key requirements were confirmed: A/V extension, distribution, switching, and centralized control. The bar owner planned to distribute more than 10 HDMI sources to about 40 TV sets in the dining area. All these source devices needed to be placed in the equipment room for centralized management, which was about 30 meters/100 feet away from the dining area. Considering all these key requirements, An AV over IP solution was preferred over a traditional matrix switch solution due to its flexibility, scalability, and compatibility with Ethernet switches.

Secondary requirements were also confirmed like 1080P video resolution and video wall function. After careful comparisons and analyses, Sound Media decided to adopt AV Access HDIP100 AV over IP solution to meet the needs above. Different from other IP solutions on the market, it is plug-n-play and easy-to-use, with no configuration required on the Ethernet switch. Based on the number of sources and displays required, 15 sets of HDIP100E encoders and 41 sets of HDIP100D decoders were installed in the bar.

The Solution

In the bar’s equipment room, Sound Media installed about 15 sets of HDIP100E encoders and more than 10 cable boxes on an AV rack. A Gigabit PoE Ethernet switch and a wireless access point device were also installed. Besides, about 41 sets of HDIP100D decoders and 41 sets of TV, including a 2×2 video wall, were installed in the dining and counter areas.

All HDIP100 encoders/decoders and the wireless device were connected to the Gigabit PoE switch via CAT5e/6 cable for centralized management. In addition, “VDirector”, the control software was installed on a smartphone for visual management and control. Though the Wi-Fi signal generated by the wireless access point device in the equipment room, the smartphone can communicate with all the codecs.

The connection diagram is as follows:

Results

With AV Access HDIP100 AV over IP solution, now a distributed IP matrix system is created. It can meet the needs of A/V signal extension, distribution, switching, centralized management, and visual control:

a.The cable boxes in the equipment room are able to extend 1080P full HD HDMI signals to the TVs in the dining area through the IP network. This system is able to distribute several sports game sources to multiple TVs. Thus, there is no need to install multiple streaming devices for each TV, which has greatly reduced equipment costs for the bar.

b. With the intuitive VDirector App installed on a smartphone, the waiters can easily preview all sources, distribute any source to any display, perform matrix switching, build a video wall, and enable CEC function to turn on/off all connected displays.

Conclusion

That’s all for the sports bar project. AV Access HDIP100 AV over IP solution can meet users’ needs for A/V signal extension, distribution, switching, centralized management, visual control, and video wall, ideal for sports bars and restaurants. It is a plug-n-play and easy-to-use IP solution, which boasts matrix switching, video wall support (up to 8×8), easy visual control, H.265 codec, fast seamless switching, and other amazing features.

The HDMI encoder/decoder can work easily with any universal managed or unmanaged Ethernet switch on the market. Just install the VDirector App on a smartphone, tablet, or computer, connect it to a wireless router, then you can effortlessly build a distributed IP matrix system with the video wall function.

Please visit the product page for further details if you are interested.

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Source: https://www.avaccess.com/blogs/case-study/av-over-ip-solution-in-sports-bar/