Hotel Chauncey, located in downtown Iowa City close to the University of Iowa, includes a family-friendly entertainment venue, with movie theaters, an arcade, a restaurant, a full-service bar, and two bowling alleys. The two SpareMe bowling alleys are on separate floors and each features a wall-to-wall videowall just above the lanes. They are high-usage environments, especially for private parties and during events such as football bowl games, March Madness, the World Series, and World Cup matches. On the first floor, bar patrons, as well as the bowlers, watch televised sports and programs interspersed with advertisements for upcoming hotel events. Bowlers on the second floor can watch the same or different content. The videowalls show content in a variety of ways, from multiple sources displayed in a wide variety of window arrangements to a single image filling the entire display. To provide rock-solid, seamless performance in an economical design that supports both video walls, Tri-City Electric integrated a single Extron Quantum Ultra 610 video wall processor.
“The Extron Quantum Ultra simplified system design and integration,” says Roy Franklin, Project Manager, Audio/Visual at Tri-City Electric. “Its windowing capabilities for the separate videowalls easily met every need at Hotel Chauncey’s SpareMe entertainment area.”
Four professional-grade projectors are ceiling-mounted within each six-lane bowling alley. The 10-slot card frame of the Quantum Ultra 610 processor is configured with two Quantum IN4HDMI four-channel HDMI input cards and two Quantum OUT4DTP four-channel DTP® output cards, leaving six slots available for system expansion. Output signals are extended over DTP directly to each projector’s HDBaseT™ input, which eliminated the need for individual receivers and reduces system complexity.
Both video walls have proven to be a big hit with the university students, hotel guests, and the community at large. For example, the first-floor bar and bowling alley drew record crowds on Super Bowl Sunday, with overflow going to the second-floor bowling alley. In all, the venue is fulfilling its promise of bringing those living in and visiting the area to the Hotel Chauncey for family-friendly entertainment in Iowa City.
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