AV Case Study: Dicky Beach Surf Club
One Sunny Coast club exchanges a box of TV remotes for a streamlined and powerful Kramer AV control and video distribution solution.
5 September 2025
At the southern tip of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the Dicky Beach Surf Club punches well above its weight. It’s more than just a watering hole; it’s a community hub where local hospitality helps fund life-saving efforts on the beach. When it came time to overhaul their ageing audiovisual systems, the brief was clear: simplify everything. One touch, total control.
THE CHALLENGE: TOO MANY REMOTES, TOO LITTLE TIME
“We had a box full of remotes,” recalls Natalie Bell, General Manager of Dicky Beach Surf Club for the past nine years. “If you wanted to change a channel or audio source, it was a clunky process. We’d manually turn on TVs and navigate a spider web of inputs and remotes. It just wasn’t efficient — especially for a venue like ours where AV is essential to the customer experience.”
The club features a 200-seat restaurant, gaming lounge with 58 machines, a bustling sports bar, an outdoor deck, and a versatile function space. Screens display everything from Keno and Sky Racing to live NRL, and music sets the mood across zones with diverse demographics.
“We needed to cater to a lot of different vibes at once,” explains Natalie. “Older patrons in the dining room might want softer background music, while the sports bar is rocking Foxtel footy coverage and louder audio. And we needed to handle that flexibly — without needing an AV technician on-site.”
The Unilumin display tiles for the TAB and doubles as a big screen for the ‘big game’.
CALLING IN THE PROS
Enter Box Security Sound & Vision, long-time tech partner of the club, and the local AV brains behind the upgrade. While primarily focused on security systems, Box brought in programmer David Bowdler of Smart Home Programming and Automation to handle control system design and deployment. Together, they mapped out a system with one goal: ease of use.
“We used Kramer Control as the backbone,” says Chev Durrant from Box Security. “It’s intuitive, and it’s reliable. Staff can grab the iPad and run the entire AV system with zero guesswork.”
AV OVER IP: THE MODERN BACKBONE
The newly deployed system runs on Kramer’s AV-over-IP infrastructure, with the KDS-7 series distributing video content across the venue via standard Cat6 and PoE. Each HDMI source — four Foxtel boxes, two Sky Racing decoders, Keno, and FTA TV — is encoded, transported via a dedicated 1Gb network, and decoded at the display.
“AV over IP is a game-changer for venues like this,” says Chris Harding, Solutions Architect and director of AVA Distribution, a Kramer distributor. “You can install one cable to each screen, plug in a decoder, and you’re done. It’s scalable, affordable, and integrates natively with Kramer Control. That’s important when staff aren’t tech experts.”
The network backbone uses Netgear AV switches, configured with per-port video VLANs. “Netgear’s Kramer profiles streamline setup,” says Harding. “You can expand the system later just by adding more endpoints.”
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We wanted a system that just works. Now, anyone can pick up the iPad and run the venue — no stress, no confusion.
SIMPLE CONTROL, COMPLEX CAPABILITY
Control happens via two iPads running Kramer Control, housed in removable wall docks. Staff log in with a passcode, and instantly gain control of the entire venue — source switching, audio routing, zone volumes, and even video wall layouts.
“It’s brilliant,” says Natalie Bell. “I can walk through the venue, tablet in hand, and make adjustments in real time. If someone wants to watch the Broncos on a specific screen, it takes seconds. On busy Friday nights, that kind of responsiveness is a game-changer.”
Bowdler programmed various scenes, including a ‘Start of Day’ macro that powers on all TVs, routes sources, and dials in audio levels by zone — all with one button press. An ‘End of Day’ preset shuts the entire system down.
“We built it so any staff member can walk in and run the venue without needing to think twice,” says Bowdler. “It’s about making the complex simple.”
THE BIG SCREEN EXPERIENCE
A highlight of the install is the multi-screen video wall in the TAB area, which can switch from nine separate feeds to one large-format screen with a single command.
“When the races are on, we show the odds and form guides across the bottom row, and stream live coverage up top,” says Bowdler. “For big-ticket events like Melbourne Cup or Origin, the whole wall becomes one massive screen. It’s incredibly flexible.”
Yamaha Commercial Audio surface mount loudspeakers, amps and DSP handle the audio duties.
AUDIO THAT ADAPTS
Alongside the video overhaul, the team installed a Yamaha Commercial Audio system, controlled via Dante and routed by Kramer Control. “We can set different music or volume levels in every area,” says Natalie. “That’s huge for events — weddings, wakes, birthday parties — where guests want their own playlists in their own zones.”
Harding adds, “Yamaha and Kramer play very well together. We’ve now delivered a cohesive, network-based system for both audio and video.”
RESULTS THAT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
Since the new system went live, the club has seen a noticeable uptick in patron engagement — particularly around sporting events.
“NRL season has been fantastic,” says Natalie. “We’ve got more people staying longer, watching more games. And the tech never gets in the way — it just works.”
And if something does need tweaking?
“David can log in remotely and sort it out,” says Chev. “Volume too high in the dining room? No worries — it’s fixed before you even notice it was wrong.”
FINAL WORD
The Dicky Beach Surf Club project is a textbook example of AV done right: user-centric, future-ready, and seamlessly integrated. With Kramer Control and AV over IP at its core, it’s a system that empowers staff, enhances customer experience, and delivers tangible ROI for the club — all while keeping complexity firmly behind the scenes.
Box Security Sound & Vision: boxvision.com.au
AVA Distribution (Kramer): avad.com.au
Kramer AV: kramerav.com
Smart Home Programming: smarthomeprogramming.com.au
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