Club Hit

Bankstown Sports Club (BSC) is NSW’s largest and arguably most progressive licensed club. This showstopping digital signage feature is a great example of a club choosing its partners carefully and getting a great result.

Jason Klippel, the club’s Digital Entertainment & AV Manager, his team devised the design and layout of the screens and then turned to the club’s long-term AV technology partner, The P.A. People, to make it happen.

TALE OF 2 CANVASSES

The installation looks spectacular and intricate, but can be considered as two pixel canvasses. There’s a three-wide video wall of HD displays (5760 x 1080) and a 10-strong array of LG Commercial panels behind it.

Ensuring the content appears correctly on the displays is a powerful tvONE CORIOmaster 4K multi-window video processor. The C3-540 CORIOmaster chassis shipped with 16 slots and redundant PSU. There are 4 x 4K30 HDMI inputs through the CM-HDMI-4K-2IN cards and 13 x HDBaseT outputs through 7 x CM-HDBT-SC-2OUT-1ETH cards. These were then received at the LG monitors converting the HDBaseT signals to HDMI through 13 x tvONE 1T-CT-642 HDMI 1.4 receivers. This is no small processing task, and one CORIOmaster eats for breakfast.

MOUNTING A CHALLENGE

An AMX control system allows Jason and the marketing team to toggle through a selection of screen configurations managed by CORIOmaster. Prior to installation Jason used tvONE’s CORIOgrapher to visualise a number of possible screen configurations and orientations. The board was presented with a variety of options from which to choose. The winning configuration was sent to The P.A. People to bring to life. “We have total confidence in the P.A. People’s ability to get the work done,” commented Jason Klippel.

Mounting the screens presented a considerable challenge in itself. The P.A. People’s in house capabilities ensured it was something it could take in its stride. Managing Director, Chris Dodds: “Mounting the screens was one thing — it did present a certain engineering challenge — but we also needed to ensure the video wall was serviceable. Each of the three front screens can be lifted off to access the rear screens.”

Club AV Manager, Jason Klippel, doesn’t take The P.A. People’s next-level engineering expertise for granted: “A lot of The P.A. People’s work is right at the end of the project. Their guys were here on a public holiday, working to get this job finished; testing and making sure it was perfect from Day One. They’re always happy to go that extra mile.”

FOYER CONTENT 

The content is regularly updated to reflect the theme of holidays, seasons and commemorations such as ANZAC Day. The content cycles to match the 15-second dwell time of patrons’ passage through the foyer.

The LG Commercial displays feature LG’s customary super-thin bezel which gives the installation its clean lines.

“The bezel width was certainly a consideration,” confirms Jason Klippel. “We also found the LG screens had the best value for money. They fit the bill perfectly. LG had the right size configurations available for us to achieve our design. The P.A. People had the flexibility to mount the displays the way they needed to without compromise. And we had the support from LG. Durability is another major consideration. These displays run 24/7/365… I’ve not turned them off yet, and we’ve not had a problem.”