Case Study: Let It Fly

Video and Audio Distribution At A Luxury Oceanside Residence

The Restaurant

Let It Fly, an upscale Sports Bar and Grill located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, emphasized the “Sports” in “Sports Bar” and requested live sports be visible at every angle. The restaurant space had two main seating areas with 200 seats, an outdoor patio with 100 seats, a bar, and a casino that needed AV solutions. With so much space and what would become over 80 displays, there was a need for a robust AV distribution system with secure management capabilities.

AV Design

Let It Fly tasked Dave Lawrence, L&S Video & Audio CEO, with finding a solution. L&S Video & Audio is a family-owned AV distributor and installer operating in Sioux Falls for over 20 years. Dave designed a solution to cover all seating angles with 81 TVs and 16 video sources and also had one side of the interior as one giant display. The length of the wall is 36 feet and 8 inches. A typical TV has a 16:9 aspect ratio, so the wall can comfortably fit four 110-inch displays.

A single 110-inch LCD or LED display sounds ideal, but presently they are costly and difficult to find. A projector can make a 110-inch display, but projectors aren’t very bright, and projector screens work best in dark environments not suitable for retail or restaurants. Alternatively, video walls are more affordable, and they allow both the size and the brightness of a regular TV. Video walls are multiple video displays tiled together into one more prominent display using a video wall processor. The cost of a 2x2 video wall, or four 55-inch TVs, plus a video wall processor is much cheaper and more versatile than a single 110-inch display.

They needed an audio and video system that could handle a lot of displays and video walls from one end of the restaurant to the other. Their plan would also need a control system to manage the different panels and audio routing. L&S Video & Audio had partnered with AVPro Edge on AV distribution projects before, and they were interested in AVPro Edge’s AV over IP solution for Let It Fly. After speaking with Loel Wheeler, Pro AV Business Development Manager, and John Tumbleson of Product Development and Engineering, he decided to use MXNet.

AV over IP Advantage

AVPro Edge’s MXNet is an audio-video data over internet network or AV over IP solution. MXNet has hardware components designed to coexist to create an ecosystem. The MXNet Ecosystem contains network switches, encoders, decoders, and a control box that can distribute video, audio, and control signals with unlimited sources and displays over a standard ethernet network. Using an AV over IP solution like MXNet allowed Dave to manage all of the displays securely, and he could save on installation costs by using the existing internet network.

With MXNet, the number one goal is easy deployment. All MXNet components come ready for audio-video signals out of the box. The last thing Dave needed to worry about was configuring a network switch to handle AV signals. The MXNet web interface, Mentor, gives integrators complete control to name endpoints, switch sources, analyze data rates, create video walls, and much more. Mentor comes built-in to each MXNet Ecosystem, giving integrators the upper hand to have a quick and successful installation. 

Results

After the installation was complete, Dave said he was happy with how easy MXNet was to install and the overall results of the MXNet Ecosystem. He said John Tumbleson was always available during the installation to ensure the best results on all displays and video walls. Since then, he hasn’t needed John to repair or update any MXNet components at Let It Fly. The MXNet Ecosystem works well with the other equipment at the restaurant, namely, audio amplifiers and an audio controller. Dave said the installation went exceptionally well, and he would use MXNet again in other projects.