Albany, NY’s new OTB Clubhouse Race Book features technology solutions from Xantech, which control 249 flat screens throughout the establishment.ALBANY, NY—The Kentucky Derby is a special day not just for gamblers, but also for operators of betting facilities who know how important it is to be prepared for large crowds looking to win big. When the management team at the new OTB Clubhouse Race Book in Albany, NY was gearing up for the big day, they knew they had to have additional displays installed both in and outside the parlor. Com Tech was called in to add on to the stellar Xantechcontrolled AV system it had previously implemented, which has turned this OTB into a super-parlor.
“Management asked us to create a one-ofa- kind flagship OTB facility, where customers could come to grab a drink and have a sandwich while watching the races on the theater-sized screen or using one of the 249 flat-screen panels located throughout the parlor to place their bets,” said Chuck Zarriello, president of Com Tech. “The project had tight deadlines and required a control system that was reliable, cost-effective, and flexible enough to integrate both the latest flat-screen displays and 20 older models that were taken from the previous OTB location that the new Tele-Plex Racing Center was replacing.”
Zariello said that the cost-effectiveness of the Xantech products creates more than savings—it creates confidence. For instance, he noted, the wireless touchpanels act as a backup for the wired panels, which control global on/off and channel select for any combination of all of the displays. “That creates a fully redundant system that’s incredibly reliable and at an affordable cost,” he explained. “And the WIC1200s are the glue that holds the entire system together.”
Dan Farrell, director of media and marketing for Capital District Regional Off Track Betting, controls the system at the new OTB Clubhouse Race book with a Xantech CWTC10 10.4-inch Wireless Touch Controller.Xantech’s Web Intelligent Controller WIC1200 is a standalone room controller for Networked/Web-based control featuring two IR ports, two serial ports, two contact closure ports, and two digital I/O ports, as well as two ethernet ports (one with POE) for TCP/IP telnet control with less intrusion into facility IP networks.
Com Tech has been working with OTB facilities since the mid-’70s, but this project proved to be an exciting new challenge. “The management team wanted their facility to incorporate contemporary technology that would attract new patrons to horse-racing,” said Zariello. “We installed displays that can be run individually and allow customers to place their bets themselves.”
“We chose to use Xantech technology solutions because we needed reliable products that could accommodate a project that included 249 Sharp 60-inch LCD displays and Sony 55- and 46-inch flat-panel displays, as well as the sound system, which includes several Crown amplifiers and Biamp Nexia Audio Processors. In the end, both the management and the customers of the OTB Clubhouse Race are extremely happy with how the system is running.”
