- Projection screen manufacturer Screen Innovations (SI) has installed a massive Black Diamond Venue projection screen at an acclaimed Austin-area fine dining restaurant. The new 215-inch SI Black Diamond Venue projection screen enhances the establishment’s overall aesthetics, and has contributed to the restaurant’s increased traffic, service offering, and operational profitability, the company says.
SI removed an older 215-inch SI Solar 1.3 gain screen and replaced it with a new 215-inch Black Diamond Venue 1.4 gain screen.
Designed to solve complex installation challenges, Black Diamond Venue enables two-piece projection to work in almost any environment, anytime, day, or night. Featuring a micro-seamed rigid panel construction, Black Diamond Venue allows a flat panel-quality image in virtually any application, according to SI.
Cool River, the site of the installation, is an Austin-area steak and seafood restaurant that caters to an upscale clientele by providing an elegant yet comfortable ambiance. In addition to its fine-dining experience, Cool River offers separate sports and entertainment lounge areas that feature inviting open-beamed architecture and large floor to ceiling windows that maximize natural light.
“The visible results of this upgrade are staggering. The projected image displays vividly and has far better contrast, which is really noticeable in this bright, beautiful space,” said Ryan Gustafson, president of Screen Innovations. “Now that Cool River has the largest ‘flat panel’ quality image in the area, they are promoting afternoon football and sporting events in ways that were not possible before. We’re told that the end result is a differentiated, more profitable operation that appeals to a broader audience, and that the customers are blown away by what they see.”
“The Black Diamond Venue 1.4 gain projection screen image is stunning, especially when there is an abundance of natural light in the room," said Cool River proprietor Randy Umlah, who oversaw the Black Diamond Venue installation. "In fact, Cool River has been able to significantly improve the quality and breadth of our daytime sports and entertainment programming, which provides a better overall experience for our customers. What’s more, we are now realizing additional revenue from additional covers and increased check averages, which we directly attribute to the viewing quality of our new Black Diamond Venue screen. It has enabled us to expand our offering, increase customer satisfaction, and improve our bottom line. We couldn’t be happier with our decision to upgrade to Black Diamond Venue by Screen Innovations.”
“Integrators have already found that Black Diamond is a great solution," said Gustafson. "However, with the added benefit of larger custom screen sizes, they now have the ability to install plasma-like images in restaurants, bars, house of worship venues, boardrooms, schools, staging/event rooms, trade show/digital signage applications, and outdoor locations. In fact, because of SI’s design flexibility, Black Diamond Venue has proven to be an ideal solution for new or retrofit installations. In essence, Black Diamond Venue delivers brilliant images and beneficial and lucrative results, which simply should not be overlooked when looking for a projection screen solution.”
Q&A with Cool River GM, Randy Umlah:
How has Black Diamond Venue benefitted/improved Cool River Cafe's entertainment offering?
With the addition of the 215" Black Diamond Venue projection screen to our main bar area, Cool River guests are now able to enjoy a brighter image with crisper detail that they can enjoy any time they're here, especially in the daytime when there is a lot of light coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
How have your covers been affected since installing Black Diamond Venue?
We have seen an increase in cover counts for sporting events and happy hours. In fact, when we show sporting events or music videos on the screen, our guests seem to be more inclined to stay longer because we're showing content they want to see in a far better way than they'd see elsewhere.
How has customer behavior, such as length of stay and/or group size, been effected since installing Black Diamond Venue?
The change in behavior is definitely noticeable. Cool River guests are now staying longer and spending more while they're here, and they're even arriving earlier to secure the best viewing areas.
What feedback have you received from your customers on the Black Diamond screens at Cool River Cafe?
Most of our guests are wowed by the size and clarity of the images on the Black Diamond Venue projection screen. The image seems to pop out of the screen - it's incredibly immersive and impressive, and provides us an advantage over other restaurants and bars in the area.
