When the new Golf Play Café asks patrons to “swing on over,” they mean that literally.
The restaurant/bar that opened this year in Rochester, NY features over 50 world-renowned golf courses on its four state-of-the-art PGA TOUR simulators. Players/diners can hit into the four simulators’ 20 x 20-foot screens and watch their friends do so on a dozen LG 60- and 42-inch LCD monitors throughout the bar and restaurant, linked by 12 Xantech IPRS232 XtraLink IP controller/switchers that enable transmission of RS232, RS422, or RS485 serial commands over an existing IP network to a specific IP address, and all controlled by a Xantech WIC1200 Web Intelligent Controller.
This all-Xantech control system was installed and integrated by Muzak/Functional Communications, with offices in Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Albany, NY.
Muzak/Functional Communications installed a total of 16 video displays in Golf Play Café to complement the restaurant’s four golf simulators, which allow short-formatted play of nine holes on one of the 50 best courses in the world stored in the PGA TOUR system’s memory and projected onto the four large screens. To create a seamless and consistent experience throughout the facility, Muzak/Functional Communications installed the system comprising Xantech IPRS232s and WIC1200 Web Intelligent Controller.
“Those LCDs are tied into the head-end equipment rack that’s controlled by the WIC1200,” said Dru Biehler, service manager at Muzak/Functional Communications. The firm’s technicians then integrated eight Dell tablet computers with the WIC1200, allowing patrons to choose their own channels from anywhere in the restaurant or bar, to watch sports on popular channels such as DISH Network or to tune into the virtual courses that golfers are playing on and watch them. “The entire system is running over Cat-6 cabling with an HD video signal extended to all the displays, and the WIC1200 is the brains of the entire operation. The Xantech WIC1200 is the only piece of equipment that can do all of this, including interfacing with the Dell tablets, at a cost-effective price point. And Xantech’s technical service is amazing – you call and you get help right away. That means the world when you’re working on a project like this one, where we had a tight deadline.”
In fact, says Biehler, Muzak/Functional Communications’ winning bid for the project was based in part on its ability to get the work down in the shortest time frame. “And Xantech’s ease of use and reliability helped us meet that requirement,” he said.
Xantech's Web Intelligent Controller WIC1200 is a stand-alone room controller for Networked/Web-based control featuring 2 IR Ports, 2 Serial Ports, 2 Contact Closure ports, and 2 Digital i/o ports as well as 2 Ethernet ports (one with Power over Ethernet [POE]) for TCP/IP telnet control with less intrusion into facility IP networks. On its own, the Web Intelligent Controller is an Event-driven component with two RS232 ports (configurable for RS422 and RS232) and a single IP port. The Event Manager is capable of Timed Events, Calendar Events, Telnet and Serial Events as well a full FTP site, Web Server and Email Server.
“We have access to the WIC1200 via the Golf Play Café’s SSLVPN,” Biehler said. “By browsing through the URL it will prompt you for your username and password. Then we have complete control over the WIC programming and the web control page from our office. That is only one of the many great features of Xantech. We also love the service and support.”
