Crazed sports fans, many of which have lavish setups in their own homes to watch the big game, have high expectations when visiting sports bars. The experience should be equal to—or sometimes better than—being at a game in person. Visitors to Chicago’s Wrigley Field stadium are being treated to just that with a massive 2,000-square-foot video screen at the new DraftKings Sportsbook, with game footage and betting information delivered by a tvONE CORIOmaster2 video processor and integrated by tvONE partner McCann Systems.
The expansive LED feature wall wraps around the space and is visible from practically any seat. DraftKings Sportsbook is a restaurant, bar, and sports betting facility and is connected to the historic Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Upon realizing that the large LED screen would require many video sources to be displayed and have several preset layouts, immersive digital environments specialists McCann Systems specified tvONE’s CORIOmaster2 video processor, which is engineered to drive ‘more pixels than you will ever need’ with its high bandwidth CORIO2 processing.
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“The processing power of the tvONE CORIOmaster2 allowed us to produce a combined video resolution of 16,320 x 1560 to cover the entire LED wall,” said Al Ragone, senior field applications engineer with McCann. “We are utilizing five outputs from the processor that all produce 4K resolution, which is fed to the main LED wall. We are also using the internal window processing of the unit to create up to 48 unique windows that can be displayed on the video wall across 24 different layouts and formats.”
The massive LED screen can display up to 24 sporting events at one time or provide a single expansive image for an immersive experience. Billed by developer Marquee Development as a ‘first-of-its-kind sportsbook’, the 17,000-square-foot venue can accommodate more than 670 people.
CORIOgraphed content consists of 12 unique DirecTV feeds, two cable TV feeds, four Apple TV streaming media players, six live feeds of betting odds provided by DraftKings, one streaming media player for the new DraftKings Network, and a pre-broadcast video feed of Chicago Cubs home games. The DraftKings staff operates the visuals on a day-to-day basis. McCann provided a thorough, in-person training to explain the capabilities and features of the entire AV system, which also features four-zone directional sound.
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“The flexibility and capabilities of the tvONE CORIOmaster2 is extremely impressive,” said Wilson. “Feeding 48 unique windows of content require a massive amount of processing power. The number of layouts we were able to create was very impressive, which led to 24 different layouts that were made available to the client. Depending on the number of live events happening that day, the location of guests in the space, or the importance of a live event, the LED wall can be set up to create any type of viewing experience.”
