When the team at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada, began to give their sportsbook a makeover, they made a key decision: that particular part of the operation would serve as the technological center of the property.
“We've made our sportsbook the central hub for the entire property because of DM NVX AV-over-IP technology,” says Zak Gulling, CIO of both the Atlantis and the Monarch Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk (Colorado) properties, which are owned and operated by Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (Nasdaq: MCRI). For the uninitiated, AV-over-IP is shorthand for “audio-visual over internet protocol,” a technology that can deliver content at near-zero latency over a network — and not only is it fast and efficient, it’s incredibly scalable.
It's just one aspect of the Crestron technology that can be found throughout the resort. Crestron lighting is used in most common areas, and suites are outfitted with the Crestron Home® OS and its attendant solutions, including control and shading. (More on that in a moment.)
For the sportsbook, however, a robust AV-over-IP solution was a must.
“Everything distributes across the network from that point, with the exception of our meeting rooms,” says Gulling. “They have their own head end, but we could route between the two.” That potential for connectivity anywhere in the resort is a big part of the system’s success. “It doesn't matter where you are on the property — you plug in a DM NVX AV-over-IP device, and we can show our content anywhere.”