Just Add Power’s Flexible AV-Over-IP Video Distribution System Enables Ale Emporium Indianapolis to Become King of Video Walls.
Thanks to the latest AV technology, the Ale Emporium in Indianapolis is known for more than its famous Hermanaki® wings. Walk into one of the three locations in the city and you’ll be met with a state-of-the-art, immersive visual experience. The Ale Emporium locations boast the most video walls of any place in Indianapolis, according to the chain’s long-time AV integrator, Nathan Robison, owner of Robison Digital Solutions.
“The owner loves bouncing ideas back and forth, and reinvesting in AV technology that is truly going to make the customer experience better,” said Robison. “We’re grateful for that partnership. It’s been a pleasure working and collaborating with him and the staff this past decade.”
What delivers on that experience is video walls — video walls everywhere — and of course, a multitude of video sources. For the last few years, Robison has slowly been updating the Ale Emporiums’ large fleet of analog TVs to digital displays, adding video walls here and there, as the time and budget allowed. While the bars had invested heavily in the best analog video matrixes at the time, they wouldn’t support the digital crossover. Needing an alternative, Robison discovered Just Add Power’s AV-over-IP video distribution system.
“Jumping from analog to digital, Just Add Power is the best way to distribute video sources in a flexible and affordable way,” said Robison. “Otherwise, your only alternative is to buy a video matrix, which has a finite number of inputs and outputs, and are really expensive. With Just Add Power, it’s easy to add any number of sources and displays at any time, which is a benefit for the Ale Emporium. I wouldn’t be shocked if they called me this week saying they need an extra TV or video wall somewhere. Just Add Power is fluid, in that you can keep adding more inputs or outputs by just adding a transmitter or a receiver. That scalability means we’re not painted into a corner on a job.”
For years, Robison and the Ale Emporium owner discussed a few bigger video wall projects that would flank the walls and span the bar in each of the three locations, but with packed crowds almost all day every day, that kind of overhaul seemed near impossible without shutting every place down. Then the pandemic happened, presenting the AV integrator with the time necessary to finalize designs, order equipment, and install some eye-popping video wall enhancements.
At the Greenwood location, there is a total of 5 LG video walls made up of 51 video wall monitors, with one 2 x 13 system that covers the length of one entire wall. There’s also a 3×3, 2×4, and two 2×2 configurations. At the Fishers locations, there’s 3×4, 2×4, and a 3×3. The Indianapolis location includes 8 video walls made up of 96 video wall monitors, with a 2×2, 2×3, 2×4, two 2×5’s, 2×8, 2×9, and a 2×12 configurations. In addition to video walls, each location has a handful of 65 to 80-inch displays for anywhere between 80-110 displays.
Just Add Power was a key part of executing Robison’s designs. There are 16 sources that include 12 DirecTV boxes, two cables boxes (for redundancy should the DirecTV box go down), and two auxiliary inputs to distribute a laptop or other video sources. To distribute these around the room to hundreds of displays, the company’s modular approach to AV-over-IP distribution was essential. Just Add Power is the leader in affordable, feature-rich, and scalable AV-over-IP distribution solutions. The company’s platform includes affordable transmitters that connect to each source and a receiver for each display. A suitable gigabit switch supports the number of Just Add Power transmitter and receiver devices in the system. In this case, Robison installed Luxul switches. Utilizing the bar’s network infrastructure — Cat5/6/7 or fiber-optic cabling — to send video and audio signals from source to screen reliably and with ultra-low latency.
For the project, Robison specified the VBS-HDIP-508POE receiver and the VBS-HDIP-707POE transmitter. Designed for any size of 4K HDMI distribution and HDMI matrixing application, these models allow integrators to better manage their hardware budget on projects with 4K HDMI distribution requirements — including 4K — with HDR distribution. These entry-level models can be mixed and matched with other Just Add Power AV over IP devices, allowing integrators to save on costs without sacrificing enhanced functionality, such as audio extraction, downmix from Dolby® 5.1, and CEC control in zones. The pair distributes up to 4K Ultra HD visually lossless video with no latency over a single Cat-5e cable, enabling dealers to lower costs associated with 4K HDMI distribution projects. They also support 4K with seamless HDR and HDR10, HDCP 2.2, 4K to 1080p scaling for legacy displays, two-way RS-232 and IP control, as well as support for video walls and all audio formats up to and including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
In addition to the 508 receivers, Robison installed the VBS-HDIP-518AVP receiver at key video walls. The 518AVP model features a stereo audio output 3.5mm with adjustable delay. This way, occupants in each video wall zone can listen to audio from that central display or the music that’s offered from the bar’s music provider.
For the owner and staff to command and control the system easily, Robison installed an RTI XP-8v control processor, which is interoperable with many third-party AV solutions, including Just Add Power and the audio system featuring Klipsch speakers. From one of three RTI KX7 touchpanels featuring a graphic screen Robison himself designed, staff can see what’s playing on each source and push it to any of the 80-100 display destinations in each location.
Because Ale Emporium and other commercial customers often want to scale their systems by adding new displays or sources over time, Robison is always thinking about how systems can expand. With Just Add Power, every install is future ready.
“The customers never feel limited, and we can always expand the sources and their destinations to their heart’s content,” said Robison. “We were standing at the edge of the analog cliff and with every new display we bought, we had to buy an analog to digital converter. It was a Band-Aid. I’m thankful to have Just Add Power in my arsenal and work with a customer like Ale Emporium that wants to run with new ideas. I was able to bridge the digital gap easily and confidentially.”
