— Key Digital AV over IP systems give hospitality venues flexible, scalable and cost effective AV with control capabilities for complete systems through its Compass Control Pro software —
MOUNT VERNON, NY – AV integrators working with bars, restaurants and gaming venues find commonality in the requirements of their customers: ease of use, high quality video, flexibility and cost effectiveness. These integrators are increasingly satisfying those needs with AV over IP distribution systems from award-winning developer and manufacturer of leading-edge digital video processing and video signal distribution solutions Key Digital®, with integrated system control via the company’s Compass Control® Pro iOS software.
For example, at Santora’s Pizza Pub & Grill in Buffalo, NY, AV integrator Theater Connection, designed and installed a Key Digital® 11 x 48 AV over IP AV system, combined with Compass Control Pro software, to deliver Santora’s a cost-effective, highly flexible and reliable solution for managing a huge number of television screens.
“The restaurant staff can easily run the entire video system and its audio from a single iPad running Compass Control Pro, and that’s pretty amazing,” says Vic Scaccia, COO of Theater Connection. “Compass Control Pro is fully customizable and scalable, so it’s the perfect solution for a business like Santora’s.” The Santora’s distribution and control system is built on all Key Digital components, “every component, even the smallest piece,” says Scaccia. “The quality and stability of each product means the entire system is completely reliable. And Key Digital provides excellent back-end support. You have a question, they have an answer. And the product quality is there — you can feel it when you pick up a component in your hands.”
“To the delight of integrators, Compass Control Pro features fully customizable, drag-and-drop setup of user interface screens with prebuilt templates and no need for high-level programming,” says Key Digital’s Jonathon Ferry, VP of Product Education & Experience. “It delivers complete system IP-based control of Key Digital AV over IP hardware and of third-party devices from the 120-plus Compass Alliance Partner brands through a growing library of bi-directional drivers and GUI modules not only for AV gear like televisions, cable boxes and video cameras, but spanning all aspects of a technological infrastructure from lighting to climate control, power management and security, replacing all the remotes and traditional interfaces previously necessary with centralized venue control from a customized, end-user friendly graphical interface, which our clients love.”
In another example, Murdy’s sports bar in Corpus Christi, Texas replaced the bar’s older, wiring-intensive matrix infrastructure with a Key Digital 16 x 16 4K AV over IP system that uses Compass Control Pro on an iPad for complete and intuitive user management of every screen.
Abel Gonzalez, Sales Manager and Project Estimator for the system’s integrator, Absolute Communications & Network Solutions out of San Antonio, says that “Murdy’s is able to connect any source to any output just by moving the icons on the iPad. That means audio and video can be easily reconfigured for any use of the venue, from regular nights to special occasions, such as connecting the DJ booth. In that way, Key Digital’s technology has a real economic impact. Just a few components from Key Digital made a huge and positive difference here.”
“Key Digital AV over IP systems are modular, so right-sized for any application,” says DeWayne Rains, VP of Sales for Key Digital. By using a Key Digital AV over IP encoder for each source to inject the AV signal into a managed gigabit switch for distribution, and a Key Digital decoder for each display to retrieve content and convert it back to HDMI, systems are custom configured based on venue needs. And, alongside Compass Control Pro compatibility, additional control signals can be passed along with content, including RS-232 and TCP/IP IP via Open API for easy two-way integration with other professional control systems and IR for consumer displays. “Key Digital AV over IP systems can be expanded to suit venues of any size,” adds Rains. “And, with the introduction of our second-generation hardware, we’ve been able to provide these feature-rich systems at reduced cost without any compromise in quality or capability.”
For specialty applications, Key Digital AV over IP systems can be complemented by additional Key Digital solutions, with unified control through Compass Control Pro. At Dakota Magic Casino’s sportsbook, Fargo, ND-based AV specialists Site On Sound interconnected 21 sources and 35 video displays showing sports events, wagering odds and in-house advertising by way of a Key Digital AV over IP system, with the centerpiece 31- X 10-foot sportsbook video wall additionally enabled by three KD-MLV4x4Pro 4K UHD HDMI seamless matrix with multi-view tiling processors. The system is managed from an iPad using Compass Control Pro™ software with unlimited presets allowing, with just the swipe of a finger, such transitions as switching the video wall from eight discrete images to two.
“It’s so very flexible,” says Dakota Magic Casino CEO Kurt Schmidt. Where on a typical day, four events might be showing on the video wall, Schmidt says that for big events “like the Final Four or the Super Bowl, we can make that entire screen into a single, huge, 4K display. And the ticker on the side of the sportsbook can be seen pretty much from anywhere in the property. It really grabs your attention and draws you in. Then when you get close you see that video wall, people are just blown away. We love what Key Digital and Site On Sound were able to do here.”
Key Digital AV over IP system hardware ships from stock, preconfigured per client needs. The Compass Control Pro demo app is available as a free download from the Apple App Store. The app can be activated as a fully functioning controller with a Compass Control Pro Enterprise License.
Links
Key Digital
AV over IP solutions
Compass Control
Photo Caption: A swipe and a tap on an iPad running Key Digital’s Compass Control Pro app reconfigures the Dakota Magic Casino Sportsbook’s huge video wall to accommodate the action of up to eight events simultaneously, thanks to a backbone of Key Digital hardware
