About Tulalip Resort Casino in Washington
Opened in 2004, the Tulalip Resort Casino (TRC) is the largest its kind in Washington state. Operated by the Tulalip Tribes of Washington it houses a 192,000-square-feet casino, seven restaurants, extensive meeting facilities, an amphitheatre, and an impressive award-winning 12-story hotel with 370 rooms and suites.
Challenge
Digital signage is prominent throughout the TRC, with monitors used to direct guests to events, display sports broadcasts and keep casino players informed of the latest promotions.
TRC has been steadily feeding a growing network of monitors using a cloud-based Kramer Control system. Built with drag-and-drop functionality, remote-control capabilities, and built-in system analytics, Kramer Control has made life easy for Aaron Jackson, who leads AV technical and integration support for TRC.
“Set-up is straightforward with Kramer Control,” said Jackson, an AV pro with extensive programming experience. “That’s why we gravitated towards this system.
Kramer has the ‘full-stack’ more than anyone else on the market, especially when it comes to the drivers being pre-written for Kramer Control. The TRC’s in-house IT staff also find Kramer Control simple to use. It’s easy to scale up when needed.”
However, the current level of digital signage at this dynamic casino is beyond what many hard-wired, switched matrix AV systems can easily handle.
Solution
To move AV signals over IP, approximately 60 Kramer KDS-EN6 4K60 4:2:0 HDCP 2.2 video encoders were installed inside TRC’s Networks Operation Center. These send signals to hundreds of Kramer KDS-DEC6 4K60 4:2:0 HDCP 2.2 decoders that are connected to monitors throughout the TRC.
This vastly increases the scalability, capacity, and flexibility of the TRC’s digital signage network, both in terms of the number of playout channels being supported at any one time and in terms of the groupings of monitors to which these signals can be sent.
Even though the TRC’s network capacity is 10 Gbps, the Kramer KDS-EN6 / KDS-DEC6 AV over IP distribution system is capable of supporting 4K60 4:2:0 (10.2 Gbps), ensuring that its digital signage system remains futureproof and won’t become overloaded.
What’s more, using Kramer Control and Kramer Network – a software-based AV over IP enterprise management solution – IT teams are provided with extensive levels of device monitoring and management, including flexible AV signal distribution, room automation and video wall management. All functions can be performed remotely using a secure, password protected web portal 24/7.
Results
Moving to an AV over IP signal delivery system has given the Tulalip Resort Casino the headroom it needs to add extra monitors, expand its range of playout channels, and migrate to 4K content when the time seems right. The strategy adds value now and in the long term.
This is a level of flexibility that just wasn’t possible with the TRC’s former hard-wired/matrix-based AV distribution system.
“The fact that the Kramer encoders/decoders are 4K gives us some room to grow, especially since there isn’t much 4K content available today,” Jackson commented. “Right now, the cameras within the TRC are HD, as is most of the playout content, including a marketing video loop that runs when the digital signs are not showing dedicated content. But times are changing and 4K is coming. Meanwhile, the fact that this is an AV over IP system means the TRC’s IT staff can easily change up the playout order and switch in new content as they see fit.”
Chris Kopin, VP of Technology at Kramer US, added: “When the Tulalip Resort Casino wanted to extend digital signage throughout its property, Kramer AV over IP was the only realistic solution. Today, the TRC has a high-performance AV over IP network that meets all of their digital signage needs—and then some.”
