Who Needs the Front Row?
If the definition of a sports bar is the ability to watch the game on the very best screens while enjoying fine food and drink, then the Hilton Orlando’s FastBreak sports bar should have its picture in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Along with the usual smattering of widescreen monitors all around the bar, FastBreak’s main interior wall is home to three 20-foot LED video walls.
To add to the "wow" factor, two of the walls are seamlessly mounted side by side, creating an overall video wall measuring a staggering 40 feet in length. The bar’s interior wall is split by a door, so the 40-foot video wall is to the left, while the 20-foot video wall is on the right. When they are not showing nature or artistic videos, FastBreak’s unobstructed video walls are blowing customers away with big views of multiple sporting events.
The FastBreak revamp is part of an overall facelift at the Hilton Orlando. Located in the lower level of the Hilton Orlando, the FastBreak video wall installation was led by Primeview Global. The Integration Factory handled the actual installation, while Osborn Engineering was brought in to design the bar’s AV system. Before FastBreak’s renovation, the sports bar was simply outdated, according to Grant Ramsay, Osborn’s vice president and director of technology.
Content Control
Primeview, Aurora Multimedia, LG, and NETGEAR were the main AV equipment manufacturing partners. FastBreak features three Primeview FusionMAX 32:9 All-in-One PRO Edition 1.5mm LED video walls, all seamlessly stitched together with an H2 NovaStar processor. Collectively, the system can display "six sports TV channels from 35 DirecTV H25 satellite TV receivers—16:9 images at 138 inches diagonal—each with a resolution of 1920x1080,” said Fred Grob, senior sales engineer with The Integration Factory.
FastBreak is also home to 32 LG flat panel HDTV displays of varying sizes, which are mounted inside the bar itself or on its open-air outdoor patio. An Aurora AVoIP routing and distribution system featuring 70 VPX-TC1-Pro transceivers delivers the video content to the various screens. The AV system also includes three Aurora VPX-TX1-WP2-B transmitter wall plates, two RXT-10-B 10-inch in-wall touchscreen control panels, one DTX-1616D 16x16 Dante DSP, and one RXC-4 control processor. Other components include four NETGEAR M4250 Series network switches and an LEA Professional Connect 354 audio amplifier.
“On the headend switching end, it was Aurora Multimedia that stepped in to deliver a working solution on time and within budget,” said Chanan Averbuch, Primeview Global’s executive vice president of the Americas. “For content playback, the system includes a BrightSign multi-head 4K player.”
As Averbuch explained, FastBreak delivers a premium sports bar feeling, but it also provides an immersive dining experience for the breakfast and lunch time slots. As part of the overall AV package, Primeview curated and provided the digital artwork, including custom abstract and nature scenes, to complement the primary broadcast content.
After 4 p.m., guests can enjoy access to plenty of sports. “While the primary use case is to watch a multitude of sports games at the same time," he noted, "the addition of blue-chip premium digital videos allows diners to fully embrace the space while thinking where their next enjoyment will be on property.”
“On the headend switching end, it was Aurora Multimedia that stepped in to deliver a working solution on time and within budget.”
The decision to install a trio of massive 32:9 video walls inside FastBreak was not taken lightly. “As part of the design conversation with Primeview and the owner, they wanted a product that was aesthetically impressive and allowed for multiple TV channels in native 1920x1080 resolution,” Grob explained. “As well, they wanted to use the video walls as an extension of the video displays.”
Cost was also a concern, but “the Primeview 32:9 FusionMAX all-in-one solution allowed us to build a unique setup when tiled together, while also keeping expenses down,” said Averbuch.
“Primeview had the right product that made the design simple, cost-effective, and easy to deploy,” added Ramsay. “It was the perfect solution that Osborn was able to integrate into the design. That, coupled with the fact that Hilton ownership knew Primeview well, just made this project even easier to execute.”
Ready for InfoComm
Deadlines were a top priority for the FastBreak installation. The bulk of the installation was started toward the end of winter 2023, but Hilton wanted everything completed before InfoComm 2023 came to town in early June. As it turned out, the project was wrapped the month before. “Final commissioning of the system came down to the wire, but everything was set up in time for local government officials to experience the reimagined sports bar prior to Infocomm 2023,” Ramsay said.
Every AV installation has its challenges; in the case of FastBreak, it experienced “scope changes,” according to Averbuch. “Digital art was truly added in the 25th hour to create that 'wow' factor, and everyone had to step up to make adjustments, in the final hours, on programming," he explained. "We also had to swap some components within the AV system to bring this project to the finish line—to ensure 16:9, 32:9, and 64:9 canvases can be fed with not just satellite TV feeds but also the custom immersive digital art.”
“The original LED video wall processors provided with the video wall did not include the necessary HDCP keys for the DirecTV receivers,” Grob added. “After our field engineers diagnosed the problem, new LED video wall processors from Primeview with the required HDCP keys replaced the originals. This quickly solved the problem.”
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Despite the challenges, the results of the FastBreak AV project are truly breathtaking. The Hilton Orlando’s video walls stand as a testament to technological innovation and the determination of the Primeview Global team to give their client what they wanted, on time and within budget. “Everyone was extremely impressed with the final result,” said Grob. “The physical characteristics including the shallow depth of the Primeview video walls and the image quality are top-of-the-line.”
“My face lights up every time I visit the site,” Averbuch said. So do the eyes of the Primeview Global sales team whenever the topic of the FastBreak video walls comes up in client conversations. The reason? “Several hotel owners have expressed interest in duplicating this experience at other hotels around the country,” he replied.
