Background
Macclesfield Town football is currently riding high in the North West Counties Football League, one of England’s oldest clubs has become a thriving sports/exercise and entertainment hub for the local community. The new-look Macclesfield Town complex, which is open to the public all-year round, is the brainchild of Rob Smethurst, whose plan for multiple revenue streams includes an all-weather pitch, refurbished stands and floodlights, a thriving youth football academy, two state-of-the-art private membership gyms and a large sportsbar/restaurant, dubbed ‘Bar Twenty-Seven’. In keeping with new décor and generously equipped health and social spaces, the club also sports the latest AV systems.
The Challenge
Too many sports bars and gyms skimp on the very thing that defines them – the AV! Many businesses suffer from inadequate sound including patchy levels and inconsistency throughout. Invariably the screens are too small for the space and suffer from poor resolution, so customers have to squint to see what’s going on. The initial plan was to install a couple of TVs and sound-bars in the club’s boardroom.
Upon arriving at the club, plans were discussed for a larger scale AV distribution, supplied as part of a full refurb. With Habitech’s support, the idea of spectacular high quality video walls and evenly distributed wide bandwidth sound to go with them. This would deliver the new experience that would get customers talking about the club and coming back in greater numbers.
The Solution
The club wanted to make a statement with a state-of-the-art AV experience. The vision was to incorporate large 2×2 video walls around multiple areas of the install. The video walls themselves are positioned in the Sports Bar and the two gyms, and are flanked by a vast amount of single screens. All these screens are connected to Sky and Freeview through WyreStorm’s NetworkHD 400 Series 4K AV over IP Encoder & Decoders.
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