Draper and Planar Pave the Way With "Route to Riches"

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Custom curved LED video wall and mounting structure installed in the Route 66 Casino, Albuquerque, NM.

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If there is one thing that casinos do not lack, it is an exciting atmosphere. Even so, the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was looking to add even more excitement for its customers.

Route 66 Casino went to Alpha Video & Audio for help promoting the new progressive slots game to customers inside the casino.

“When they built their new sportsbook, they built a new high-end bar to replace the previous 360-degree bar area,” said Lance Hutchinson, vice president, Alpha Video & Audio. “In keeping with the 360-degree theme they wanted to have a circular sign to put in the former bar area that would be a feature and help promote their new progressive slots area.”

With progressive slots, a wide area jackpot increases by a small percentage each time a game is played and there is no winner until, finally, someone wins the jackpot.

The Route 66 progressive slots jackpot game is called, appropriately enough, “Route to Riches.”

“Our progressive area was the first in New Mexico to have as many machines associated with it as it does,” said Trevor Taylor, Director of Marketing for the Route 66 Casino. “We needed highly visible informational signage for our guests to be able to locate the new area and keep track of the jackpots from anywhere.”

Route 66 Casino approached Alpha Video & Audio looking for a complete hardware, interface, and content solution that would look great and fit their budget. Hutchinson took his idea for a large, circular video wall about 10 feet above the floor to Planar®. They recommended Planar® CarbonLight™ CLI Flex™ LED modules that are literally bendable, making them ideal for video wall applications such as Hutchinson’s column wrap idea.

“Off-angle viewing clarity, smooth playback of motion video, and brightness of the display were the big features of the product,” said Hutchinson. “It works great on the floor, it attracts your eye from just about everywhere.”

With the LED displays selected, it was time to consider the structure behind the video wall. Planar recommended Hutchinson work with Draper on a custom curved supporting structure for the LED halo.

‘Draper has the ideal equipment for fabricating Planar CarbonLight CLI Flex frames, a unique roll-fed sheet metal laser cutter that delivers a visually compelling LED halo array,” said Peter Lawrence, director of the custom solutions group at Planar.

The project only took 90 days from product order to installation completion—proof that the “Route to Riches” is always easier when you work with the right partners.

“The key to the success for this type of solution is a robust design combined with precision manufacturing methods that enable precise location of the structure on site,” said Grant Wylie, director of AV product management for Draper. “The structure does have some ability to adjust the X, Y & Z axis for placement of the LED modules. But Instead of having significant X, Y, and Z axis adjustments that can lead to over adjustment issues during installation, we rely upon our sound design and precision manufacturing process to ensure proper LED module alignment.”

Precision manufacturing capability and close partnerships between Draper and leading LED manufacturers mean that when you’re ready, we’re ready.

“It really was a process we almost didn’t have to spend any effort on,” said Hutchinson. “The Draper solution just worked as designed and the team was great to work with. We had one last minute change that had to be done and it was handled with ease. I would definitely rate it a success; the customer likes it, and it was very well received.”

Learn more about the Route 66 Casino and Hotel.
Discover the range of Draper solutions for LED and LCD mounting structures.