Signal Boost Newsletter: Winter 2024

BetMGM at State Farm Stadium Delivers a Winning AV Experience

Introduction:

State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is the home of the Arizona Cardinals. In September 2021, team officials and BetMGM set out to create the first sportsbook on the grounds of an NFL stadium that would combine the energy and maximize viewing options for sports betting throughout the venue’s lounge, bar and grill. The result is the BetMGM sportsbook, a facility that is regularly full of action-seeking sports fans.

Since it was opened in 2023, thousands of sports fans have visited the facility to place wagers on and watch a wide array of sports and special events, including college basketball and football games; professional MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL contests; golf and tennis matches.

Challenge: The ambitious AV system design called for a 40’ x 7’ Barco LED wall to be the centerpiece, with an additional 45 high-definition LG Electronics monitors throughout the 17,000 sq. ft. facility so visitors would not miss a minute of the action. As customers require the ability to switch multiple content sources to view the games they need to see at a moment’s notice, 4K video needed to be quickly and easily routed from a variety of sources including DirecTV boxes, PCs and digital signage players.

To provide visitors with the ultimate fan experience, BetMGM knew they would need to create a state-of-the art video system. It enlisted the help of Pro Sound & Video, a Solotech Company. The firm’s team, currently headed by Senior Design Engineer Jamie Gillespie, had been working with the Cardinals since the stadium was built in 2006.

Solution: An SDVoE solution was chosen for the project and the entire system is driven by ZeeVee ZyPer4K AV over IP encoders and decoders, in conjunction with a Netgear M4300-96X 10Gb network switch. The ZeeVee gear is controlled and maintained by ZeeVee’s software based ZyPer Management Platform (ZMP). This enabled all components at all 84 endpoints to be automatically identified, which simplified system installation, maintenance and operation. Video content can also be easily selected and routed to the LED wall or individual monitors from the front of the house via an iPad interface. In addition,  a wide range of multiviews (up to 19 sources per display) can be shown across monitors in the video wall or other locations.

ZeeVee’ advanced software coupled with its 10Gb uncompressed 4K SDVoE encoders and decoders allowed for the elimination of a conventional matrix switcher, 45 video windowing processors, HDBaseT extenders and special cabling to meet the BetMGM team’s requirements—which included showing content from up to 10 video sources on each display. This saved the customer over $400,000 in hardware costs alone.

ZeeVee was brought into the project due to the Cardinals’ use of its RF signal distribution products for more than 10 years and counting. Gillespie and his team worked with ZeeVee Sales Manager James Chordas and Director of Product Management Art Weeks to gain an understanding of the many benefits of an AVoIP solution described above including performance, flexibility and ease-of-use. Both helped with the final project design.

In addition to being a known quantity by the end-user, Solotech chose ZeeVee for this project as its ZyPer4K gear met and exceeded the proposed system’s requirements and for its proven track record of offering preemptive assistance in AV and network design.

Now up and running for more than a year, BetMGM executives and staff are happy with the performance and reliability of the sportsbook’s AV system. In particular, they appreciate the fact that it can be seamlessly controlled by those on staff with minimal training.

According to Gillespie, working with ZeeVee was in no way a gamble; it was a very positive experience. You might even call it a sure bet.