Analog Way’s Aquilon C+ Drives LED Videowalls at New DraftKings Sportsbook at del Lago in New York

DraftKings Inc. and del Lago Resort & Casino have opened the DraftKings Sportsbook at del Lago, a 6,000 square-foot space offering sports fans an innovative, high-tech sports betting experience featuring LED videowalls driven by an Analog Way Aquilon C+ processor. The installation, in the Finger Lakes region of New York, marks the first sportsbook with an Aquilon C+ for mission critical, 24/7 365 operation of a large, multi-layered pixel space.

AV solutions provider HB Communications, Inc. of North Haven, Connecticut was awarded the build out of the new sportsbook, which replaced an existing bar area at the resort.  “It was an exciting project for all of us,” says Stephen Keppler, Regional Sales Manager at HB Communications.  “There were more than 30 million pixels across the pixel space with a number of sources and windows.  And the sportsbook had a quick turnaround to be ready for pre-season football.”

Analog Way’s Aquilon C+ is a fully modular and scalable 4K/8K multi-screen presentation system and videowall processor with up to 24x 4K60p inputs and up to 20x 4K60p outputs.  Like all the products in the LivePremier™ series, Aquilon C+ combines industrial- grade reliability, unrivaled ease-of-use, versatile 4K digital connectivity, unmatched real-time 10/12-bit 4:4:4 video processing power, best-in-class image quality and pure 4K60p on each input and output with ultra-low latency.

The main displays in the DraftKings Sportsbook at del Lago are 2.6mm Unilumin Direct View LED videowalls. The largest screen measures 44.29 x 14.9 feet while an adjacent screen is 19.8 x 14.9 feet.  The Aquilon C+ performs all the scaling, windowing and seamless switching for these two pixel spaces.  Content sources include DirecTV and streaming platforms, which allow fans to watch live event coverage of myriad sports.  Logos and graphics fill the videowalls during event downtimes.

“We’ve always had a lot of success with Analog Way products,” notes Christopher Daigle, HB Communications’ Senior Project Manager.  “We called Analog Way’s Northeast Regional Sales Manager Seth Teates about the project and decided that Aquilon would be a good fit for its horsepower and attractive pricing.  We also needed a lot of manufacturer support because of the tight 12-week turnaround. We relied heavily on our relationship with Seth, and with the help of Analog Way we finished three days ahead of schedule!”

Keppler says that HB Communications “was one of the first on the waiting list for Aquilon,” recognizing the potential of the system after its introduction at InfoComm 2019.  “The sportsbook’s videowalls were not native 16×9,” he explains, “so we needed Aquilon to do the window processing and fill the pixel space.”

“The sportsbook needed windows for quite a few feeds with seamless transitions on a large canvas,” something that Aquilon could easily handle, notes Seth Teates.  “Aquilon provides full HDCP compliance, and futureproofs the space: every I/O is 4K60p 4:4:4 HDR capable and supports all current formats of 4K. Aquilon comes standard with redundant power supplies, which is also essential for mission critical applications.”

The sportsbook’s Aquilon currently offers 16 pre-sets to deliver different looks for the videowalls via custom Crestron touchpanel routing.  “The sportsbook staff was trained on site to operate the system, and they have not called us,” Daigle says.  “At the 12-week mark we’ve had no reports of any problems.”

“I was extremely impressed by Analog Way’s involvement throughout the project,” he adds.  “Our long partnership and trust and the hard work everyone put in enabled us to meet our goal.”