Souped-Up Sports Bar

Beyond the camaraderie generated by the good food and great company to be had at Scottsdale, Ariz.’s K O’Donnell’s Sports Bar & Restaurant is another aspect of the business that draws a huge crowd – the establishment’s incredible complement of TVs and audio gear – both indoors and in the patio area.

Installation specialist ReVampIT Audio Video of Scottsdale is responsible for an amazing installation featuring a staggering total of 71 TVs (36 inside, 35 on the patio) and five zones of audio, all controlled by URC’s Total Control System using the URC TDC-7100 tabletop touch screen controller. Video distribution is handled using a Just Add Power IP-Based system.

ReVampIT Owner Jack Thompson also mentions the MRX 30 – URC’s “big boy” processor, which makes the system quick and very responsive.

ReVampIT’s involvement began when the owner bought the 13-year-old business from her father and decided a remodel was in order – and that included the technology that enabled the bar to be labeled as a true sports-watching emporium.

“She already had 40 TVs there – but she did have challenges with the old system,” explained Thompson. “It didn’t work entirely right, and it was challenging for the managers to use and change stations.

“I don’t think she really understood what was possible till I went over it with her. She wanted to expand the TVs – in fact, she nearly doubled them! And she wanted something easy for the managers to use. We have been able to accomplish that.”

The necessary amount of back-end programming for the new system was accomplished for the most part when the bar was closed – that is, overnight – but the work never interfered with the bar having functional TVs during business hours.

“A lot went into the back end so that on the front end it is easy to use,” he said. “In the morning, they hit ‘System On,’ and the pre-configuration turns on all the TVs and sets them to the box it starts on. From there, if you pick a TV, it will know exactly what box it’s on and jump right to that box, and then as you switch sources on each TV, it constantly jumps you to the new device and tracks it. So no matter what, when you go back to a particular TV, it will always jump to the source that it’s on so you have immediate control.”

ReVampIT technicians custom-programmed the URC interface to do this source tracking to make the system highly intuitive. “The bar owners and managers have said that this is the easiest system they have used – and many of the managers have used several other systems at other jobs,” noted Thompson.

The new installation is drawing raves from fans crowding in for Sunday football, says Thompson – which can be watched in comfort indoors or outdoors, in very pleasant weather. “With games starting at 10 am West Coast time, there’s a line out the door, and if you’re not there by 9:15 you’re not getting that patio seat,” he said the owner told him.

This level of control “wouldn’t have been possible without URC. There’s no other control system I would have tried putting in there with this big of a system to make it work as well as it does.”