There’s a Spyder in the bowling alley and bowlers are delighted! Vista Systems’ Spyder is at the heart of the AV display spanning the lanes at Pinstrikes, the bowling component of the first IPic Entertainment complex at the Bayshore Mall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
IPic Entertainment, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a new entertainment complex offering luxury movie theatres, casual elegant dining, stylish bowling, and a high-energy bar to neighborhoods across the US. Pinstrikes, in Bayshore, features 11 bowling lanes.
“Live cameras pick up people bowling and Spyder combines that footage with stock graphics and other stock imagery for display on the giant, high-resolution screen stretching across the lanes,” explains Paul Bell, vice president at Miami’s Audio Reinforcement Technology (ART), the sound, lighting, and video contractor for the project. “The system also displays music videos and text messages.”
Several Focus Enhancement video servers, HD DirectTV, DVDs, and inputs from computers and the live cameras feed the Vista Spyder which, in turn, feeds four Sanyo XPN 46 10,000-lumen projectors. They display the images on a 67x16.5-foot screen spanning the lanes in the high-ceilinged bowling alley.
“I love Spyder,” says Bell. “When I went to Spyder training I got a real education about what the system can do. Vista Systems’ support is excellent; I was able to call the support staff and have them talk me through things I hadn’t picked up in the training. And, of course, there are new areas to explore every day. But Spyder is pretty straight ahead and not complicated at all.”
Bell hopes more of ART’s clients will discover the power of Spyder. He’s looking forward to IPic Entertainment developing four or five more venues like Bayshore’s in the next two years, which will use Spyder’s capabilities to the maximum.