Play By Play: Quality video at the Caesars Palace race and sports book facility plays an integral part in involving the viewers in the action.

Jan 1, 1998 12:00 PM, Bill Scott

Located at the center of Las Vegas' famous strip,Caesars Palace captures the glamour, luxury and excitementthat are synonymous with America's pre-eminent gambling city. Caesars, an architectural marvel even among resorts renowned for originality, outshines its neighbors with spectacular fountains, majestic cypress trees, gleaming marble reproductions of classic statuary, exquisite landscaping and deluxe gaming facilities and accommodations. The resort successfully combines extravagance and palatial comfort for the guests in its 1,351 sumptuous rooms and for the 17 million visitors who arrive every year.

Beyond Caesars' Greek and Roman decor lies the resort's race and sports book facility. Caesars pioneered the radical modernization of race books. Race and sports book (R&SB) is a form of gaming where the players bet on the outcome of an event. Patrons have a wide range of choices, from horse races to almost any publicized sporting event occurring anywhere in the world.

Caesars introduced the gaming industry to the sophisticated sound and video technology that radically changed R&SB betting. Following Caesars lead, the casinos that have adopted R&SB betting install sound and video systems to support this exciting gaming form. Entire walls of giant video screens and colorful light-emitting diode (LED) panels have replaced Caesars' pre-existing facilities, which had hand-lettered wagering information. Now with screens up to 32 feet (9.8 m) wide and 26 feet (7.2 m) high, Caesars' R&SB facility presents sports and racing events Vegas style - larger than life. Horses gallop through the room, racing in the prestigious Breeders' Cup and the Kentucky Derby. Around the corner in the sports book, game enthusiasts watch anxiously as a player drops a key pass in the Super Bowl. And ardent bettors sitting in 650 chairs pray for a favorable outcome.

The R&SB offers opulent seating with the excitement of live sports action in the most luxurious and sophisticated facility of its kind in the world. Part of a 33,000 ft squared (3,066 meter squared) facility, the R&SB established computer-generated wagering information as the industry standard. The L-shaped facility separates audio broadcasts of simultaneous race and sports events into two distinct sports and race viewing areas. This setup allows the R&SB to combine its video presentations to accommodate customer demand. For example, while the race book is showcasing the Kentucky Derby, the sports book can be broadcasting a hotly contested baseball game with no audio overlaps.

Behind the scenes, elaborate video reception and switching systems manage the information sources in a nearby control room. The reception, originating from public and private feeds, can be selected and sent to multiple viewing areas. The display format is video NTSC with the occasional use of VGA graphics.

Computer-generated information brings up-to-the-minute data to Caesars' guests. Latest scratches, odds changes and the like are communicated in less than one-half second via computer to video screens and LED displays throughout the casino. The R&SB satellite equipment has the capability to pick up virtually any broadcast sporting event. Downlink to the satellite head end can be via satellite, fiber optics, cable, local television and computer sources.

A unique environment In a city of lights and glitter, it comes as no surprise that bright displays are key to race and sports book environments. The atmosphere of race and sports books should generate a bright, energetic commotion, and a dark book is not conducive to excitement. In renovating their books, Caesars Palace installed seven high-brightness video/data/graphics projection systems from Electrohome in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. For Caesars, the projectors provide an exceptionally bright display. Electro-home's high-brightness projectors are known for accurate color reproduction, seamless imagery, digital accuracy, color and brightness uniformity, and scaleability to higher resolutions. The various projectors in Caesars' books offer brightness outputs ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 ANSI lumens to complement the high ambient lighting conditions. The architecture of these projection systems complements a high ambient lighting condition and is supported by intuitive, menu-driven control software, compatibility with a variety of signal sources fast, easy setup.

Casinos are demanding projection that can endure hostile environments, especially during construction projects, which generate high heat and lots of dust, and the long hours of use. Caesars' projector installation, running 20 to 24 hours a day, is able to withstand the test with minimal maintenance time. These systems are ceiling-mounted and inverted. Routine maintenance by Caesars' technical staff involves little more than replacing a single arch lamp whenever necessary. A graphical user interface that combines a hand-held remote and computer interface with easy-to-follow on-screen menus and slide bar graphics allows technicians to adjust a variety of image characteristics, including brightness, tint, contrast and color saturation.-Controlling and keeping the projectors up and running are critical to the smooth delivery of real-time audio and video feeds that the casino's gaming enthusiasts expect and enjoy.

Large projection screens located in the race book measure 15 feet (4.6 m) by 11 feet (3.4 m). The rest of the screens vary in size from 12 feet (3.6 m) by 9 feet (2.7 m) to the 60 25 inch (635 mm) monitors above the Olympic Lounge bar. All afford an excellent view of the action from any of the 650 chairs, and from the peripheral seating in the nearby Palatium Buffet and the Olympic Lounge.

Horse racing and sports information from computer generation can be displayed via video to projectors and monitors as well as via large LED reader board displays. The colorful display panels include track conditions, horse and jockey names, identification numbers and much more.

A new way to gamble Caesars pioneered casino horse racing simulcasts for the Nevada gaming industry starting in February 1983. As popularity grew, many casinos followed suit, building or expanding their race and sports betting facilities. Revenues from the Nevada casinos revitalized racetracks and helped spur expansion and renovation. The proliferation of sports events broadcast live by satellite and accompanying technological improvements contributed to the explosive growth in race and sports betting in Nevada over the five-year period that followed

In a constant state of change, Caesars enlarged its R&SB in August 1985, which underwent further expansion in April 1989. In total, the expansion cost $20 million and added 16,000 ft squared (1,486 meter squared) of space to the now 33,000 ft squared (3,066 meter squared) facility. As always, Caesars wanted its new installation to match the opulence and service common elsewhere in the resort. From the several award-winning restaurants to its new 4.6 acre (1.8 hectares) Garden of the Gods pool and garden complex, every addition to Caesars is top quality and fascinating.

In part because of the heavy investment in technology, the R&SB has been able to promote and conduct creative and fast-growing kinds of wagers. The resort's proposition wagers allow bettors to choose any number of aspects on which to wager. For example, on Super Bowl Sunday, there could be 50 different wagers including bets on the number of quarterback sacks or total field goals completed. Pari-mutuel wagering, spearheaded by Caesars with the cooperation of other Las Vegas casino representatives, allows the casinos to pool casino horse wagers with those of major U.S. tracks. The system brings enormous payoffs to thoroughbred fans. One lucky Caesar's player held two of eight winning tickets for a 1991 Santa Anita race, which paid more than $5 million.

For customer convenience, bettor windows and a special cashier's station are staffed with knowledgeable personnel to assist experienced and novice sports fans alike. Caesars is forever researching new technologies and investigating methods to provide its guests and sports patrons with more excitement and is planning additional advancements to bring these renovations forward.

It behooves major casinos to offer all the variety and excitement they can in order to keep in front of a fierce, competitive onslaught.-Only seven deluxe mega-casinos in North America offer race and sport books, Caesars being one of the most prominent.-According to Electrohome's market research, the mega-casinos lead the pack in implementing new games, technologies and methods.-Projection systems like the ones Electrohome installed at Caesars Palace create the brightness, color and excitement needed to keep the gamers enthralled.

The casino industry is in an extremely competitive situation.-Although Las Vegas still rules the North American gaming world, it has strong competition from other Nevada cities, such as Reno and Laughlin.-Though Nevada is the only state offering legal sports wagering, it still must vie for the travel/entertainment and gaming dollars sought by local resorts in New Jersey's Atlantic City.-New, local casinos are popping up across the United States and Canada, such as the enormously successful Foxwood Resort Hotel Casino in staid Connecticut. First Nations of native Americans are quickly building gaming empires.-And where allowed by law, floating game parlors have taken root in major U.S. rivers and coastal waters.

To add to the competition, many states now run their own lotteries and video gaming terminals to raise state moneys. An exciting vision implemented with satellites, computers and lots and lots of lumens makes it possible for Caesars and other casinos to keep their clientele coming in for top-quality, exciting race and sport book experiences.