Ford’s Garage, an American chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 2012, is renowned for its unique tribute to the Ford Motor Company. With over 20 locations across 8 states, the restaurant chain continues to expand, offering patrons a distinctive dining experience. Recently, a new Ford’s Garage restaurant opened in Viera, Florida, presenting an opportunity to enhance the audiovisual experience for its customers. This case study explores how AV Access 4KIP200 series HDMI over IP solution was implemented to achieve this goal.
The Challenge
The new Ford’s Garage in Viera required a sophisticated AV setup to stream sports games and TV programs across 12 TVs using 8 DIRECTV receiver boxes. The dining area was pre-equipped with Cat cables running to the equipment room, where all receiver boxes were to be centralized. The owner aimed to distribute HDMI signals to each TV, located about 20 meters (66 feet) away, and control all sources and displays simultaneously via a URC control system connected to a Gigabit Ethernet switch.
Technical Assessment
Amazing Electronic Solutions, a professional AV installer, was tasked with designing and implementing the AV solution. The requirements included AV signal extension, distribution, switching, and centralized control. An AV over IP solution was chosen for its flexibility, scalability, and compatibility with Ethernet switches. Additionally, the solution needed to be compatible with the URC control system and support 4K video resolution.
After careful evaluation, AV Access 4KIP200 series HDMI over IP solution was selected for its plug-and-play functionality, ease of use, and no configuration requirement on the Ethernet switch.
The Solution
To meet the requirements, Amazing Electronic Solutions installed 2 sets of 4KIP204E 4-in-1 HDMI encoders, 8 DIRECTV receiver boxes, a Gigabit PoE Ethernet switch, a wireless router, and a URC control system in the equipment room. The receiver boxes were connected to the encoders, which, along with the wireless router and control system, were connected to the switch. In the dining and counter areas, 12 sets of 4KIP200D HDMI decoders were installed behind the TVs.
