Members of the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) in Melbourne who want to watch horse races from the dining area will have a brighter view following the installation of new Panasonic projectors.
According to the vendor, the 20,000 lumen projectors are twice as bright as older projectors which were replaced. VRC has also reduced running costs by using four 465 watt UHM lamps instead of a Xenon single lamp system.
Panasonic Australia's projector group manager, Peter Huljich, said it was important that members and customers experience “excellent visual entertainment” to complement the racing experience.
He said that the projectors provide good viewing even in sunlight and allow club members to concentrate easily on screen images. Panasonic began the installation in September 2012.
According to Huljich, there is a future opportunity to look at installing all-weather LCD displays for VRC.
"This is important as when direct sunlight continuously hits standard screens, the temperature of the LCD panel rises and the liquid crystal molecules stop operating normally and a blackout condition occurs that leaves the screen totally dark," he said.
Huljich added that Panasonic’s new outdoor screens use a forced air cooling system which suppresses internal temperature rises to prevent blackouts.
VRC is located at Flemington racecourse, home of the annual Melbourne Cup race which is held in November.
The club has plans to introduce a Wi-Fi service this year. The Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi offering, which is set to go live in time for Melbourne Cup 2013, will allow punters to access the Internet using their smartphones. According to VRC, members and guests can use the service to place bets, order food/beverages and watch races in high definition video.
In 2012, Flemington ran a pilot of seven Alcatel-Lucent 3G metro cells to extend the capacity of Telstra’s Next G network during the Melbourne Cup.
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