BL OOD S PORTS EM EA
LONDON / UK
Ta tes id e d e l i v e r s a h i g h - t e c h a udiovisua l sol ution f o r t h i s a d d i t i o n t o London’s al ter na tive e n t e r t a i n m e n t s ce ne , pr ovid ing e v e r y t h i n g f o r t h e spa c e to h ost scr eenings o f b o t h g o r y s l a sh e r f ilms and f a s t-p a ced s po r t i n g a c t i o n . With his previous hospitality success, MEATliquor, a unique restaurant serving dishes such as a ‘Dead Hippie’ burger, Co-Founder and CEO Scott Collins is no stranger to an edgy venue concept. When he devised the idea for an aesthetically similar bar, BLOODsports, Collins turned to Tateside to design a bespoke audiovisual solution for the space, having previously worked with the integrators on other unique AV projects. Located in London’s Covent Garden, BLOODsports is an eccentric take on a sports bar. Collins refers to it as a ‘watching’ venue as opposed to a ‘listening’ venue; the dive bar/sports bar amalgamation houses multiple large screens that broadcast both major sporting events and cult-classic horror films. The site spans a large underground area, which serves to further accentuate the dark yet playful atmosphere the space aims for. “We’ve worked with the MEATliquor team for around five years, so we were enthusiastic to be a part of this new concept,” said Jack Cornish, Technical Director at Tateside. “You don’t find many sports bars around these days, and with its prime location, it was an exciting project to be involved in.” Tateside’s previous involvement with Collins spanned AV design, implementation, and maintenance, with this new project requiring a similarly thorough collaboration. Describing their brief for the venue, Cornish revealed: “We had to create a system that was centred around reliability. After all, a sports bar with black screens would be a bit of a disaster! The client also wanted total flexibility, ensuring that routing of any source audio could be sent to any zone. If they wanted to route the Karaoke machine for a whole bar sing-along to all screens and all speakers, it needed to be a quick routing change from the iPad or touch panel. For us, Support was a critical design element, so remote access and network-controlled power outlets were a must!” Wall-to-Wall Entertainment BLOODsports’ horror movie and sports streaming features meant that it was of paramount importance for the bar to have a high-quality and robust video solution. “The vision was for non-stop entertainment,” Cornish explained. Setting out to truly deliver this concept to its maximum, a total of 28 Hisense screens were strategically placed throughout the venue, furnishing the main bar, games room, snug area, private events space, and, uniquely, even the bathrooms. “We faced an initial challenge of sourcing a large amount of high-quality screens at competitive pricing,” Cornish said. However, after working closely with Hisense’s UK distributor, they realised a system that would provide top-tier visuals across multiple screen sizes without exceeding budget constraints. Tateside then designed and implemented a video-over-IP solution with
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