Route 66 Casino

How do you provide essential information to fans of progressive slots in perhaps the world’s most distracting environment, a casino floor? Route 66 Casino engaged a partner that knows how to up the ante for attention-grabbing casino signage. “We’ve served more than 1,200 gaming clients,” says Alpha vice president Lance Hutchinson, “so we’re always creating the next best thing!” Still, Route 66 presented a unique challenge. Because progressive slots were new to the casino, the signage had to provide way-finding information for customers who weren’t aware of the new “Route to Riches” cluster of progressive slots, while providing running jackpot totals for customers who were monitoring the prize money in order to decide if they wanted to get in on the action. A late edition add-on to the project was the 32 foot LED that overlooks the entire casino floor.

“We needed a display that would be ultra-visible and clear wherever you were in a large and crowded environment,” says Hutchinson. Charged by Route 66 with providing a complete hardware, interface and content solution that would look great, fit their budget, and conform to a tight timeline, Alpha proposed a 360-degree circular sign featuring dynamic content which would alert customers to the jackpot totals and direct them to the new Route to Riches zone. Hutchinson recommended Planar’s CarbonLight™ CLI Flex™ bendable LED modules, which are notable for their off-angle viewing clarity, smooth playback of motion video, and high brightness – all essential features in a casino. An added benefit of choosing CLI Flex: The display’s small pixel pitch provides optimal clarity from even short distances. For the structure to support it all, Alpha turned to Draper for a custom-curved supporting structure that combined structural integrity with seamless aesthetics.

The success of this project was, well, clear to see. “For one thing,” says Hutchinson, “It took only 90 days from product order to installation” (proof that the “Route to Riches” is always shorter when you work with the right partner). Adds the Alpha vice president: “The keys to success here were the robustness of the design, precision manufacturing methods that didn’t need to be adjusted on site, and the smoothness of Alpha’s partnership with Planar, Draper and Route 66.” Further evidence of the casino’s satisfaction came in the form of an immediate follow-up project: Just outside the progressive slots area, Hutchinson and his team hung a Planar TVF Series 32’ x 9’ LED video wall whose 16×8 display features a pixel pitch of 2.5mm. Next Alpha replaced the casino’s aging audio technology with a QSC audio system, including 600 speakers (in combination with Sonance). Oh, and one final measure of success: Progressive slots have been a jackpot for Route 66 since day one.