About Cheers Poker Room
The Cheers Poker Room & Casino is a state-of-the-art Las Vegas-quality casino experience with a local appeal. Nestled in the mountains of Salem, New Hampshire, the largest flash casino in the state offers 25 gambling tables with a variety of games, including Roulette, Blackjack, Let It Ride, Mississippi Stud, Boston Stud and Three-Card Poker. The entertainment goal is to “keep it fun and simple.” Each poker table is custom-built with automatic shufflers, player phone charging ports and comfortable seating. Player identification swipe cards allow all players to participate in a rewards system at gaming tables throughout the casino.
Challenge
The owners of the Cheers Poker Room & Casino wanted to provide a one-of-a-kind customer experience that paired a warm, small-town atmosphere at the gaming tables with the big sound and picture of a state-of-the-art AV installation. The management had specific requirements for each of the 50 large screen monitors with 150 end points of four serial connection modulated TV channels, Direct TV connection and Comcast via IR. The owners also wanted complete control of each screen in the room, so that employees could easily personalize any screen to the guests’ needs. The goal was to enable guests to watch the shows of their choice on the TV screen of their choice.
Solution
Platinum Protection, a local AV and security system installer, presented Kramer Control as the solution, utilizing the SL-280 Kramer Control brain in conjunction with FC-26 Power over Ethernet (PoE) control gateways. This configuration provides customers with the ability to remotely control devices via RS-232 and IR connections. The PoE capabilities of the 50 FC-26 units simplified the installation, as additional outlets weren’t available at the monitors. According to Mike Terrizzi, owner of Platinum Protection Solutions, “We could have controlled the TV via IP, but using one IP endpoint simplified control wiring so that troubleshooting is at the gateway device level.”
Platinum Protection designed more than 50 pages in the Kramer Control User Interface for Cheers Poker Casino. As a cloud-based platform, Kramer Control was ideal for allowing multiple administrators to program the system, both on the installer’s team and onsite at the casino. They designed a personalized home page, as well as presets and scheduled events that could be accessed from an iPad controller. Based on a channel line-up and typical sporting events, the presets assigned audio volume to all monitors and access to specific channels. Because of the ease of the Kramer programming, Terrizzi said, “Once we tested programming on one TV and we had a visual layout of a page, we duplicated it and dragged control data. This allowed for buttons like ‘home’ and ‘map’ to be duplicated, significantly speeding up the building process.”
In addition, the installer created presets based on sporting events, grouping particular monitors together, to be controlled by the same group of remotes. A toggle remote offers access to groups of monitors and provides a single master mute solution.
Results
Because of the simple user interface and customized presets, any floor manager at the casino can use the iPad controller to change channels and control monitors. “They can change channels on a specific TV without affecting anyone else’s viewing or fumbling with multiple remotes, giving the customer the ultimate viewing experience,” Terrizzi said.
In addition, the system is expandable. Terrizzi noted, “If required we can use a GPIO, sothe fire alarm can trigger a macro to turn off all TVs in the event of a fire, making it simple for the fire department to communicate during an emergency.”
Dan Dandreo, owner of Cheers Poker Room & Casino, said, “The system is working very well. Mike (Terrizzi) and his group are masters at this. He customized two iPads that control every TV, and everything works off of the Kramer system.” Dandreo praised the simplicity of the system, with its “all on” and “all off” buttons, and the numbered TVs. “It’s so easy,” he said, “It requires two minutes of training. We are the only real popular casino in New Hampshire and we can watch up to 48 different shows at once on 82-inch TVs.”
In addition, because the casino management believes in the power of social media, Terrizzi’s team also connected video cameras to Facebook Live, to provide constant updates to fans about why Cheers Poker Room is “New Hampshire’s Best Casino.”
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
