Brann`s Steakhouse

 Brann’s Steakhouse Private Cable System Case Study Brann’s went all out when they decided to become the place to watch the game. Every single TV had to be HD, and every game had to look great on all of them. JBMAudio made it happen, but took a radical turn along the way. Brann’s Steakhouse: Case Study Background There are so many HDTVs in each Brann’s Steakhouse restaurant that when they turn them all on at once, passing trolleys slow down due to the voltage drop. Well, not really, but Brann’s did go all out on the AV front when they decided to become the place to watch the game. The company that spearheaded the effort was JBMAudio, headed up by Jason Monette of Kalamazoo, Michigan. His marching orders were clear: every single TV had to be HD, and every game had to look great on all of them. In the end he satisfied that goal, but his path would take a radical turn along the way. Initial Approach The restaurants had mostly out of date equipment to begin with, and the video distribution systems included some stores with analog modulated sources, and others with long component video runs. Starting with an essentially blank slate, Monette wired the first location with more than 60 HDTVs and other associated gear, including: •
•
•
•
•
•
6 projectors with screens of 80” or larger 40 HDTVs with screens larger than 42” 20 HDTVs for the booths (13” screens) 8 DirecTv HD receivers 1 dbx Zone Pro for audio 1 Keno machine His HD video distribution system was a component matrix switch, with CAT5 cabling and baluns at each end to provide the proper termination. The system worked well, and Monette was planning to replicate it in the remaining restaurants when he discovered an alternative: the ZvBox from ZeeVee. Brann’s Steakhouse Case Study Page 1 The Magic Bullet ZvBox turns any video source into an HDTV channel, and broadcasts it over standard coaxial cabling to all connected HDTVs. If that sounds like a modulator to you, you’re on the right track, but there’s a twist: It’s actually an HD encoder/modulator, which means it takes in analog video, then encodes it (digitizes and compresses it) as an HD stream, before putting the signal onto a QAM (digital cable) channel for distribution over coax. The encoding is difficult, which is why HD encoder/modulators were over $11,000 per channel... before ZeeVee came along and dropped the price to under $1,000 per channel. Monette immediately grasped the beauty of the system: it would allow him to distribute the output of the HD satellite boxes over coax (which was already in place in some locations), and simply tune in each satellite box’s output using the HDTVs’ built in tuner. The illustration below shows how such a system is wired: The use of ZvBoxes meant a minimum of new wiring, and no baluns. As a bonus, it also gave customers in the booths the ability to watch any of the 8 satellite boxes, by simply selecting the corresponding ZvBox channel on the HDTV in the booth. The system also represented a substantial cost‐savings to the restaurant owners, and it didn’t take long for Monette to convince them to give it a try. Brann’s Steakhouse Case Study Page 2 The Outcome The results were so impressive that Monette ended up using the system in the next five restaurants. He provided eight channels per restaurant, and any channel can be tuned in at any of the HDTVs. The system is also scalable: if the owners decide to add another display, there’s no need for a wiring home run from the set to the head end – they can just split the coax, and run a new length of cable from the splitter to the TV. And adding another satellite box (or any other source) is as simple as adding another ZvBox and combining it onto the coax. In the end, Brann’s Steakhouse and Grille did in fact become the place to watch the game, thanks to JBMAudio and Jason Monette’s bold use of the ZvBox and coax cabling – a rare HD medium that turned out well done. (Sorry, had to. It was just laying there….) Brann’s Steakhouse Case Study Page 3 ZeeVee, Inc. y One Monarch Drive y Littleton, MA 01460