Limitless Possibilities: Enhancing the Casino Guest Experience with LED Displays
LED Technology is one of the most dramatic advancements for casinos – delivering attention-grabbing brightness and resolution, 7 to 10-year usable life, and the ability to display an extensive array of content.
Visual impact and messaging flexibility are just part of the story, however. Factor in the simplicity of operation, ease of maintenance, and the fact that LED displays can be custom designed for almost any space or application, and the possibilities for guest engagement are endless.
A technology ideally suited for the casino environment
Casinos are unique environments – carefully engineered to engage guests and maximize revenue. But with the right technology and content, a casino can further set itself apart by communicating its individual character, history, and values.
LEDs provide an ideal vehicle to deliver a truly differentiated experience in an environment that’s all about the guest experience. But that’s just part of the value equation.
One often overlooked attribute of LED technology is how effectively it integrates with existing architecture to enhance the overall environment. Connect your LED technology integrator and content creators with your architects and they can deploy LED displays with precision and subtlety to accentuate noteworthy architectural features, distract from dated ones, and create an overall sense of forward-feeling modernity.
LED isn’t just flat either! You can make your image virtually any size or shape and place it virtually anywhere. This allows architectural designers the ability to create uniquely impactful environmental elements. They can be changed and customized quickly and easily to feature customer or sponsor imagery, event content, holiday themes, and almost anything needed to support marketing and brand activities.
Another attribute of LED display technology: The ease of pairing it with digital signage solutions. The right digital signage software provides a platform to easily design, scale, and schedule the right content on the systems, at the right time.
Remember, too, that the younger generations of casino guests are digital technology natives who document their lives online. LED technology provides an impressive backdrop for eyeball-attracting social posts while creating in-the-moment experiences that younger gaming enthusiasts will remember long after their visit.
To fully appreciate the impact and reach of LED displays, consider their power to transform both interior and exterior environments to drive engagement.
Indoor LED displays: a multi-sensory casino experience.
No casino can promise guests that they’re going to hit a slot machine jackpot or claim the kitty with a royal flush. But any casino worth it’s salt should be able to guarantee excitement and ensure a memorable experience.
The key to maximizing engagement is to deliver on the casino’s promise from the moment the guest enters the property. LED displays positioned at and around entrances give visitors a taste of the excitement to come. And once visitors are fully inside the property, LEDs really get to work by communicating detailed information about the experiences on offer.
Perhaps most important, LED displays can be integrated with a casino’s audio system, lighting infrastructure, and other AV systems to create a powerful, multi-sensory experience that communicates the feeling of luck and excitement of winning. Stoke this sensation in your guests and they’ll stay longer and come back more frequently.
Think about all the ways LED display technology can be applied in a gaming environment:
- Grand entrance/lobby displays
- Specific casino environments
- Main gaming floor – including table games, slots, progressive slots, etc.
- Sportsbooks
- Bingo, Keno, etc.
- Cage signage
- Club and lounge signage and décor
- Performance venue signage and décor
- Restaurant signage and décor
- Meeting facilities, including convention hall public and collaboration spaces
- Retail environments
- Resort facilities
- Digital signage, including:
- Sports tickers
- Menu boards
- Advertising and sponsorship networks
- Television content
- Directories
A powerful way to greet guests – and ensure a memorable departure.
For entry and egress at a casino property, LED displays are an ideal vehicle both to set the tone for the experience to come and impart lasting memories upon leaving. Consider the example set by the Muckleshoot Casino Resort in Seattle, Washington.
Guests enter Muckleshoot in two principal ways: via the parking garage, and under the porte-cochere at the main entrance.
Muckleshoot’s parking facility connects to the casino via a long, arched walkway. Arriving (and departing) guests pass under a series of LED-lit archways, each driven by Alpha’s Scala digital signage systems, featuring a custom 1.9mm LED by Primeview. With each step visitors take, LED technology stimulates their senses, prompting them to venture further – or to plan their return visit.
LED Archway at Muckleshoot Casino Resort
Muckleshoot’s parking facility connects to the casino via a long, arched walkway. Arriving (and departing) guests pass under a series of LED-lit archways, each driven by Alpha’s Scala digital signage systems, featuring a custom 1.9mm LED by Primeview. With each step visitors take, LED technology stimulates their senses, prompting them to venture further – or to plan their return visit.
Porte Cochere Entrance at Muckleshoot Casino Resort
For guests arriving at the main entrance, a truly novel experience awaits: an oval-shaped, 40- by 50-foot LED display installation that is cut into the ceiling of the porte-cochere and extends into the casino lobby. This half-indoor, half-outdoor display, bisected by a glass divider wall, leads to two 165-inch LED wall displays and five LED-wrapped pillars programmed with custom, synchronized content. The result is an unforgettable welcome to the Muckleshoot Casino Resort.
Strategic applications of LED technology within the casino environment
No environment competes for a visitor’s attention like a casino. Every square foot demands to be noticed. So how do you make sure a particular feature gets its due? In a visually dense environment, Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque used LED displays in a strikingly creative manner to promote a new gaming opportunity – it’s “Route to Riches” progressive slots.
Planar CarbonLight™ CLI Flex™ bendable LED modules at the Route 66 Casino
Designed both to introduce guests to the new offering and to provide running jackpot totals for gamers who are monitoring the prize money, The Route to Riches’ LED signage features a 260-degree circular sign that displays dynamic content. Alpha engineered it with Planar CarbonLight™ CLI Flex™ bendable LED modules, which combine off-angle viewing clarity, smooth playback of motion video, and high brightness. Moreover, CarbonLight’s small pixel pitch provides optimal clarity even from short distances. It’s supported by a Draper custom-curved mount that combines structural integrity with seamless aesthetics. Further promoting Route to Riches is a Planar TVF Series 32-foot by 9-foot LED video wall whose 16×8 display boasts a pixel pitch of 2.5mm.
The ease of integrating LED displays into a larger digital signage and IPTV system made the Route 66 solution as attractive to casino operators as it is to guests. For example, when the casino isn’t running a promotional game, the LED video wall can be used as digital signage. It can air sports games, too, or show the casino’s advertising reel. And all of that content can be activated and switched with the push of a tablet.
Note that interior LED displays come in a wide range of types and form factors to create myriad immersive experiences. They include:
- Full HD or 4K LED walls
- Concave displays
- Convex displays
- Curved and wraparound displays
- Reconfigurable displays
Using LED displays to promote a casino’s sportsbook
“The key is to deliver an immersive experience that reminds the guest that they’re in a unique environment.”
– Kevin Higginbotham, Account Executive, Alpha
Debuting a new gaming offering in an existing casino environment poses unique challenges – among them, how to establish a presence in an already crowded environment. When the Coushatta Casino Resort in Louisiana introduced “The Rez Sportsbook” at its facility, Alpha stopped guests in their tracks with leading-edge LED display technology, including a spectacular 30-foot, 1.5mm Planar LED video wall and custom sports ticker display, plus a 70-inch curved sports ticker outside the venue.
“The Rez” Sportsbook at Coushatta Casino Resort in Louisiana
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort also relies on LED displays to draw sports betters. The centerpiece of “The Book” at its North Carolina property is a nearly 100-foot, ultra-high-definition LED screen capable of showing up to 48 games simultaneously. Complemented by HD and 4K TVs, the expansive display magnifies the excitement for guests. In addition, The Book boasts three private Fan Caves – “the ultimate way to experience gameday with your friends,” according to the casino. Each is outfitted with a massive 85” HDTV, plus two 43” 4K TVs.
“Both Coushatta and Harrah’s immerse guests in the sportsbook experience with larger-than-life LED displays capable of presenting a large quantity of constantly changing information in a very impactful way,” says Kevin Higgenbotham, Account Executive at Alpha. “There will be times when all eyes are focused on one big game, but most of the time multiple matchups will be on display. The key is to deliver an immersive experience that reminds the guest that they’re in a unique environment. In an era when a lot of sports betting can be done at home, our job is to communicate the excitement of the events in a way that no home theater setup can match.”
Exterior LED displays light up the night (and day)
Outdoor LED displays engage guests on a scale that’s simply not possible with most other display technologies. Like interior LED integrations, they’re suitable for a wide range of applications, including:
- Building signage and billboards – Programmable LED billboards are ultra-bright even during the day, and LED signage is scalable to be visible from miles away.
- Marquee signage – These displays are brighter, less expensive, longer-lasting, and infinitely more flexible than their neon predecessors.
- Grand entrances – Here LED integrations can create a powerful sense of arrival and big guests a memorable goodbye.
- Wayfinding – The technology shines as part of a larger wayfinding system.
The Muckleshoot Casino vividly illustrates the power of LED displays to command attention. The casino features a 400-room hotel tower whose façade provides a canvas tailor-made for exterior LED displays. Alpha designed and integrated a 96- by 35-foot, 3,360-square-foot exterior LED display that extends from the 7th to the 18th floor of the building. Visible all the way to the interstate, six miles from the property, the tower now functions as a single, enormous billboard. More than that, it’s a beacon that announces the Muckleshoot Casino’s presence to many thousands of potential customers every day.
As guests approach the Muckleshoot Casino, they’re met by twin 35- by 16-foot LED marketing displays near a roundabout at the facility’s entrance. Integral both to this solution and the larger tower installation are control systems capable of displaying dynamic, custom content that intermixes promotional messaging with art and nature imagery reflective of the Muckleshoot Tribe’s heritage. The resulting visual package is unique to the casino property.
One of the most prominent casinos in the Pacific Northwest, Muckleshoot exemplifies the strategic value of LED displays and the many ways they can be used to advance complementary objectives. Wayfinding and promotional messaging just scratch the surface.
Communicating the perception of luck and the excitement of winning
The messaging flexibility of LED displays enables a vast range of communication. Much of it is obvious in its intentions: “Enter here!”, “Play our new sportsbook!” “Announcing the new Adele residency!” But the nature of the technology is such that it communicates on multiple levels, and one message that savvy casinos effectively communicate via LED displays is the perception of luck and the excitement of winning – the two most important drivers in gaming.
Jackpot celebrations at the Pearl River Casino in Mississippi.
Most obviously, LED displays have visual stopping power (How can you ignore a display when the content suddenly shifts to money flying across the screen?) For generations past, the flood of coins paid out by a slot machine was powerful evidence of winning. Everyone in the vicinity of a winner could see that Lady Luck is indeed prowling about. Today, the thrill of victory is communicated even more effectively and broadly by digital displays and integrated audio, which can alert customers to winners facility-wide. Hence the use of LED technology to promote progressive slot jackpots, announce and fuel participation in contests and drawings, announce sportsbook winners, and ignite the hoopla surrounding a 35-to-1 roulette win.
Earlier, we talked about the easy compatibility of LED display technology and digital signage software. That software also integrates with other casino systems. Pair it with your slot system and you can trigger rules-based content interruptions that can play content designed to increase the visibility of jackpots as they happen in real-time. Guests come back more often to properties they perceive to be more conducive to winning.
The endless programmability, scalability, and configurability of LED displays enable casinos to create a pervasive sense that anything is possible – dreams can come true, and people’s numbers actually do come up.
Speaking the language of Gen Y and Gen Z
Technology is a powerful force – so powerful that, as it develops, it transforms the world around it. The digital age has fundamentally altered the way younger generations absorb information and interact with one another, and LED display technology has become both a powerful driver of change and an omnipresent feature of people’s lives. Younger generations, in particular, are not only at home with enormous, ultra-high-resolution displays, they have become discerning consumers of the information LEDs impart.
Digital natives have high expectations of today’s display technology. They have no patience for muddy images, dim screens, and slow refresh rates. They flock to scale and thrill to custom-configured displays and sophisticated content that speaks to their values and desires. Moreover, today’s Gen Y and Gen Z consumers live their lives far more publicly than those who came before them, and they crave experiences that they can share with others via social media.
In order to attract new generations of consumers, casinos have had to “up the ante “with increasingly impactful, visually arresting technologies. LED displays are an integral tool to help the gaming industry provide the cutting-edge experiences their clientele expects.
LED displays: A powerful way for casinos to up their game
The casino environment has never been more competitive. America today counts more casinos than ever before and consumers have more entertainment options than preceding generations. LED Displays are an essential tool for providing an experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else.
But achieving that level of engagement requires not only a thorough understanding of today’s display technology and how to integrate it. It also demands an ability to create compelling content, and it requires a strong organizational infrastructure to provide training, service, and support for the end user. For casino owners and operators, it’s essential to find the right technology partner to take full advantage of what today’s LED technology can do to make their vision possible.
Learn more about how Alpha works with our casino partners in these case studies:
FAQs
What is an LED display wall?
An LED display wall, often called an LED video wall, is a large screen made of light-emitting “direct view” diodes on which video, images, text, and other graphics are displayed. Large LED displays are modular in design, featuring interconnected bezel-free panels that are tiled together. Properly executed, a state-of-the-art video wall displays images on a single, unified field with no visible seams between the various modules of which it’s composed.
How much do LED walls cost?
Costs vary based on a number of factors, including overall display size, pixel density, shape (curved, flat, or transparent), the complexity of the installation, video processing requirements, whether the screen is indoors or outdoors, and how the screen is set up (will it be free-standing, ceiling mounted, wall mounted?). For a 165-inch LED wall with lower-quality, less-precise images, you might spend as little as $25,000. The price for a higher-grade video wall of the same dimensions can easily reach $80,000 or higher.
How can casinos incorporate LED display walls?
Casinos use LED displays in many ways – from exterior building signage to interior wayfinding. The configurability and scalability of LED display walls enable their deployment in a vast array of spaces, from flat to curved surfaces, from free-standing to ceiling and wall-mounted installations. The durability and ease of operation of LED displays make them ideal for “always on” applications.
What are modular LED display panels?
Modular display panels are discrete LED units that can be tiled together to create display surfaces of almost any size. LED panels do not have bezels or picture frame-like borders. As such, they are uniquely easy to scale.
Can LED displays enhance the sportsbook experience?
LED Displays provide the scale and messaging flexibility required to promote and operate sportsbooks. Their brightness and high-resolution, combined with their ability to display a wide variety of custom content, enable casinos to communicate a vast amount of information, including player and team stats and rolling ticker information for any number of games being played simultaneously. Just as important, LED technology communicates the sense of luck and perception of winning that fuel participation in sportsbooks while providing a highly immersive experience that is impossible to duplicate at home.
