Inglis thoroughbred sales turns over hundreds of millions of dollars. Now it has a signage and IPTV system that keeps pace.
Story: Christopher Holder
The horses are the real stars. And when you consider that many of these thoroughbreds can go for $1m or more at auction, you begin to appreciate the reasoning for the $140m investment. The newly developed precinct features more than 800 stables, extensive parade space for horses, a 5-star hotel with 144 rooms, state-of-the-art conferencing facilities, all-day dining, as well as a leisure and retail complex with over 1000 parking spots.
The main game is the handful of thoroughbred auctions. To give you a sense of what’s at stake, the Inglis top tier sale — the Easter yearling sale — sees somewhere between 500 and 600 horses sold at an average of some $350,000!
The company knows what it’s doing; it’s been in the business of selling racehorses for well over 100 years — initially in Pitt Street, Sydney, then on a Randwick site, and now in Sydney’s west at a Warwick Farm Racecourse property.
The Warwick Farm move has allowed Inglis to expand operations, not just in terms of how many horses are for sale — it’s planning on offering 1000 horses at next year’s Classic Yearling Sale — but also the number of potential bidders and those interested.
WIND IN THE SALES
Come auction day, all the action is focussed on the sales arena. Part auction house, part concert venue, the sales arena allows the hundreds of horses to be efficiently auctioned at the best price possible. On average, a horse is sold every two minutes over the days of the auction.
The horse is led onto the stage; it’s vital statistics are displayed; the auctioneer begins the bidding; the bid spotters in the crowd ensure all bids are recognised; the auctioneer’s assistant updates the bids for the displays in real time and adjusts the bidding increments; and the winning bidder is instantly approached by sales staff with an iPad — a signature later, the horse has changed hands and the new owner has all the details texted and emailed to their phone.
The atmosphere is crazy-hyped: millions of dollars are changing hands, everyday lovers of good horse-flesh are rubbing shoulders with sheiks and royalty; people are lapping up the hospitality and vibing off the excitement of the auction — after all, here is where the next Black Caviar or Takeover Target is being discovered. It’s fast paced and intoxicatingly glamorous.
IPTV: CONTROL OF WHAT, WHERE & WHEN
Digital signage plays a key role. The entire AV package was designed, integrated and installed by The P.A. People. The most prominent component of the signage are the large-format LED displays from VuePix but of equal importance is the Exterity IPTV system that drives all the screens around the entire campus, taking live video on auction day, or any pre-recorded source (such as the horses’ vital statistics) and making it available anywhere.
Putting all your video content on the network has real advantages. Every screen is an IP endpoint and, via the Exterity software, CIO Deane Jacobs and his team can program what content goes to which destination and at what time.
Deane Jacobs: “The Exterity IPTV systems gives us a huge amount of flexibility in being able to control devices and zones — scheduling IPTV devices to change channels before an auction starts and to show other channels after the auction, such as auction results and advertising. This sort of centralised control — whether that’s from a laptop or an iPad — has proved invaluable.”
SCREENS ON THE TROT
The showstopping LED screens provide all the clarity and brightness the auctions need. In the adrenalin-charged excitement of a sale, clearly conveyed and accurate information is crucial, and the QE series VuePix LED displays provide it in spades.
Two larger screens (each 4.5m wide and 2.5m high) are positioned next to the entrances of the parade ring on each side, with an additional 2.5m wide and 1.5m high screen installed in the middle of the ring above the speaker’s desk.
The screens will display the current bidding in different currencies, along with information on the horse and even video of the horse in action.
With the fine pixel pitch of 2.6mm, slimline design and lightweight aluminium frame, the installation of the new VuePix screens was quick and seamless.
Deane Jacobs: “The screens are big enough for everybody in the room to see the detail and that’s the most important thing. And the screens have proven themselves outside of auction day as well. We recently hosted a conference where we patched in a Stanford University professor via video conference. So we had the professor up on the centre screen, with his notes he was speaking to on the other screens left and right. The displays are performing really well.” ⎨
William Inglis Hotel: www.williaminglis.com.au
The P.A. People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au
Midwich (Exterity): 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au
ULA Group (VuePix): 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com
SOUND ON THE HOOF
The final piece of the presentation puzzle is the audio. In this case a Bose ShowMatch concert PA powered by Bose network amplifiers.
It was crucial the sound system excited the crowd without exciting the highly reverberant space, which is why The P.A. People specified the Bose loudspeaker system, a system well known for its ability to tailor the dispersion of the sound to the room.
Bose Professional: www.bose.pro.com