Kaleidovision Delivers Unique Concept For Gala Coral

Digital content creation and delivery specialists, Kaleidovision have completed one of their most challenging projects to date, with the integration of dedicated Coral betting lounges into ten Gala Casinos city centre sites.
The new hybrid concept aims to maximise the respective brand values and increase footfall in the company's premier units, all of which trade 24/7. By offering live sports feeds and live odds, members can watch dedicated satellite racing and other sports channels, follow odds on a 'Betting Highlights' board - and then use the LED-lit Coral Telebet freephones to place their bets.
John Birmingham, Gala Coral Group's Head of Core Products for Gala Gaming (Bingo & Casinos), said: "We wanted to give people another reason to come to a casino."
The idea of the low-lit lounges was to stream the best in live sport into their venues via the existing 42" and 50" plasma screens typically showing five different programme sources. For the Gala Coral Group, the exercise represents a low-cost investment, as they have been able to convert many of their existing 'E Lounges' to introduce all the key features of a bookmaker's shop.
Kaleidovision were tasked with creating the bespoke content and streaming the data. Their MD, Andy Pitman, stated: "Having enjoyed a long affiliation with the brand, we are proud to have been involved in this project, helping to enhance the 'Club Lounge' offer. From a Gala Casino customer's perspective we're bringing Coral into the mix by leveraging the brand and enabling Gala Casino members to see these venues as their first choice to watch live sport."
Kaleidovision managed the creative positioning, branding, marketing communications design and the screen-based technical solutions. A large piece of technical integration and filtering was envisaged to ensure that only the best betting opportunities were screened in the Casino environment.
One of the company's main challenges was to ensure that the betting information relayed to the screens should have a more sophisticated feel than the 'teletext' look in betting shops. A range of templates were created for different sports betting opportunities, and subtle but eye-catching motion graphics were then incorporated into the design.
Kaleidovision's technical developers worked alongside Coral's own IT information feeds to ensure that the solution provided ran seamlessly with Coral's existing technologies.
Digital feeds are taken from Coral's network hub in Woking and streamed via their own network centre to the relevant casinos in accordance with the Coral Lounge operational brief. Also incorporated into the mix are in-house marketing promotions (via Coral Lounge Content).
John Birmingham believes that the concept has been fully realised and that after six months of careful planning the new look lounges provide an exciting and unique platform to enhance the Gala Coral offer.
The implementation and operation of the new technology could hardly be simpler, he confirmed. And as a result, Kaleidovision have been retained to fully manage the service, remotely monitoring both incoming feeds and outputs at all sites to ensure the consistency and accuracy of the content.
(KMcA/BMcC)