VSiN's New Sports-Betting Studio Grows at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas

VSiN's New Sports-Betting Studio Grows at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas The facility is closely linked to another studio at South Point Hotel Casino & Spa By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor

Tuesday, November 2, 2021 - 7:00 am

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Vegas Stats & Information Network, commonly known as VSiN, has been on the rise since its founding in 2017. The Las Vegas-based sports-betting firm has developed an impressive amount of content from its studio at South Point Hotel Casino & Spa and, since October 2020, has brought a brand-new studio and control room online at the Circa Resort & Casino.

VSiN worked alongside the construction of the new Circa Resort & Casino.

When I first got to VSiN, says Brian Rogers, EVP, production, VSiN, we had a single studio at the South Point that would comfortably fit four people, but we knew we wanted space for a bigger production that gave us depth for more cameras. A state-of-the-art broadcast hub - the Circa studio specifically - allowed us to greatly expand our video capabilities and improve our broadcast product. These new studios are the stock-market-meeting-sports, and it's fantastic to report from the stock-exchange floor.

Starting From Scratch: Studio Is Built Alongside Circa Construction The Las Vegas Strip has its longstanding structures, but it's a location always in development. The city pushed for one of its newest additions, the Circa Resort & Casino, which is situated at the northwest end of Fremont Street downtown. The building phase began in February 2019 on the land once occupied by the former Las Vegas Club and Mermaid Casino, but, as the project reached the early months of last year, the crew hit a wall in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. Circa Resort & Casino Owner Derek Stevens moved forward with an opening date of October 2020.

As construction progressed, the control room began taking shape.

Construction was unusual in that, as Stevens and his Circa team built the physical structure of the main facility, the VSiN crew designed and managed construction of the studio and control room in the casino's interior. The only major issue at that stage was that the facility was in an unfinished high-rise.

[VSiN Senior Project Manager] Desiree [Schultz], [Chief Engineer] Ken [Sporich], and I were looking at these designs and having to make some pretty fast decisions because we were coming up on a deadline, says Miles Gwyn, director, broadcast operations, VSiN. From my perspective, the process was an interesting one since we weren't the primary tenant, but the construction team did a great job focusing on a lot of different priorities and keeping us in the loop.

Over the summer and the beginning of fall, construction efforts kicked into overdrive, and the big picture started to come into focus. Gwyn, Schultz, Sporich, and the operations team increased meetings with partners, including IT provider Roberts Communications and master-control-system provider Crispin Corp. Because of the pandemic, most meetings were video-conferenced, but, with the arrival of vaccines and the lifting of the most-stringent safety protocols, VSiN's operations began shifting onsite.

Inside the completed control room

We started getting access to the building [in August 2020] to make a few tweaks, says Gwyn. We spent a lot of time to get ready for our first broadcast on Oct. 27, 2020. The team really came together, and, with the help from Circa, we were able to patch in fiber and put cameras in different parts of the facility to showcase this grand opening.

Broadcast-First Technology: Control Room Based on High-Quality Gear An upgrade from the audio-centric South Point studio, the new setup at Circa features high-powered technology and a studio highlighting the go-to destination for legalized sports betting. The main studio, with two hosts behind a VSiN-branded desk captured by a handful of Canon EOS C200 cameras, is situated in front of a huge window that offers a view of the adjacent sportsbook. It's a striking backdrop that brings viewers into the atmosphere of a high-functioning sportsbook.

If there are any updates that we want to get, says Rogers, we can go directly to the oddsmakers who set or change the line. From a location standpoint, you couldn't ask for a better setting.

The Circa set is producing around-the-clock coverage of the 2021-22 NFL season.

The control room deploys Ross Video hardware and solutions, including Carbonite production switcher, Tria for video playback, and an Ultrix router. The XPression graphics package is the main driver of VSiN's on-air product, which bounces around from game to game and needs constant updating based on betting lines provided by BetMGM, DraftKings, and others.

Ross was doing some great things with acquiring data and turning it around to make it look visually appealing to an audience, says Gwyn. The ability to get an XPression system in here was one of the pivotal changes we made [when we first came onsite].

The rest of the equipment comprises PerSonus audio mixer, Riedel communications, Crispin and Harmonic technology for master control, and Synology storage. Unity Intercom connects the control room with the South Point facility 15 miles down Interstate 15.

Fast-Paced Content: Real-Time Graphics Keep Viewers Updated Since VSiN is a 24/7 network, there's a show for both avid and new sports bettors. The company has a wide range of content, but, in the heat of the 2021-22 NFL season, every Sunday is a goldmine for fans of professional football.

The control room's infrastructure is located in the rack room in a lower level of the casino.

After an expansion of daily programming, the day begins at 8 a.m. ET with the two-hour-long Point Spread Sunday, featuring Femi Abebefe and Mike Pritchard. The Lombar

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/11/02/vsins-new-sports-betting-studio...
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