The members of the Greenbrier Golf and Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky, have a new form of recreation to enjoy, thanks to the recent addition of a smart, connected 17,000-square-foot clubhouse. Integrated seamlessly within the new facility are a variety of technologies from Snap One, all meticulously designed, engineered and customized by 46Solutions to treat Greenbrier members to a new level of luxury that’s as comfortable and convivial as it is technologically advanced.
“It’s a new, modern twist on the traditional clubhouse atmosphere where technologies work behind the scenes to elevate every experience throughout the facility,” said Nathan Cecil, projector manager of 46Solutions, the IT and AV company hired to integrate a broad range of Snap One solutions into Greenbrier’s impressive new addition.
Strategically placed throughout the multipurpose facility are dozens of speakers and displays delivering a curated playlist of music and video to members as they grab a bite at the café, break a sweat at the gym, or practice a few swings at the golf simulator. This abundance of AV demanded a robust system to manage and distribute content from one main rack of components and provide employees an easy means of control. Together, Snap One’s Binary Media-Over-IP system and Triad AMS 16×16 switcher tied to a Control4 entertainment and automation processor do the trick.
Staff barely need to lift a finger to kick start music or video. The highly customizable nature of the Control4 Core 5 processor allowed the 46Solutions team to establish daily routines for the AV systems to follow. For example, at 5 a.m. the AV and lighting activates only in the gym. By 8 a.m. other TVs, speakers, plus Control4 light switches and thermostats join in and at 11 p.m. everything turns off. It’s this hand-off approach that simplifies the management of the huge clubhouse and ensures a high-level of customer satisfaction. Greenbrier management told 46Solutions the type of content their membership would like best, and the team followed up by scheduling TVs to tune automatically to either the Golf Channel or CNBC upon activation.
Naturally, there are occasions when the staff must override these scripted scenes: “like during golf scrambles when they need the audio system to tie in a microphone for announcements,” said Cecil. Control4 keypads and touch panels mounted in key areas, as well as a Control4 app on personal tablets and smartphones, enable changes like these on the fly.
“Simplicity was paramount to the Greenbrier managers so we programmed these interfaces to be as intuitive as possible, for example, presenting favourite commands on the main screen of touchpanels.” This approach minimized the learning curve dramatically for staff, and the building was up and running quickly. From customized Control4 keypads and touchpanels, employees manage entertainment in 16 independent audio zones and 20 TV locations.
Greenbrier wisely elected to update other areas while the grounds were under construction. Outdated outdoor speakers around the nearby club swimming pool were swapped for newer models and tied to the clubhouse audio system. Like all interior audio zones, the swimming pool speakers make up their own separate zones, which means they can play music that’s completely different from other speakers in other zones.
Another add-on to 46Solutions’ original quote was surveillance. “Construction is prime time to integrate technology, so after more consideration, Greenbrier management decided to have us also install several surveillance cameras to the interior and exterior of the new building,” Cecil says. “The building had been prewired with a Cisco networking system so implementing the cameras was a fairly simple process.”
Like all of the other components installed by 46Solutions, the 24 Clare Controls cameras and video recorder from Snap One are managed and controlled by Control4 for simplicity and convenience. “Trespassing and burglary isn’t a huge issue for Greenbrier, so they mainly use the surveillance system to check up on certain areas, like making sure kids are behaving in the golf simulation room,” Cecil noted. “They can access video in real-time from a computer monitor in the office and always look at footage later that’s triggered by motion and recorded automatically.”
The ease-of-use, expansive entertainment, and comfortable atmosphere provided by the Control4 automation system and integrated equipment was such a hit, 46Solutions upgraded the Control4 operating system in the original clubhouse to the newest OS 3. “It’s simple to do, thanks to the engineering and remote access features of the system,” Cecil says. “Being able to modify settings is a key benefit to the Control4 platform and clients like Greenbrier. It’s very difficult to nail down specific brightness levels of lights, for example, until you’ve lived with them for a few weeks. By integrating an OvrC cloud management system into the new clubhouse, we can adjust levels immediately and troubleshoot and resolve issues quickly from our office or while on the road.”
It didn’t take 46Solutions long to get the Snap One components and systems completely dialed in. Thanks to the integration-friendliness of Snap One’s tight-knit family of products, their ease of use and customization features, managing and enjoying a massive state-of-the-art clubhouse is a piece of cake. Members love the space for its amazing AV and comfortable atmosphere; employees relish the convenient, versatile controls. Greenbrier may have been established as a premier golf and country club decades ago, but with the addition of a suite of Snap One products and thoughtful integration by 46Solutions its legacy lives on.
