Specialized Satellite Television Installation Has Been Completed for Guests Inside and Outside at Wave Pointe Marina & Resort
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Just in time for the start of the popular summer season on the water and inland, local DISH® regional service provider WeConnectTM has taken its expertise for connecting satellite television in homes, businesses and major public institutions to a Door County hot spot.
The company recently installed a DISH smartboxTM system to deliver satellite TV with an enhanced viewing experience for guests, especially boaters, at the bustling Wave Pointe Marina & Resort near Sturgeon Bay.
Resort’s TV System Converted to Single Device
The spring cleaning by staff at Wave Pointe in preparation for the big rush of visitors Memorial Day weekend, when summertime gets started in Door County, included an upgrade in guest amenities.
The management at Wave Pointe, which is located at 3600 County Road CC, wanted to improve the TV picture quality for guests who stay not only in the rooms at the resort but also on board their boats in the adjacent marina. The property is on the shore of Little Sturgeon Bay.
“It’s a beautiful resort on the water,” said Justin Geitner, sales manager for WeConnect. “There’s a huge marina, tons of docks, in a cove, basically.”
The marina is the big draw at Wave Pointe, which opened in 2000. The property can accommodate about 125 boats at one time, with the majority of the slips rented on a seasonal basis.
“The resort complements the marina,” said Andrew Sternard, the Wave Pointe assistant manager and its resort manager.
WeConnect needed only a few days this spring to give the spacious marina and the 24 guest rooms at the resort a technological transformation, from standard- to high-definition television.
“We had to go out and make sure all of the marina ports had TV, too,” Geitner said. “So, not just the resort, but when these nice boats pull up, they (plug) into these dock pillars, and then the TV service from the resort is now piped into the boat.”
The installation work by WeConnect entailed ripping out a dual commercial rack system that had 48 individual receivers for transmitting the satellite signals to the rooms in the resort and the boat slips. The rack system for Wave Pointe’s DISH service was stored in a boathouse, which also included an air-conditioning unit and fans that ran continuously to keep the servers from overheating.
“I replaced (the system) with one piece. This little guy, size of a microwave,” said Geitner, referring to the smartbox, “and now in a separate room that doesn’t need to be cooled, is running the whole resort, all of the marina and has the capability to expand to double of what they have, if not triple.”
Smartbox Benefits Include Energy Efficiency, HD Picture
Geitner considers the smartbox system “a game changer when it comes to the industry of hotel, motel, free-to-guest type of industries.”
“It’s taking a TV signal and delivering it through high-quality coax (coaxial cable) throughout the building, versus having a receiver at every TV,” Geitner said.
And, the lean, but powerful smartbox is more than a space saver.
“The benefit is very low energy consumption,” Geitner said. “A smartbox runs about 300 kilowatts, versus each receiver running 85 kilowatts. You have a hotel of 100 units or more, holy cow, that is a massive energy consumption.”
Those who have already docked their boats at Wave Pointe before the marina is expected to fill up Memorial Day weekend like what they have seen with their on-board TV service, which is among many amenities for boaters at the resort.
“Everyone seems to love the clarity of the picture because, now, it’s in HD, especially the boaters that live here in the summertime,” Sternard said.
A Smart Investment for Businesses with Large Clientele
The large-scale smartbox installation isn’t a first for WeConnect. Last fall, the company put in the central distributing server for satellite television at the Dodge Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in Waupun, Wis.
With the big picture in mind, WeConnect is looking at other ways to deliver high-quality television to businesses with large audiences. Hotels, senior-living facilities and bowling alleys are viewed as ideal broadcast partners.
“Usually, about 50 TVs and higher is when it gets smart to go into a smartbox — highly recommended,” Geitner said. “It can be big. There’s a lot less costs involved on the long end. So, less troubled calls, less replacement of equipment, all of that stuff. We can do remote log-in into the machine instead of having to drive out to your spot.”