Hollywood Bowl, part of Hollywood Bowl Group, is the UK’s leading ten-pin bowling and competitive socialising operator. Driven by a passion for bringing families and friends together through affordable, feel-good competition, its venues create excitement from the moment customers arrive.
Building on a longstanding working relationship developed over many years, including our recent install at Hollywood Bowl Reading, Hollywood Bowl asked TVC Technology Solutions to create an AV environment for Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL that would support the customer journey across both levels, making it a standout entertainment venue in central Cardiff.
It needed to establish an engaging atmosphere from arrival, maintain the energy of the bowling and karting experiences, and complement the venue's lounge, dining and social areas without one activity overpowering another.
The brief was to provide flexible visual communication for live sport, marketing, prize and leaderboard information, karting promotions and pre-race briefings, with relevant content available in different areas at the same time.
Hollywood Bowl also wanted clear, consistent audio suited to each customer space and straightforward employee control during busy trading periods. The completed system needed to be dependable, discreetly integrated and practical to support.
Philips Video Wall Displays
TVC supplied and installed a total of twenty-six Philips commercial displays across Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL, with each screen group assigned a defined purpose. On the ground floor, four 49-inch landscape displays at the main bar provide live sport and marketing content, while four 49-inch portrait screens display customer-facing digital signage at reception. A separate 49-inch portrait display presents prize information, with one further portrait screen on the upper level and another in the basement dedicated to leaderboard content.
Within the lounge and seating area, four 50-inch commercial displays, rated for 16/7 operation, are positioned around a central column. These showcase live sport, marketing content and the live karting feed to customers throughout the space. Beside the pool tables, a four-screen 49-inch video wall presents the same content on a larger, more impactful canvas.
On the basement level, two 49-inch landscape displays behind the bar feature live sport and promotional content, while a separate four-screen 49-inch sports wall delivers live sport, marketing messages and the karting feed across the party and karting area.
Completing the solution, a dedicated 65-inch Philips commercial display is installed within the karting briefing area. Connected to a simple two-button control switch, it enables staff to quickly select and present the relevant health and safety videos before participants take to the track.
Complete Immersive Audio Solution
Audio at Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL needed to sustain the energy of bowling and karting, keep announcements and televised content clear, and provide a more comfortable soundtrack in lounge, dining and social areas. TVC created twelve independently managed areas, using Audac loudspeakers selected for each space's scale, acoustics and customer use.
Across all 20 bowling lanes, ten Audac Vexo 110 loudspeakers supply the output, punch and headroom needed to carry music, live-sport audio and announcements above bowling balls, pins and conversation. Ten Alti 6 pendant loudspeakers bring clear, evenly dispersed sound closer to the lane seating and approaches, preserving detail without excessive volume. Two Alti 6M surface-mounted models add fill around lanes 5-8, where the layout makes pendant coverage less effective, ensuring a consistent atmosphere across both levels.
The lounge and dining spaces use fourteen compact Vexo 108 loudspeakers, distributed to provide even coverage without visually dominating the room. Their controlled output delivers presence for live sport and busy periods while remaining comfortable for background music. Focused pairs of the same model serve the pool tables, darts and party space, providing warmth and energy while containing sound within each activity. Two surface-mounted Alti 6M loudspeakers suit the stairwell and continue music and announcements between levels, avoiding a break in atmosphere.
Throughout the karting journey, four Vexo 108 loudspeakers give reception and waiting areas energetic but controlled coverage, keeping announcements clear without hindering conversation. Two compact Vexo 106 loudspeakers connect locally to the 65-inch briefing screen, prioritising speech intelligibility for video soundtracks and pre-race instructions without flooding reception. Around the large, irregular track, sixteen Vexo 110 loudspeakers provide the projection and headroom needed to overcome distance and ambient noise, keeping music, race information and announcements consistent around the circuit.
Optimal Audio Z8 and Z4 DSP controllers, Audac amplification, three PAD4 wall controllers and two iPads provide independent volume and source control for each area.
Employees can select background music, the karting feed, four Sky sources or two Audio-Technica wireless microphone systems, allowing the system to remain powerful where excitement matters, focused where clarity is essential and comfortable where customers spend longer.
Wyrestorm Network Distribution
A WyreStorm NetworkHD platform provides flexible AV-over-IP distribution to the principal multi-screen features. The system uses a NetworkHD Pro Controller, nine NHD-120-TX encoders, 12 NHD-120-RX decoders and a managed Netgear switch to place content on four individual lounge column displays, the four-screen lounge and pool video wall and the four-screen basement party wall.
Four Sky boxes, four marketing sources and the karting computer feed are encoded onto the network. This gives Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL the freedom to select live sport, branded promotions or karting content for each display group rather than being tied to a single source across every screen. WyreStorm touch and companion applications provide an accessible control layer for day-to-day use.
The distribution design also links selected Sky sources into the audio system, helping the sound and picture work together in the areas used for live viewing. Rack-mounted hardware, structured cabling and spare network capacity create an organised installation that can be maintained without disturbing the customer-facing spaces.
B-Tech Wall Mounting System
B-Tech mounting solutions were specified around each display configuration. System X structures support the landscape bar displays and portrait reception feature on the upper floor, together with the two-screen basement bar arrangement. In the lounge, a square mounting solution positions four commercial displays around a column, allowing content to face several customer sightlines from one central location.
Slimline B-Tech video-wall mounts keep both four-screen walls aligned as clean, unified canvases. Push-in/push-out security mounts support the wall-mounted prize and leaderboard displays, combining protection with practical service access, while a recessed pull-out and tilt mount integrates the 65-inch karting briefing screen neatly into its allocated position.
Using a mounting system tailored to each location was essential to the finished result. It gives the larger arrays the precision they need, keeps standalone screens secure in busy public areas and allows engineers to reach key components for future maintenance without dismantling surrounding installations.
Additional Digital Signage
Additional digital signage extends the visual system beyond the fixed Philips displays. A 55-inch, high-brightness, dual-sided freestanding digital poster is positioned in the window, facing the Hills Street frontage. The outward-facing side gives Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL a prominent platform for promotions and customer information in demanding window light, while the inward-facing display continues that communication for people entering and moving through the venue.
Freestanding digital poster technology provides a further high-visibility communication point inside the centre. The 55-inch black totem is used as a dynamic leaderboard, allowing results, promotions and branded content to be updated without printed material.
The Result
TVC Technology Solutions delivered a fully integrated AV environment across Hollywood Bowl Cardiff XL, connecting commercial displays, digital signage, network distribution and 12-zone audio within one centrally controlled system. From the entrance and reception through all 20 bowling lanes, the lounge and social spaces, and the karting areas, customers now experience clear content, consistent sound and an atmosphere tailored to each activity.
The completed installation gives employees straightforward control over live sport, marketing, leaderboards, karting information, background music and announcements, while secure B-Tech mounting, organised rack infrastructure and flexible WyreStorm distribution make the system practical to manage and support. The result is a high-impact, dependable AV solution designed for smooth day-to-day operation and the venue's long-term needs.
