Running Aces Casino Hotel & Racetrack wanted an entrance built for the ages, not a single season.

LED screens can deliver the spectacle, but the equipment cost, the maintenance, and the architectural retrofit made it a hard call.

NOVA Light Labs answered with a projection mapping system design that lights every facet of the entrance, reliably, all year, with minimal impact on the building.

Paired with a full suite of remote management tools, one investment turned into an immediate, lasting asset for the brand.

First impressions are everything, and the entrance sets the tone before a guest reaches the door.

Big, bright, and vibrant. The projections stay sharp from every angle of approach, and the content shifts to suit the hour, the season, the occasion. Guests slow down and look up.

Reliable, automated, ready for whatever the sky brings. Rain or shine, it just works.

The Running Aces facade offered ideal architecture for projection mapping.

Light colored walls meant the projections would read vibrant and saturated. Broad, featureless sections carried text and motion, while the windows added fine detail.

Every NOVA system design ships with custom visuals built for the exact building and tuned to the venue's branding and palette. Existing brand assets were pushed in a bolder, more artistic direction, each scene moving from brainstorm to iteration to on site polish.

The content had to hold attention from every angle, since guests catch only 15 to 30 seconds of the show on the way in and out. Themes of poker, cards, horse racing, and the holidays gave the package range from the start.

Just north of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the casino faces extreme cold and heat throughout the year.

Thriving outdoors through Minnesota winters and summers called for an extreme weather design. NOVA engineered added insulation and thermal management into a proven outdoor projection mapping system, housed in a climate controlled enclosure built to run for years.

Long life components and a 20,000 hour lamp rating keep maintenance rare and uptime high. This is a permanent installation, specified to hold its own against snow drifts and summer heat alike.

To run it day to day, the Running Aces marketing team was trained on a full suite of remote management tools. From any secure connection they adjust the content, set the schedule, and check the show live.