Turfway Park: A Premier Destination for Horse Racing and Entertainment

Turfway Park: A Premier Destination for Horse Racing and Entertainment

Established in 1959, Turfway Park Racing & Gaming has long been part of Kentucky’s racing tradition. When Churchill Downs Incorporated acquired the property and committed to a $148 million redevelopment, the facility was completely reimagined — demolished and rebuilt as a multi-use entertainment destination.

American Sound was brought in to design and deploy the AV infrastructure to support racing, gaming, live entertainment, and large-scale events throughout the new property.

The Vision

“The old facility was torn down and completely reconstructed as a multi-use facility,” said Daniel Martin, CTS-D, CTS-I, Engineer here at American Sound. “It’s not only a host to a racetrack, but it provides gaming, live entertainment, corporate events, and other events.”

The new Turfway Park includes:

• A pari-mutual gaming floor with up to 850 historical racing machines
• A modern simulcast wagering area
• Multiple food and beverage venues
• An 18,500 square-foot event center

At the center of the event space is a large-format LED wall designed to broadcast live horse racing and a wide range of event content.

“The large event center features an LED wall designed to broadcast live horse racing and a myriad of content depending on the particular event,” Martin explained.

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The Technology Approach

To support flexible content distribution across the property, American Sound worked alongside NV5 Global to implement a network-based AV solution built on Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series.

“We’ve worked with Visionary’s technology in the past, but not to this scale,” Martin noted. “Here at American Sound, we deployed 60 endpoints across the property, making this one of our larger AV-over-IP integrations.”

The AV-over-IP backbone allows HDMI sources to be routed efficiently across gaming areas, wagering spaces, and the event center — all while maintaining ultra-low latency for live racing broadcasts.

Each endpoint resides directly on the client’s network, alongside IPTV and control systems.

“Visionary is an exemplary citizen living on the client’s network,” Martin added. “It’s not interfering with any other technologies.”

Engineering Efficiency

Preparation was key to a smooth deployment.

“Visionary is incredibly easy to configure,” said Martin. “Here at American Sound, we configured the endpoints off-site at our facility. We stacked all of the units on a single network, completed firmware updates, and assigned IP addresses ahead of time. We were done within two hours.”

This proactive approach significantly reduced onsite commissioning time and streamlined the integration process.

“You don’t normally have the privilege of configuring other pieces of equipment in an afternoon,” Martin said.

The Result

Turfway Park Racing & Gaming now operates as a fully modernized entertainment destination while preserving its historic racing legacy.

With a scalable AV-over-IP infrastructure in place, the property supports live racing, gaming, entertainment programming, and corporate events with flexibility and reliability — built to evolve alongside the venue’s future growth.