Churchill Downs Incorporated opened the new Derby City Gaming in Louisville, Kentucky this past September. The historical racing machine facility is an 85,000-square-foot, $65 million complex featuring 900 state-of-the-art historical racing machines; two quick-service, walk-up food venues; and a bar with seating for fifty and large format televisions for guests to take in all the best sporting action year-round.

邱吉尔唐斯股份有限公司于去年九月在肯塔基州路易斯维尔市开设了新的德比城博彩公司（Derby City Gaming）。里面有一个8.5万平方英尺，价值6500万美元的综合设施，拥有900台最先进的历史赛车装置、两个餐饮场所和一个酒吧。酒吧又设有50个座位和大屏幕电视为客人在全年提供所有最好的体育赛事。

 

To complete this winning project, a number of outdoor signs were needed, including channel letters, three digital wall signs, and a double-sided monument with a digital sign.

为了完成这个项目，德比城官方表示需要一些户外标识，包括发光字，数字大屏幕，以及一个纪念碑标识。

 

To handle the sign work, Churchill Downs brought in Rueff Signs of Louisville, Kentucky. This was no gamble as Churchill Downs has worked with Rueff Signs on other past sign projects.

为了处理标识工作，丘吉尔唐斯推荐了肯塔基州路易斯维尔的鲁夫标识公司，因为丘吉尔唐斯曾与鲁夫标识公司合作过其他的标识项目。

 

Rueff Signs has been in business since 1912, when Project Manager Carl Rueff’s great-great uncle started up the business. He convinced his brother, Carl’s great-grandfather, to sell his grocery store and get involved in signs, and the rest is history. Today the family-owned, full-service sign company can fabricate and install just about any sign and even still fabricates and restores neon signs.

鲁夫标识公司自1912年项目经理卡尔·鲁夫（Carl Rueff）的曾曾伯父创办公司以来一直在营业。卡尔的曾祖父说服了他的兄弟卖掉了他的杂货店，同他一起参与到标识中来，之后就是两个人努力经营直到标识店壮大。如今，这家家族式、全方位服务的标识公司几乎可以制作和安装任何标识，甚至还有制作和修复霓虹灯标识的项目服务。 

 

The company specializes in large and unique custom signage and has done everything from monument signs to custom sign cabinets and letters to large channel letters on high rises. The project for Derby City Gaming required them to put some of that custom work and problem solving to good use.

该公司专门从事大型和独特的自定义标识，从纪念碑标识，自定义标识灯箱到大型高层建筑发光字，德比城博彩标识的项目都对鲁夫标识公司提出了很高的要求。 

 

Rueff Signs was tasked with supplying and installing five sets of channel letters—two sets on the monument sign, three freestanding sets at the entrances, and one large main set on the building façade. The sign shop was also responsible for gathering bids for the digital signage elements—three digital wall displays and one double-sided digital sign for the monument—and presenting them to Churchill Downs for selection.

鲁夫标识公司的任务是提供和安装六套发光字标识——两套是纪念碑标识，三套是入口处的独立式标识，以及一套在建筑媒体平面上的大型主标识。标识公司还负责三个数字墙面展示和一个双面数字标识的投标，并将它们呈现给邱吉尔唐斯供选择。 

 

ThinkSIGN ended up with the winning digital signage bid. “This was a very competitive project,” says Joey Summers, regional sales manager at ThinkSIGN. “Our quality, production time, and ability to locally support helped us win this prominent nearby project. We are happy to serve CDI [Churchill Downs].”

ThinkSIGN最终赢得了数字显示标识的竞标。ThinkSIGN地区销售经理乔伊•萨默斯(Joey Summers)表示:“这是一个竞争非常激烈的项目。我们的质量、生产时间和工作能力帮助我们赢得了这个著名的项目。我们很高兴为CDI(邱吉尔唐斯)服务。”

 

ThinkSIGN has been manufacturing LED electronic message centers for more than twenty years. The company also offers proprietary software to manage and create content for its signs. Paul Hughes, national sales manager, says, “We are 100-percent wholesale. We strictly partner with sign companies, and we don’t sell to the end-user. We also deliver very quickly, which is favorable to signage partners and their cash flow. And our software is extremely easy to use. That has value in the market.”

ThinkSIGN制造LED标识已有20多年的历史，该公司还有专业的软件来管理和创建标识的内容。全国销售经理保罗·休斯（Paul Hughes）说：“我们百分之百是自己制作，在与其他标识公司合作方面我们的要求是非常严格的，我们不向终端用户销售。我们交货也非常快，争取为客户提供最便捷最优秀的服务。我们专门为客户的标识项目设计的软件也非常容易使用，这在市场上是一项非常少的技术。”

 

Also involved in the project were Calhoun Construction, which served as general contractor on the job, and Matriarch Sign Solutions, which designed the aesthetic aspects of the signage elements. Rueff Signs made decisions on what materials to use, how to bring electric to all illuminated components, and the engineering on how to install the signs.

参与该项目的还有卡尔霍恩建筑公司（Calhoun Construction），该公司担任项目的总承包商；以及女酋长标识公司（Matriarch Sign Solutions），该公司负责标识的设计元素方面。鲁夫标识公司决定使用什么材料，如何为所有发光元件供电，以及如何安装标识。由于此次标识安装涉及巨大的安装装置与材料，所以每一个环节对工作人员来说都是一场赌局。

Bet 1: Channel Letters

赌局1:发光字

 

Rueff Signs hand-formed all five sets of channel letters out of aluminum and painted the returns black with AkzoNobel Grip-Gard paint.

鲁夫标识公司负责用铝手工制作五组发光字，并用阿克苏诺贝尔油漆（AkzoNobel Grip-Gard）将其涂成黑色。 

 

The sign faces were fabricated out of white polycarbonate. Colored translucent ORAFOL vinyl was applied to the sign faces for the rose and horseshoe portions of the channel letter sets.

标识面由白色聚碳酸酯制成，彩色半透明的ORAFOL乙烯基材料应用于标识面玫瑰图案和马蹄图案的发光字。 

 

White Principal LED Fusion CL 3™ modules were used in all five sets of channel letters. On the largest set—where the letters measure five feet, six inches tall—double the amount of LEDs were used to make them brighter.

委托人怀特融合CL 3™模组用于五套所有发光字。最大的一组发光字有5英尺6英寸高，它的光要比LED灯的光亮两倍。 

 

The largest set of letters also required special UL listings. “We had to get individual UL listings for each one because each one had its own power supply—they weren’t on a raceway or anything,” explains Rueff. “They all had power supplies internally mounted. And then we had to do the wiring from the outside because [Derby City Gaming] had a finished wall on the inside.

最大的发光字还需要特殊的UL零件。鲁夫解释说:“我们必须为每一个都获得单独的UL零件，因为每个UL零件都有自己的电源。他们都在内部安装了电源，因为德比城博彩公司里面有一个已经完工的墙，所以我们不得不从外面进行布线。”

 

“So we had to get conduit that would match the façade, and then we put that in the seams of the material of the façade to hide it.”

“所以我们必须找到与媒体显示屏相匹配的管道，然后我们把它放在显示屏的接缝处来隐藏它。” 

 

Installing the large channel letters was also a unique process because the façade was made of materials from Trespa, a premier developer of high-quality, high-pressure laminate panels for exterior cladding and decorative façades.

安装发光字也是一个独特的过程，因为外墙是由高质量的、高压板做成的，再由主要开发人员为外部的媒体平面增加和装饰其他元素。

 

“You can’t penetrate it with fasteners, due to expansion and contraction issues, unless you first make a 5/8-inch hole for every fastener,” says Rueff. “So we had to drill larger holes and then center our fasteners in those holes. This keeps the Trespa from ever touching our fasteners, regardless of contraction and expansion.”

鲁夫说:“由于膨胀和收缩的问题，你无法用零件把它固定起来，除非你先为每个紧固件打一个5/8英寸的洞。所以我们必须钻更大的洞，然后把紧固件放在这些洞的中心。这样我们就不用担心热胀冷缩的问题了。” 

 

To install the large set of channel letters, Rueff Signs used its 57-foot SkyHoist SX57 with a two-man basket on a 2009 International truck.

为了安装这组大型的发光字，鲁夫标识公司在一辆2009年的国际卡车上使用了其57英尺高的SX57云梯。 

 

For the three sets of freestanding channel letters, Rueff Signs built custom four-by-four-inch raceways for attachment, and the shop installed those raceways to a steel structure that was provided by Calhoun Construction.

另外三组独立的发光字，鲁夫标识公司需要使用定制的4×4英寸的滚道输送线作为安装工具，商店将这些滚道安装在由卡尔霍恩建筑公司提供的钢结构上。 

 

Bet 2: Monument Derby City Gaming ThinkSign Rueff Signs

赌局2:纪念碑标识

 

For the monument sign, Rueff Signs was responsible for installing the digital sign as well as creating and installing the sets of channel letters on each side.

对于纪念碑标识，鲁夫标识公司负责安装数字标识，以及创建和安装两侧的发光字。

 

Calhoun Construction fabricated the monument from white brick, while Rueff Signs attached the two sets of channel letters to the brick monument with Tapcon® fasteners.

卡尔霍恩建筑公司用白砖制作纪念碑标识，而鲁夫标识公司负责把两组发光字安装到纪念碑标识上。 

 

For the installation of the 15-foot-high-by-10-foot-wide, double-sided 10mm digital sign from ThinkSIGN, Rueff Signs lifted each face into place on a steel structure. “That was attached with 90-degree painted steel angles, and then we attached ThinkSIGN’s angles onto that. So we had to get precise measurements so that their LED cabinets would line up,” says Rueff.

为了安装ThinkSIGN公司生产的高15英尺、宽10英尺、双面宽10毫米的数字标识，鲁夫标识公司将标识每个面都安装在了钢结构上。鲁夫说：“这附有ThinkSIGN制作的90度涂漆钢角，然后我们将钢角安装在标识上。因此，我们必须进行精确测量，以便LED标识灯箱能够精准的排成一行。”

 

Bet 3: Digital Wall Displays

赌局3:数字显示屏

 

The digital displays on Derby City Gaming’s façade proved to be the part of the project that required the most ingenuity.

德比城游戏公司正面的数字显示屏是该项目中最需要独创性的部分。 

 

Derby City Gaming ThinkSign Derby City Gaming ThinkSign Fabrication went smoothly as ThinkSIGN manufactured the three displays over a few weeks, with each 10mm display measuring 30 feet high-by-10 feet wide. (Note: With the three wall displays and the double-sided monument display, ThinkSIGN provided 1,050 square feet of 10mm SMD digital signage.)

ThinkSign在过去几周内生产了这三个显示屏，每个10mm厚的显示屏高30英尺，宽10英尺，因此德比城博彩公司的标识制作工作进展顺利。(注:ThinkSIGN提供1050平方英尺的10mm SMD数字标识，有三个数字显示屏标识和一个双面纪念碑显示屏。) 

 

The challenge then lay in figuring out how to attach the three digital signs into recessed spaces on Derby City Gaming’s façade. Rueff Signs and Calhoun Construction decided to use a cleat system.

接下来的挑战在于，如何将这三个数字显示屏标识安装到德比城游戏公司正面的凹槽空间中，鲁夫标识公司和卡尔霍恩建筑公司决定使用一个锁栓系统。 

 

Further adding to the challenge was that the digital displays were a modular system, and each of the three displays had to be assembled from four sections. They couldn’t be built on the wall since it was a recessed space.

更大的挑战是，数字显示屏是一个模块化系统，三个显示屏必须由四个部分组装而成。它们不能直接安装在墙上，因为那是一个凹进去的空间。 

 

“We had to get them all in place before they went on the wall because you had to wire everything up behind them, and you couldn’t do that after you installed them because there was a finished wall on the inside,” says Rueff. “Then the other problem was we had to get them all lined up onto one unit and install them, because if you installed one at a time, they might not all line up.”

鲁夫说:“我们必须在它们被挂在墙上之前把它们都安装好，因为你必须在它们后面用电线把所有东西连接起来，而在安装之后就不能这样做了，因为里面有一堵已经完工的墙。另一个问题是，我们必须把它们全部安装在一个单元上，因为如果你一次安装一个，它们可能不会整齐的排列在一起。” 

 

The signs were too large to ship fully assembled to the job site, and they couldn’t be built on the ground and lifted to a vertical position. “It was decided and suggested by Rueff Signs that we build a frame ten feet off the wall,” says Hughes. “Then we affixed the four sections of the signs to the frame.”

这些标识太大了，无法全部组装到相应地点，也无法在地面上建造并垂直吊起来。休斯说：“这是由鲁夫标识公司决定并建议我们在离墙10英尺的地方建一个框架。然后我们把四个部分的标识贴在框架上。”

 

Derby City Gaming ThinkSign Rueff Signs engineered and constructed a 30-foot-tall-by-10-foot-wide steel frame. “The four sections were affixed to the steel frame while it was welded off the side of the wall,” explains Hughes. “That allowed us to not only put the sign together vertically, but it allowed us to do the wiring and the necessary communication cabling and grounding before the final lift of the entire sign went into place.”

德比城博彩公司与鲁夫标识公司、 ThinkSign 设计并建造了一个30英尺高、10英尺宽的钢架。休斯解释说:“四个部分被固定在钢架上，而钢架是焊接在墙上的。这不仅让我们能够垂直地将标识组装在一起，还让我们能够在整个标识最终安装到位之前进行布线和必要的设置。” 

 

Since the signs weighed approximately 3,000 pounds each, Rueff Signs had to use an industrial crane from Maxim Crane Works to lift them into place onto the cleat system.

由于这些标识每个重约3000磅，鲁夫标识公司不得不使用马克西姆起重机厂的工业起重机将它们吊到定位系统上。 

 

“On the wall, we had five receiving angles—two of them were 90-degree angles and three of them were 45-degree angles,” says Rueff. “The three in the middle that were 45-degree angles acted as cleats and caught the display and kept it there. Those angles had to be that way, because you couldn’t bolt once we installed it. So there had to be something that kept it in place, and that’s friction and gravity on those 45-degree angles. And then the top and the bottom are the 90-degree angles where we could put bolts.

鲁夫说：“在墙上，我们有五个固定显示屏的零件——两个是90度角，三个是45度角，中间的三个45度角的夹子就像夹子一样夹住了显示屏，把它固定在那里。我们用螺丝把90度角固定在顶部和底部，利用45度角的摩擦力和重力，让显示屏保持在原来的位置。”

 

“It took more time to put the LEDs onto the frames and set all the frames up than it did to install the actual signs. We had all three signs installed in one day.”

“安装led灯和设置框架所花的时间比安装实际标识所花的时间要多。我们在一天之内就安装好了这三个标识。”

 

As if the install wasn’t challenging enough, installers had to finish the last digital display in the rain.

安装的挑战性从未停止，老天爷又为安装人员安排了一场雨，他们不得不在雨中完成最后一个数字显示屏。 

 

ThinkSIGN had already walked Churchill Downs’ marketing team through the pixel matrix of their new sign configurations, so once the displays were up and running, Churchill Downs had content ready to go.

ThinkSIGN已经带领邱吉尔唐斯的营销团队完成了他们新标识配置的媒体显示屏矩阵，因此，一旦显示屏启动并运行，绚丽路易斯维尔德比城博彩城就蓄势待发了。 

 

Winners’ Circle

赢家

 

In the end, the signage project may have been challenging, but it was a winning bet for all parties involved.

安装此次标识项目具有相当大的挑战性，所以这次标识的成功安装证明所有相关人员来说都是赢家。 

 

“It took a lot of communication and a lot of teamwork and collaboration between Calhoun, Rueff, and ThinkSIGN to make sure this went up on time and accurately,” says Hughes.

休斯说:“卡尔霍恩建筑公司、鲁夫标识公司和ThinkSIGN之间进行了大量的沟通，并进行了大量的团队合作，以确保这项服务按时、准确地上线。” 

 

“We always appreciate doing large and difficult jobs,” says Rueff. “It’s something that motivates us as a company—to have something large and difficult to work on, wrap our brains around, and really give a good team effort in accomplishing.”

“我们总是喜欢做大而困难的工作。”鲁夫说，“这是激励我们作为一个公司去全身心地投入做一些大而困难的事情，标识的成功运行就是对我们所有人最大的鼓励。”