Santa Fe bowling alley putting finishing touches on new interactive video wall | Business | santafenewmexican.com

Joey Padilla says he isn’t comfortable disclosing the price of the new interactive LED video wall he had installed recently in The Alley, the boutique bowling alley he owns in the DeVargas Center.

He will acknowledge it was expensive. But he doesn’t seem to be experiencing any buyer’s remorse — far from it, in fact.

“Obviously, as an entrepreneur, sometimes you get an itch, and sometimes you just want to do it,” he said, explaining why he splurged on the new attraction.

Make no mistake, Padilla expects the video wall, which goes by the brand name Neoverse, to attract a new crowd to The Alley and eventually more than pay for itself. But he seems just as taken with the idea of offering his customers a bowling experience unlike any they’ve had previously.

“I wanted something that was going to immerse the customer into bowling,” he said.

As soon as Padilla witnessed a demonstration of the multisensory video wall last year during a bowling exposition in Colorado, he realized it was revolutionary.

“My mind was blown when I saw it,” he said. “The Neoverse is something different.”

The video wall has been installed at the far end of The Alley’s 12 lanes, where, for generations, bowlers have been accustomed to seeing simple graphic displays registering strikes, spares or pins left standing. The video wall features a mix of dazzling video, audio and lighting components that will serve as a dramatic change for those accustomed to the old-school, bare-bones bowling alley experience of flickering fluorescent lighting, a scratchy-sounding jukebox and the smell of stale beer.

“It is definitely cutting edge,” Padilla said, noting his property was the first bowling alley in New Mexico to install the system.

What Padilla likes most about the Neoverse system is that bowlers, to a large degree, can control the content they want to see. They are able to choose between easy-to-read scoring grids for league play or dive into an extensive library of imaginative and crisp video that is synchronized with the sound and lighting components. “There are all sorts of cool things you can do with it,” he said, explaining the Neoverse technology is improving rapidly, and new features likely will be added in the future.

It’s also easy to use, Padilla said — you don’t have to be a tech nerd to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

The Neoverse is the latest improvement Padilla has made to The Alley. Last fall, he installed a string-pin bowling system, which is a new racking system that forsakes the traditional mechanical arm and setter used to clear a lane of downed pins and reset the others.

Under the string-pin system, the heads of the pins are attached by a nylon cord to an overhead setter. When a pin is knocked down, it is lifted and removed like a puppet on a string.

Padilla said the new system is efficient and attractive because it requires less maintenance than the older, bulkier systems, making it more affordable. He said the cost of replacement parts for pin setters has climbed significantly in recent years, while the pool of mechanics who work on them has dried up.

The system has been controversial among professional bowlers, some of whom have complained the cords cause the pins to interact with each other differently and even result in fewer strikes.

Padilla acknowledged bowling pros and even high-level amateur bowlers may detect some differences. But he said most of his customers, who approach bowling in a much more casual way, won’t even notice the change.

Padilla said he has worked hard to upgrade the experience for all visitors to The Alley, which also features billiards, darts, shuffleboard, a full-service bar and a menu featuring appetizers, salads, entrees, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, burgers and desserts.

The Alley is billed as a lounge rather than a traditional bowling alley, and Padilla said the Neoverse video wall is just one more way to elevate the atmosphere. “I think everybody’s excited about it,” he said. “They’re just waiting to see it.”

The Alley, located in the DeVargas Center, 153 Paseo de Peralta

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

More information: 505-577-6789 or thealleysantafe.com.

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