In the heart of Austin's historic Old Sixth Street, Adam Rogers, co-owner of the Buck Wild bar, has watched the bar scene change over his 27 years in the business. "Running bars in Austin? I've done it on every level. Doorman, bartender, barback, DJ, manager and owner," Rogers said.
When Darren Delp, co-CEO, Sales & Operations, of Bar Partners, an Austin-based amusement machine firm, first approached Rogers about installing arcade games and photo booths at Buck Wild, Rogers was initially skeptical—even though everything was free of charge. "Typical amusement and photo booth companies were very unprofessional. Their games were often down and not working," he explained.
Rogers decided to give the company a try after his wife, who was managing a bar with his business partner, vouched for Bar Partners' photo booth. What changed his mind wasn't just the photo booth's popularity or the personal rapport he developed with Delp and his team, but Bar Partners' commitment to reliability and service—powered by technology that keeps their entertainment machines connected and operating smoothly.
Bar Partners needed reliable connectivity to revolutionize bar entertainment
In 2011, Delp and his partners saw an opportunity to revolutionize the bar entertainment business with cutting-edge, connected photo booths and games that combined an old-school feel with new-school technology. Online connectivity was at the heart of this revolution—from uploading photos to social media, to timely service and cashless payments. Realizing this vision meant overcoming significant technical hurdles in an industry that hadn't changed for decades.
"Back in the day, you would walk into a location and not know what you had," explained Delp. "Was the machine working? You didn't know unless [someone at] the location called you. How much money was in it? You didn't know." When the machines were out of service for extended periods, both the equipment operators and the bar owners—who typically had profit-sharing agreements in place—lost out on revenue opportunities.
To transform bar entertainment, Bar Partners needed to overcome key challenges—connectivity being critical. Their machines would require reliable connections for cashless transactions and remote monitoring. Timely alerts would allow for troubleshooting issues without relying on bar owners to report problems. And each scouted location came with its own connectivity challenges, so Bar Partners wanted to avoid interfering with their clients' networks or compromising security.
Without dependable connectivity, Bar Partners' entire business model of modernized, cashless entertainment would not be viable. "For us, connectivity is everything," said Delp. "It's accounting, it's service and it's operations. Capturing nationwide credit card transactions is crucial for us, too."
Verizon had the best coverage for us. Across Texas, across the South and nationwide, Verizon checked all the boxes.
Darren Delp, co-CEO, Sales & Operations of Bar Partners
FWA changes the game
After evaluating various options, Bar Partners selected Verizon's Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solution on the LTE network because it provided the reliability they needed to transform their vision into reality. "Verizon had the best coverage for us," said Delp. "Across Texas, across the South and nationwide, Verizon checked all the boxes."
Implementation was straightforward. Each Bar Partners photo booth and game machine was equipped with a Verizon FWA connection that linked it to Bar Partners' cloud infrastructure. FWA enabled the turnkey solution, which includes credit card processing for today's largely cashless customer payments. "Everyone's carrying plastic. People are using their phones for payment," Delp noted.
FWA also supports remote monitoring capabilities, allowing Bar Partners to detect potential issues with machines before they impact revenue. With FWA, Bar Partners can operate independently without relying on the bars' local networks. "From the location standpoint, our machines don't have to be on their network. We've got our own network connection through Verizon," Delp explained. By using its own secure network connection for the machines, Bar Partners can help protect its data and avoid interfering with bars' point-of-sale systems, which run on the bar owners' own network.
Flexible LTE Business Internet plan options allowed Bar Partners to achieve their goals and manage costs. "We use an LTE pooled plan," said Stephen Lahti, Delp's partner and the firm's co-CEO, Finance & M&A, "Most of our individual devices require a fairly low amount of bandwidth, so having the pooled plan allows us to access Verizon's network in the most cost-efficient way possible."
We're able to dispatch technicians and get games up and running before people are even aware they're down.
Stephen Lahti, co-CEO, Finance & M&A of Bar Partners
Smooth operations lay the path for nationwide expansion
With Verizon's FWA solution, Bar Partners transformed from a small Austin-based side hustle to a nationwide entertainment provider serving bar owners in all 50 states. This remarkable growth stems directly from their ability to deliver high-performing, cutting-edge amusement solutions to their partners.
Bar Partners can use FWA to troubleshoot glitches independently without relying on the bars' networks. "We've got push alerts on machines that will tell us if there's an issue, so we can service them quicker," Delp explained. "We're able to dispatch technicians and get games up and running before people are even aware they're down," added Lahti.
As a result, bar owners benefit from the improved service and can focus on serving their customers. And, with reliable photo booths, jukeboxes and games keeping patrons engaged, bar owners see customers staying longer and spending more.
For Bar Partners, the games have just begun
"What's next for Bar Partners? As we look towards the future, we're thinking about how machine learning can help," said Lahti. "Having all the games in the cloud, online and connected is an integral part of that. Verizon's bandwidth and accessibility through the cloud are going to be integral."
For bar owners like Rogers, it's also good for business. "It's broadened the spectrum of customers we can have. It provides a service to the customer that helps keep them coming more and more often," he said.
Reliable 4G LTE Business Internet connectivity is helping Bar Partners stay online and continue growing by supporting their machines throughout the United States. Bar Partners has reimagined what's possible in the bar entertainment industry—turning cash into contactless payments and downtime into dollars.