Padel 39

The padel club that becomes a sports bar on match day.

Client: Padel 39 Sports and Bar
Location: Austin, TX
Industry: Sports Bars
Scope: Indoor & Outdoor Venue AV
Completed: 2026

37 Displays

8 Audio Zones

7 Venue Zones

600+ Watch Party Guests

Project overview

A weekday evening at Padel 39 is unhurried. Courts stay booked into the night while the music holds at conversation level, the bar hums along without demanding attention, and nobody thinks about the technology behind any of it. That is the point.

Then the World Cup arrived this summer, and the same building held 600 to 700 people watching the match shoulder to shoulder, with screens in every sightline and audio carrying over a crowd that would strain most purpose-built sports bars. The walls and the staff didn't change. The room did.

That range was the design brief. Crunchy Tech engineered the audiovisual system across seven zones, indoor and outdoor, so the venue can move between those two identities in seconds. Not with a technician on a ladder, either. A staff member holding an iPad does it between orders.

Project challenges

A venue that changes personality this fast puts real pressure on the system behind it. We have walked into plenty of venues that were built for their average night, and we have seen what happens to them on their biggest one. The audio distorts, the screens lag behind the moment, and the staff end up apologizing for the room. This build had to avoid all of it.

One building, two jobs.

The system had to sit quietly behind league play on a weeknight and carry a packed watch party on the weekend, with no gear swaps in between.

Indoor and outdoor zones.

Patio screens and speakers face Texas heat and weather while matching what guests see and hear inside.

Sound that knows its place.

Players on court need music at background level while the bar next door runs the match loud, and both happen at the same time.

Staff-proof control.

Bartenders and managers make the changes mid-service, so every preset had to work without any technical knowledge.

Full routing freedom.

Every screen in the building had to be able to show any source without anyone touching a rack.

Understanding the client's needs

The owners wanted the building itself to do the selling. Members should feel a club atmosphere during play, while a major match should turn the place into an event destination that competes with any sports bar in Austin. The revenue case is simple. Watch parties fill the bar, and the bar carries the night.

Speed of change shaped the whole design. The shift from club mode to event mode happens while guests are already in the room, drinks in hand, which meant an afternoon of setup was never on the table and every preset had to land the moment somebody tapped it. If the changeover takes longer than a song, the room feels it.

Technical solutions

One platform, integrated subsystems

Technology partner	Components	Role in project
Video Displays	37 commercial displays — 2× 50", 2× 55", 15× 65", 16× 75", 2× 86"	A screen in every sightline across all seven zones, indoors and out
Video Distribution	Networked AV encoders and decoders, 8 HDMI source inputs	Routes any source to any display, from one match everywhere to five games at once
Audio System	39 speakers (14 ceiling, 22 surface-mount, 3 pendant), 2× 2,400W amplifiers, network DSP	Eight independently tuned audio zones mapped to the display layout
Control System	Control processor with iPad touch interface	One-touch presets flip the venue between club mode and event mode
Network & Infrastructure	Managed 40-port and 24-port PoE+ switches, 42U AV rack, maintenance PC	Dedicated AV backbone that powers, connects, and monitors every endpoint

Implementation methodology

We followed our signature design-build AV methodology for the Padel 39 installation, the same approach we bring to sports bars and entertainment venues across the country. The team that designed the system also engineered it, installed it, and tuned it. Nothing got lost in a handoff, because there was no handoff.

Design work resolved the indoor-outdoor split before a single cable was pulled: which screens needed covered placement, where the 39 speakers would land across ceiling, surface, and pendant mounts, and how the network would reach every zone. Our crew then ran the low-voltage infrastructure, built out the rack, and brought the whole system up on managed PoE+ switching, coordinating with the buildout crews the entire time so no trade was ever waiting on another.

Commissioning centered on the presets. Our project manager and lead engineer tuned each audio zone on site, mapped the routing scenarios the staff would actually use, and programmed them into the iPad interface. Our test before handover was blunt: a bartender should be able to change the whole building's mode between pouring two drinks. She could.

Results & impact

The proof came fast. Within weeks of handover, the venue was hosting World Cup crowds that filled every zone, indoors and out, night after night. Nothing about the building changed between a quiet weeknight and those nights except a preset.

World Cup watch parties drew crowds of 600 to 700 guests, and the venue ran as a full sports bar for hours at a stretch
Staff move the building between club mode and event mode from one iPad, in seconds, mid-service
Courts stay at play volume while the bar carries the match, thanks to eight independent audio zones
Any of 8 sources reaches any of 37 screens, indoors or out, without anyone touching the rack

Finishing the project

Built for the Quiet Tuesday and the Packed Saturday

The Padel 39 project demonstrates Crunchy Tech's ability to design for a venue's busiest night rather than its average one. A system sized for normal service would have folded under a 700-person watch party. This one was engineered for that night from the first drawing.

Padel 39 now owns a building that can be two businesses in one, a members' club and an event destination, without adding staff, gear, or setup time. When the next big match rolls around, the room will be ready before the first guest walks in.