-All right.

Do I have a couple of volunteers?

-Welcome to Black Fire Innovation.

We're gonna show you all sorts of fun toys.

Why don't you come along.

-This is a one-for-one scale model of the "Gadget" device.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ -My name is Ed Mumm.

I am the founder of Dig This here in Las Vegas.

It's been a great journey from the time we started.

I've always had an amazing appreciation for heavy equipment ever since I was a little kid.

I grew up in New Zealand.

Always been around heavy equipment, but never really got to operate it and always wanted to.

I knew at some point I would get there eventually.

Took three months off work, jumped on a plane, got here to the U.S. We rented a car, didn't really know where we were going, and started zigzagging all through the West.

Got into Colorado, ran into a gal there who's now my wife.

That was 32 years ago.

We found a piece of property in Colorado in Steamboat Springs.

We built a house, and I decided to do all the construction work myself.

We rented a big bulldozer and an excavator and started building roads and the foundations for the house.

Man, I really enjoyed that experience.

It was from there that I realized, when I was sitting in an excavator there one day, I was like, man, if I'm having this good time, imagine the amount of people that would just love to come out and experience the thrill of operating heavy equipment like I was.

So I invited a few friends out, just tested the concept.

They were there within minutes of saying, Do you want to come out and run a bulldozer or an excavator?

And they were there in a flash, so put them through their paces and I couldn't get them out of the machines.

They were having such a great time.

From there, the roots of Dig This began.

We started up a little test operation of really of heavy equipment attraction in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

The key was building a program to where people would leave really happy and put a huge sense of achievement after operating a piece of equipment for, you know, an hour to two hours.

In 2011 we moved everything over here to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is an amazing place for attractions.

It's probably one of the probably best destinations in the world for what's on offer here.

Dig This certainly fitted the mold, you know, really cool, desirable attractions.

And I've been able to offer a lot of really cool experiences for thousands of people that have been here.

Just seeing the look on their faces when they're done and their huge sense of accomplishment, that's what makes me come out here every day.

And watching them leave with a huge sense of achievement is the key here.

I think the best way to explain Dig This is to actually get a couple of people in the machines and have a visual of what we do is going to be really key.

All right.

Do I have a couple of volunteers?

All right, guys.

Come on up.

Let's go.

You ready for a bit of competition?

(Tommy Caprio) I can't wait.

-Guys, we're gonna do a warm-up activity first just to get you oriented with the controls, and we're gonna lift the boom.

All the way up.

Okay, stop about four feet above the ground there.

And stop there.

The arm.

Spin all the way around, Tommy.

Good job, guys.

That's the fun step right there.

Right.

And I want you to come directly towards me, okay?

Really get a feel for that steering.

Position you over here.

All right, stop there.

Tommy, see this cone here?

And stop there.

That's with your right hand.

Sorry, your left hand.

Stop there.

We're gonna do a little handstand just to get going, okay?

-You got it.

Handstand.

-I want you to just keep pushing down on that right hand, and you're gonna lift up, okay?

-Oh, wow.

-Okay.

Stop there.

How does that feel?

-It feels a little bit-- (Jeremy Helal) Different.

-I feel like I might go over.

-You got it.

-Okay, stop there.

It came back.

When that fills up, just stop.

Good job, guys, your first big bucket.

Just lift it about two or three feet off the ground.

That's all you need.

Right hand to the right.

-Nice!

-Jeremy's got the advantage.

He plays video games all day.

-No excuses here, Tommy.

[laughter] Jeremy, keep digging.

-All right.

All right, let's do it.

-You know what you're doing there.

Yeah, perfect.

-Look at that.

-Yeah.

That's a perfect scoop right there.

Swing it over and dump that, Tommy.

Left hand back just like that.

Mate, that's huge.

You can't get any more than that.

Guys, let's have a little bit of competition here.

I can tell you two are pretty competitive, and I've got a really nice competition lined up here for you.

It's called "excavator basketball."

Have you guys ever played basketball?

-I have.

-Yeah?

-Not too much.

-It's not gonna matter, becauses this is totally different.

But the whole goal is you just got to scoop a ball off the cone.

Get three balls, put them into the hoop, and that's it.

-Sounds easy enough.

-You ready?

-I think, you know... -You ready for this?

-Let's... -Oh!

You did the double Fonz over here?

All right, gentlemen.

This is the basketball challenge.

Are you guys ready?

-I'm ready.

-Ready.

-Here's the rules: Try to get as many balls in that tire hoop as you possibly can.

The one with the most balls in the tire hoop is the winner, okay?

-Yep.

-Right.

Guys, on your mark, get set, go!

-All right, Jeremy.

Ready to go down?

-Forgot everything.

-Oh, no.

-The pressure of competition.

-If you drop one, you just gotta go on to the next one.

Okay?

-Oh, no.

I'll have to pick the basketball up from the ground.

-No.

-Oh, man.

-I already lost a ball.

-You already lost a ball.

-Oh, geez.

I hope-- Oh, man, Tommy's looking good over there.

-That's okay, Jeremy.

-Yeah, baby!

-Outlooks aren't looking good.

-I keep forgetting how to get up.

-Right hand back.

Right hand back.

-Right hand back.

Once you get it, it's not over yet.

You still gotta put the ball in the hoop.

-That's right.

-That's just as hard.

Do I have a shot from up here?

-Okay, Jeremy.

The pressure is on, mate.

-All right.

-Jeremy is really focused on this one, Tommy.

He knows he's behind the A-game here.

-There it is, one.

I just hope Tommy drops one of these.

-Come on, ball.

All right!

-All right.

Tommy's got one down, working on number two.

-It's tougher when you get close to the thing.

I had to focus.

-Yep.

All right!

Jeremy's got one!

We're tied up, guys.

-Hold on here.

This one's a little more difficult because you've got to come at an angle.

-That's right.

-Look at me.

Look at this finesse.

-Oh.

-Oh, no, Jeremy.

-Oh, man.

-Come on, baby.

Get that.

-If you get this one, Tommy, you're the winner.

-I knew I was the winner when I got here already.

-Oh, man.

-Did that ball go in there, Jeremy?

Did you lose a ball?

-Yeah, I lost both balls.

I got one ball in.

-Okay.

So Tommy, this is the winning ball right here.

-High above.

-Yea!

-Tommy is the winner!

-Oh, man.

-I'm gonna go for a trifecta.

I know I won, but now I wanna... -He's just gonna rub it in now, Jeremy.

He's adding salt to the wound here, Jeremy.

-Yeah, baby!

-Oh, man.

Tommy's got good technique.

That's perfect technique right there.

-Yeah.

I'm feeling strong, baby.

Whoo.

-That was impressive.

-Oh, yeah.

-I was trying to force the ball.

-High above, buddy.

-He's gonna do it from up high.

-Come on.

Get in there.

Oh, yeah!

-All three.

-Right, no high-fiving with the buckets, okay?

-Who's the best?

It's killing him.

Look at him.

-I'm terrible.

-You got nervous.

-How's that, guys?

-That felt really great, man.

Thanks.

This is awesome.

-So obviously the winner today was Tommy.

And you should do the right thing and shake the opponent's hand here.

-Good job.

-Good job.

-You can raise my arm.

[laughter] Not on that hand.

-Not this guy.

-He needs to leave with something.

-Give me some dignity here.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ -Welcome to Black Fire Innovation, UNLV's new Innovation campus here in the southwest part of the valley.

I'm UNLV Vice President of Economic Development, Bo Bernhard.

We're going to show you some fun toys.

Why don't you come along.

Imagine walking into a hotel room and turning on the window and learning that it's actually a TV.

This is an idea hatched in our Hospitality Lab, where a group of students went on a spring break trip gone wrong.

They walked into their hotel room, they open up the window, and they had a view of the HVAC system.

In other words, they had no view.

So they thought, what if we could create a beautiful view at our window or even watch the Super Bowl?

These are the kinds of ideas that we turn into commercialized products here at Black Fire Innovation.

The city of Las Vegas is the global capital of the fun economy, which we define as tourism plus sports plus entertainment.

We think that's about 14% of the whole world's economy today.

To give you a sense of perspective, that's about nine times the size of the global pharmaceutical industry, seven times the size of the global apparel industry, it's five times the size of the automobile industry, and it's three times the size of agriculture.

So the days of having a vacation where you come to Las Vegas, those days are gone.

This is the real world.

And what we're doing here in the hotel room of the future is we're inventing the future.

This is the world's first zero-water bedsheet.

This was a winner of one of our lead prizes for innovation.

Instead of this bedsheet going downstairs into what used to be a laundry room that used tens of thousands of gallons of water, this goes into a machine that melts it at really high temperatures, turning it into little white pellets that then, in turn, get pressed into a brand new bedsheet completely clean, completely sterilized, zero water.

As you might imagine, UNLV students are very interested in water.

They have to live in this valley, of course, in the decades to come.

So these are the kinds of things that they focus on.

Over to my left is something that might belong in a spa.

And we have a master's student in our world-class hotel program that, in fact, has co-invented this project and worked on a massage table that massages you from underneath while you're getting massaged from above.

This incorporates a sound wave technology that, in fact, feels way better than yesterday's massage table.

This is Gita.

Gita is a robot that will follow you around like a puppy, and she has a very useful belly where you can put medical equipment or even ice and beer.

The way Gita works, she's got a few cameras here up in front.

And all she does is when I turn her on, she sees me and then with her cameras--I don't have a fob.

I don't have an app--she just knows to follow me around.

As a kid growing up in Las Vegas, every summer we would go to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California.

And what was amazing was that every summer there was a brand new roller coaster that they had unveiled.

As a kid you'd think, Wow!

Awesome!

New roller coaster.

As a grownup, of course, you start to realize that they need to introduce a new roller coaster every summer; otherwise, the product stagnates and people stop coming to your amusement park.

Well, the same concept is true here in Las Vegas.

The moment we stop innovating is the moment that people stop coming to our resorts, to our Las Vegas Strip amusement park.

Welcome to the UNLV Esports Arena, where we tell our students, Invent the resort that you would go to.

And of course very frequently, the way that they play is with video games.

So we have a full video games setup here replete with stands, replete with two different locations for the teams to play against one another.

And this is where we invent the future of the resort.

If this has animated your innovation imagination, if you're the kind of person that's always had an idea but you've never quite known what to do with it, bring it here to your local powerhouse university and UNLV's Black Fire Innovation Campus where we take those ideas and help you turn them into a reality.

♪♪♪ -Lighting up the desert skies from miles around, the fierce fireball glare is a signal for instant action.

-This is the force that can destroy our world unless we find the road to peace.

-Hello.

My name is Joseph Kent.

I'm the Director of Curation Exhibits here at the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Now, this device here may be familiar to those of you who watched Christopher Nolan's movie, Oppenheimer.

This is a one-for-one scale model of the "Gadget" device.

Now, for the uninitiated, what the Gadget device is, is the bomb that was detonated on top of a 100-foot tall tower out in the New Mexico desert as part of the Manhattan Project.

Now, looking at this, it almost resembles the real thing.

And that's by intention.

We wanted to make sure that all of the wires and cables and intricacies really came alive for our visitors.

So through the different photographs from all different angles, we were able to capture just the sheer size, as well as how complicated this was and how complicated and involved the entire Manhattan Project was.

So if you'd like to see this one-for-one scale model of the Gadget device, come visit us at the Atomic Museum here in Las Vegas or visit us at atomicmuseum.vegas.

We'd love to have you and hope you have a wonderful day.

♪♪♪ Hi.

I'm Jeff Saling, Executive Director and Co-founder at StartUpNV.

A tech startup from my definition, and I think most people would agree with this, is a company that uses technology to address a very large market that can help that solution or product scale, without necessarily having to add lots and lots of people to do it.

So software is a great example of that, where you can add new customers to your online solution without having to add a ton of people in order to do that.

You can do it with technology.

The purpose of this building in the International Innovation Center here in Las Vegas is to create a great place for people to work.

And the other added benefit of the Innovation Center is that it's a great place for startups.

It's a very cost-effective way to have a professional office.

We look for tech startups that are scalable and that are addressing a very large market.

I think we have the talent here.

I think we have the community here that's interested in it.

And of course, we've got the entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurs are always excited about trying to make their ideas and their dreams come true.

So we've got all of the tools in place to make it happen.

Then it's a question of executing and making all of those things happen.

Lucihub checks all of those boxes.

It's been a very difficult thing to do your own video production.

For a lot of startups, they don't have the wherewithal to hire a big crew or have all the professional equipment.

So being able to put together a professional looking video in a very short period of time, it's hard to beat.

I'd like to introduce you to Amer.

He and I met back in 2017 when we were just getting StartUpNV started.

So we actually got to know each other over almost five or six years before we actually started talking together about us helping him in his Lucihub adventure.

-I'm Amer.

I'm Founder and CEO of Lucihub.

Well, I grew up in the Bay Area.

I studied human factors and computer science, and then I ended up like most people in the tech industry over there.

I came to Vegas about 10 years ago, doing some consulting for a company and then ended up setting up a company out here and been here ever since.

I got into tech because I was really fascinated by software development and technology and the idea that you could dream up something and then build it.

One of the companies I was working with, I ended up producing and working on a commercial, and I was really fascinated by it.

So I decided to make a left turn and started a digital production company back when everybody was just moving from tape to digital.

Social media has created this huge demand for video content, but it's reduced the shelf life.

In the past, you do a 30-second spot or a 15.

And they could live for 6 months, 12 months.

Today you're lucky if your video actually gets noticed for more than a week or two.

What we do is we let you create professional quality content before the hype dies.

I always say it's hard to build a product or service, it's even harder to sell and market it.

Actually why we created Lucihub, so you can use our platform to generate content cost effectively and still maintain quality.

So we specialize in short-form, anything under four minutes.

It could be a sizzle or an interview.

It could be a testimonial.

It could be a training video.

As long as it's under four minutes, we can turn it around from 72 hours to 2 hours, depending on the project.

(Jeremy Helal) 72 hours to 2 hours, that's, that's actually pretty incredible.

I think we need to show our audience what that looks like.

Could I put a project together with you?

And I got a couple of videos, and maybe you can do some social media for us.

-Absolutely.

We'll set you up on the Lucihub platform.

You can upload your content on a project, and we'll send the final video to you.

-All right, let's do it.

Let's check it out.

-Let's do it.

I'm all in.

[laughter] So Amer just set us up with an account on Lucihub.

This is their website.

He said it's a pretty easy process.

Let's find out.

Number 1, name of the project.

It would be Vegas All In.

Okay, what type of project is this?

This is a products highlight.

How long is the project?

We'll just go with 60 seconds.

Okay.

So the orientation, we're going to do 16-by-9.

What type of music are we looking for?

We're looking for rock, pop, modern.

I think that should be fun.

Okay.

So the notes on the style of project, we want fast-paced, editing, impactful trailer for upcoming docuseries, we use a lot of digital glitches, behind-the-scenes shots.

Okay.

I just finished all the prompts.

All that's left is for me to upload some videos.

We got some already prepared.

We got segments that we just took the music off, and we're gonna give them all the elements from our previous segments.

They're going to put them together into a cool video.

Amer said the turnaround time is 24 to 48 hours.

That's a tight turnaround, so I'm excited to see what they've got for us.

Okay.

So it's been 48 hours.

I just got an email from Lucihub to download the video.

It's right here on my PC.

I don't know what to expect.

I haven't seen this video yet.

I'm pretty excited to see what they've done.

I gave them a lot of footage, so let's see what the editors at Lucihub have done.

♪♪♪ -I live in Las Vegas.

23 years old, win the Olympics, not a bad place to go home to.

-I love Las Vegas.

I do feel like I'm carrying my Japanese culture to this community.

-We're very fortunate to be in Vegas, you know.

It's the entertainment capital of the world.

We have a unique set of talent that this is probably the only place that we can shine.

-Just started filming this stuff, and then I uploaded them to YouTube.

And that's when our YouTube channel was born.

50 million views, or something like that.

And then Ronda Rousey happened.

-When you think about it, like there's no other male review like Magic Mike Live.

-If you think Bugsy Siegel invented Las Vegas, remember his initials.

-I owe a lot to Las Vegas and the community for helping support us from coming from a food truck to where we are now.

-Wow!

That was actually really good.

They took every single note that we had.

We had the digital glitches.

We had the RGB splits.

We had the soundups.

They made it work.

We gave them about five or six different segments, and they tied it together really well.

I don't really have too many negative things to say about this.

They made the song work really well.

That's fun.

I'll put this on social media.

You guys check it out, too, comment and tell us, What do you think about this?

-I'm Michael Green, a History Professor at UNLV.

And at the Neon Museum I am in front of a sign that is iconic for a place that is iconic, the Moulin Rouge.

The Moulin Rouge was the first integrated hotel casino in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was a segregated town.

It was known as the Mississippi of the West.

And in 1955, the Moulin Rouge opened in West Las Vegas and was a hotel casino with entertainment, fine dining, and all the things you associated with a Strip and Downtown property.

The difference was it was in the black community, and that meant that both white and black people could go there.

At the time if you were black, the Strip and Downtown were off limits for your entertainment unless they happen to make an exception.

And employment was limited to back of the house things, whether it was porter or dishwasher or maid.

Well, the Moulin Rouge didn't last long.

It's a shame because it had a lot to offer, everything from this sign to three great shows a night at 8:00, midnight, and 2:30 a.m.

They did one later because a lot of Strip performers and people who were gambling on the Strip and Downtown would come over there when they were done and hang out with the black entertainers who could not hang out on the Strip, people like Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, the Mills Brothers.

There was a show at the Moulin Rouge, a production show, emceed by Bob Bailey, a cousin of Pearl Bailey, who ended up staying here and going on to help lead the civil rights movement.

And the civil rights movement would be tied to the Moulin Rouge.

It closed after six months for a variety of reasons.

One of them was location.

It was far enough from the Strip and Downtown that it was not that easy to get to for somebody who was staying in one of those areas.

It was competing not only with other hotels, but with clubs in West Las Vegas on Jackson Avenue that had a long history and tradition there and had loyal customers.

It was also a tough time to open a hotel casino in Las Vegas.

In 1955, four brand new properties and one renovated one opened.

The New Frontier survived.

The Moulin Rouge didn't.

The Royal Nevada didn't.

It became part of the Stardust.

The other two were the Riviera and Dunes, which became famous names on the Strip.

But they, too, almost went bankrupt.

Las Vegas had overbuilt, and the Moulin Rouge was also a victim of that.

There have been stories over the years that the mob shut down the Moulin Rouge or that people shut it down because they could not bear the idea of African Americans having fun and making profits.

Whatever the causes, the Moulin Rouge would reopen a few times, and it would be a scene of a major event in Las Vegas history.

In March 1960, NAACP President James Macmillan threatened a boycott in March if the Las Vegas hotel casinos Downtown and on the Strip did not desegregate.

Eventually, they agreed to do it and settled it in a meeting at the Moulin Rouge.

So it became known as the Moulin Rouge Agreement.

In fact, there's nothing written down.

We're talking about people in the gaming industry at the time who came from the kind of background where you did not write things down if you could at all help it, and their word was good.

The ones who signed on did indeed desegregate.

There would be comeback attempts.

Sarann Knight-Preddy, who was the first African American woman to hold a gaming license in Nevada, would own it with her family for a while.

Sad to say, eventually it burned down.

And hope continues that they might be able to redevelop the area.

Interestingly, this sign, a beautiful sign indeed, was designed by a woman named Betty Willis, who also designed the Welcome to Las Vegas sign that is part of everything you see about Las Vegas.

And she designed this sign for people who were not welcome to Las Vegas.

-That's the show.

Watch more Vegas All In stories and moments whenever you want to.

Go online and search @vegasallinpbs, and we'll see you there.

♪♪♪