Frictionless Entry Thanks to Smart Kiosks
It’s rare to see a new theatre being sold so heavily on its technical superiority. There again, the new $100m Coliseum Theatre in West HQ has gone extra hard to impress with its technical credentials.
The new venue on the Rooty Hill club site in Sydney’s West has a suite of capabilities unmatched by any other in the country and will be in demand not just for concerts, theatre and dance but also for all kinds of conventions and events. It has brought together technologies that until now have been the preserve of tradeshow proofs-of-concept booths.
The Coliseum isn’t actually a standalone theatre. As part of the massive West HQ complex in Rooty Hill, entry is through the main Club entrance and via the extensive new food court. That means that theatre patrons have to sign in, as they would to any registered club.
To avoid potential delays in getting some 2000 theatre patrons quickly and legally signed in before a performance, West HQ have partnered with NEC and Cisco to implement a novel kiosk-based sign-in procedure.
ID SCANS
Patrons place their ID (typically a driver’s licence) on the scanning pad at the kiosk. The scanner first verifies your address against the NSW Club rules to check if you live within 5km of the venue and thus would need to be a member. Then, using a built-in camera, the system scans the patron’s face and cross checks with various databases (including a link with the NSW Roads & Maritime Service, the digital driver’s licence issuing authority) to verify that the person at the kiosk matches the photo ID presented. Testing of the 20 kiosks installed at West HQ by NEC prior to the official opening has seen verification and voucher-issuing times as low as nine seconds per person.
Throughout the venue, NEC LED display systems,
powered by CiscoVision IPTV, speed patrons on their
way by displaying menus, wayfinding, and interactive customer promotions.
Even the now ubiquitous security systems have been made faster and simpler with an intelligent metal detector at the start of the ‘Crystal Bridge’ which gives access to the theatre building from the club complex. Using ferromagnetic detection the Metrasens pillar checks for metal on each person as they pass by. But is smart enough to distinguish between harmless items like keys, phones or even artificial hips – and only issues an alert if it detects items such as guns and knives.
NEC: nec.com.au
