The Star’s Digital Wayfinding Hits Jackpot
Story: Christopher Holder
Let’s see: 25 dining venues, 17 other key destinations, 10 bars, three hotels towers, eight separate function spaces… Little wonder a digital wayfinding system was a priority for The Star.
And after considerable consultation, planning and development, The Star has an excellent solution.
Talking to The Star’s Casino Production Manager, Trevor Watt and Digital Media Technician, Michael James, the first decision was perhaps the easiest: the platform.
“We have 150 or so existing Scala media players on our cloud-based server,” noted Michael James. “So we knew we wanted the digital wayfinding to use the Scala platform as well. I have no interest in introducing another content management system to do the same thing.”
Scala is a way of life at The Star. Anyone with the appropriate logins can access the CMS and make their own tweaks and updates. If you’re an F&B operator with a Scala media player next to your restaurant then you can customise the content on ‘your’ screen(s) to suit your needs.
Which meant that when the digital wayfinding screens were introduced, they hung off the same digital signage network and were updated using the same Scala user interface. Content, advertising and other assets were all pulled from the same virtual server.
SECURITY NEED TO KNOW
The next decision was ‘where?’. Trevor Watt picks up the story: “This is The Star and decisions like this don’t happen lightly. There was a lot of consultation. One of the first groups to be consulted were our security guards. They had a better sense of where the traffic flow was originating from than anyone.”
It transpired that security also had the best handle on the hierarchy of the wayfinding home screen. “We asked security about the most common questions they were fielding from patrons,” recalls Trevor Watt. “Using that feedback we developed a number of hotspot buttons on the wayfinding homepage that direct people instantly to key landmarks and amenities such as the bathrooms, ATMs, disabled access and more.”
ANALYTICS
With the critical research done, the signage began to roll out, starting with the areas of highest foot traffic.
When idle the landscape-oriented wayfinding screen plays house content, advertising Star events or other content best suited to the position of the kiosk.
Once awoken, the touchscreen provides patrons easily followed directions to their destination, across the whole precinct and over the various levels. The journey is laid out in a neat animation to show the shortest route specific to the location of the screen. What’s more, you can conduct your enquiry using the Chinese language version.
While the patron is making their enquiry, a micro camera links to an analytics engine making an assessment of the patron’s age and gender, something Trevor Watt is getting excited about: “The analytics are gold in a place like The Star. We get a real sense of who’s using the units and what they’re searching for. What’s more, we can dynamically tailor some of the onscreen advertising content — we can point the 25 year old male to the Rock Lily Bar, or we can insert a Chanel advertisement into the 50 year old female’s enquiry.”
Credit here should also go to Techmedia which, in consultation with the various stakeholders at The Star, developed the content design and programmed the interactive wayfinding using the Scala Designer application.
FUTURE PROOFING
The Star makes no secret of the fact the digital wayfinding network is just the beginning. At some point in the not too distant future the wayfinding will also exist on your phone or tablet via a Star app (“That’s the beauty of the Scala platform, it can integrate with just about any device”).
Michael James is also looking into putting at least a few of the wayfinding kiosks on the internet so they can pull down online content such as restaurant menus.
But at its core, this is a thoroughbred wayfinding system. And when you have a venue such as a modern casino that constantly regenerates, refits, reorients and reorganises, that’s exactly what you need.
Techmedia (Scala): (02) 9526 7880 or www.techmedia.com.au
