News

Beaver Solutions wins 'Digital Signage Project of the Year' for cinema deployment

November 3, 2008

LONDON — Scala, a provider of end-to-end solutions for the digital signage and advertising management markets, announced that its U.K.-based partner, Beaver Solutions, has recently won the AV Award 2008 for Digital Signage Project of the Year.

The AV Award was given for the innovative deployment of digital signage throughout three multi-million dollar Showcase Cinema De Lux venues. Showcase Cinemas is a brand of US-based National Amusements and specializes in luxury, state-of-the-art cinemas, creating exciting lifestyle destinations for the cinema patrons.

Traditionally, printed signage would be used for concession stand menu boards and posters throughout the cinema, with LED boards used to show movie times at the box office. The menu boards were not updated regularly and any new prices would be stuck over the top of old ones with labels. Movie posters would need to be unpacked, put up and disposed of each week, by hand, by the cinema staff. At the box office, due to the limitations of the LED boards, movie names would be cut short — so "Quantum of Solace" would become "Quantum."

In late 2007, Showcase Cinemas approached Scala and Beaver Solutions to provide digital signage throughout its concept cinemas in Derby, Bristol and Leicester, with the aim to create a paperless cinema experience. The idea was to create a high-quality, immersive cinema experience, with functional and efficient methods of running the signage.

Digital signage is integral to the cinema buildings, with spaces for the screens being prebuilt into the structure. 124 Sanyo 42-inch LCD panels were installed by Beaver Solutions, displaying content for the box office, concession stands and spillways throughout the cinema. The screens are mounted using Vogel brackets, in a variety of landscape and portrait positions, with the high-definition RGB signal delivered to the screens using structured cabling through Scion Pro9000 transmitters and receivers.

All the content for the screens and 10 projectors is managed using Scala's latest edition of its digital signage software. A team of content editors, video producers and technicians at Beaver Solutions continually creates custom content and remotely manages the screens in all three sites.

With the Cinema De Lux concept, Showcase creates enhanced recreational environments with luxury as a key feature. The digital signage fits in with the high-quality surroundings and enhances the premier customer experience. With a digital signage solution, movie posters, trailers, box office screens and menu boards are elegantly displayed and are easily updated.

Movie posters now have more space for promotion, without overwhelming the customers as they walk through the cinema. Details about a movie no longer have to fit on one sheet with the main image. The leading slide can catch the audience eye, with the additional slides providing details on the movie.

Menu boards are able to instantly react to any changes. Should a menu item go out-of-stock, it can be easily removed from the menu. Similarly, should stock begin to go out-of-date, active promotion of that item can help move it quickly. The flexibility of digital signage allows Showcase to react when the need arises and for any unforeseeable events.

The box office screens are much more functional than the previous LED boards. Movie times are shown next to the full titles of movies, disappearing 20 minutes after a movie has started. This information is pulled directly from an existing Showcase file, so no additional work was needed from Showcase to have the up-to-date information on the screens. Scala also links with an existing file to keep track of ticket sales, displaying "FEW" or "SOLD" as tickets run out.