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A multiplex movie chain partners with channel companies to brighten up its menu system. Going to the movies used to be as simple as buying a ticket and munching on popcorn. But competition among megaplex owners is changing all that, and theater chain Muvico Entertainment has embarked on an ambitious project to offer customers a 21st-century theater experience.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company already differentiates itself with architecturally themed state-of-the-art theaters, but, in April 2007, it took another step by contracting with Schult Industries and Hammond Communications Group to light up its concession areas with a digital menu system integrated with the theater chain’s retail POS (point of sale) system.
Schult is a creative-sign supplier, while Hammond is a multimedia communications solutions provider. In September, the digital signage system was up and running when Muvico opened an 18-screen theater with state-of-the-art projection technology in Rosemont, Ill., outside Chicago. It was the first rollout of a planned half-dozen such systems. A POS system that will integrate with the digital signage system is also in the works.
The digital menu system gives Muvico, in business since 1984 and currently operating 259 screens in its 14 locations, additional advertising revenue and simplifies menu management across multiple concession stands. Schult and Hammond created a solution that includes 40-inch LCD menus and 50-inch plasma TV screens for advertising.
“We stepped in as an integrator that allowed Muvico to leverage its existing investment in Scala software licenses, brought in Hammond as the software specialists and provided a turnkey solution for Muvico that includes everything from installation of the new solution to deinstallation of the old one,” said Bill Clapes, national account manager for digital products at Schult.
Timing is everything
Before landing the digital signage project, Schult had done several small jobs for Muvico involving posters. While Schult worked hard to introduce Muvico to digital signage during that time, the entertainment company wasn’t ready to pull the trigger.
Then something changed. At the 2007 ShoWest convention of theater owners in Las Vegas, Schult co-founder Jeffrey Schult had the opportunity to discuss with Muvico executives the possibilities and cost of implementing digital signage.
“The price of the technology had come down to the point where it was cost-effective enough for us to move away from using Mylars in backlit poster cases,” said David Thollander, director of purchasing at Muvico. Thollander added that he liked the benefits of digital signage: the ability to make changes on the fly, scalability, ease of management and better visual appeal to customers.
Mylar is a trade name for sheet polyester used in backlit advertising cases. Mylars, however, tend to age over time and require changing to accommodate menu price changes.
Although Muvico limits the number of times it replaces the Mylars, the need to make changes to its menus is inevitable. The company works with a local vendor to design and create Mylars, ship them to theaters and have them installed.
Mylars cost about $100 apiece. Changing all of Muvico’s 2,500 Mylar signs at its 14 theaters once each year cost the company $35,000. “Sometimes we’d change them out two times a year,” said Thollander.
While moving away from Mylar and the associated costs was compelling enough, the benefits of back-end work associated with maintaining and managing the concession stand items and pricing also were attractive. Schult proposed a solution that would integrate Muvico’s retail POS system with the digital signage system. Integration of the entertainment company’s Radiant Systems POS offering eliminates the need to touch menu boards at theaters.
To save money, the provider proposed using 160 Scala software licenses that Muvico already owned. Scala’s third-generation InfoChannel software suite for digital signage handles authoring, networking, monitoring and logged playback and supports IP-based networks.
Allowing Muvico to leverage its investment in Scala software was vital to moving ahead with the digital signage project. “Once we crossed that barrier, things moved very quickly,” Clapes said.
