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Lighthouse Brings Joy of Texting to Schiphol Airport
With nearly 48 million passengers passing through each year, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is a major hub serving the Dutch capital of Amsterdam and is Europe's fifth busiest airport. With thousands of departures and arrivals from right across the globe, effective communication is extremely important. This is why a third large format Lighthouse LED screen has recently been installed in Schiphol's main arrivals hall.
Being hung five metres above a designated meeting point dubbed the Digital Meeting Point, the 5 x 5 panel (3.2 x 2.4m), P10 screen was installed by leading Dutch systems integrator Hecla Professional Audio & Video Systems BV.
A Lighthouse LED screen was chosen as the ideal solution for Schiphol due to size requirements as well as its ability to cope with the high ambient light levels in the arrivals hall. The P10's 10mm pixel pitch provided the perfect resolution for the resulting viewing distance. The screen pioneers a new and efficient method of airport communication - a text message service - with installation and running of the screen financed by commercials.
"We have pioneered a new application for the LED screen," says Hecla's new business manager, Jos den Hartog. "An easy to use messaging system that allows a text message to be sent, which will then be displayed on the screen. For example, if someone is meeting a relative off a plane which is delayed, the passenger can text where and when to meet them and the person meeting them will get the message via the screen."
This is an additional service to the traditional method of leaving notes at the meeting point, with SMS messages being displayed for a fixed amount of time. To avoid the system being abused, Hecla has a human ‘interface' who vets the text messages and uploads only messages that pass the censoring system ‘live' into the screen software. With a Lighthouse LIP-DX processor controlling the screen, the advertising content is fed from the Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport media team, but Hecla maintains overall control remotely from its offices in the Dutch town of Hengelo.
"Sending a text to the system is a bit more expensive than a normal text message because the airport wants to prevent people like cab drivers putting ads up there," says Jos. "They want it to provide a genuine service for passengers, rather than become a giant LED small ads service.
"We have a very good relationship with Schiphol's media team and they are very satisfied with the extra screen. It's bringing a new and exciting dimension to the airport's passenger facilities."
17th September 2008
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