IoT Driving Entertainment Experiences at Theme Parks, Malls
Theme park and entertainment management has traditionally been accomplished onsite, with a focus on tracking wait times for rides, as well as congestion, anecdotally. Today's Internet of Things (IoT) technology, however, enables theme parks and event managers to capture much more data than ever before regarding the movements and behaviors of visitors, and to thereby provide both real-time and long-term strategic improvements. In so doing, they are offering ticket holders better experiences than those of the past, including shorter lines and access to more of the activities and services that they want.
Technology company ITEC Entertainment is offering IoT solutions as part of its creative designs and the technology that supports those projects, says Marc Plogstedt, ITEC's chief technology officer. ITEC provides creative and technical designs for entertainment experiences in new and existing parks, and also offers production-management services during a project's construction.
ITEC also offers sustaining support services after a project has been taken live. The global company has spent three decades providing management software for theme parks, water parks, science centers and museums. It also provides the technology (or partners with technology vendors) to automatically collect and feed data to their control systems, which has increasingly involved IoT-based sensors.
The IoT technology can include RFID-enabled wristbands for guests or Bluetooth beacons that communicate with mobile phones to identify where individuals are located, and thus what they might be doing, at any given time. With individuals uniquely identified, the IoT system can monitor, for instance, who is waiting in line for a popular ride. It knows that person's interests, so that he or she could be provided with individualized entertainment while waiting.
