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News Archive |
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Financial News USA reports that shares at NCR Corp. soared on Friday, after the company was upgraded by a JP Morgan analyst, who predicted a revenue boost from the Blockbuster Express kiosks NCR manufactures:
Analyst Paul Coster upgraded NCR to "Overweight" from "Neutral," but lowered his target price to $15 from $16. Coster said NCR will likely get a revenue boost from the Blockbuster kiosks it installs, even as its ATM operations stay flat. Coster said the company can realize a 5 percent growth in sales in 2010.
"End market conditions have not changed since the (third-quarter) conference call; retail is still very weak, but stable; financial services is stable and improving slowly," the analyst wrote in a note to investors. He doesn't expect the company's retail and ATM businesses to see much growth through 2013.
Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Blaine, Minn.-based Mosquito Productions has announced the deployment of its BigBox DVD-rental kiosk in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Mosquito is a provider of digital technology solutions and already operates four BigBox DVD-rental kiosks in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
According to Mosquito, the BigBox kiosks break from the norm by offering movie rentals on a per-hour basis. The kiosk charges six cents an hour for new DVD releases, four cents an hour for DVDs older than one year and nine cents an hour for Blu-ray discs.
Mosquito says BigBox's unique pricing model, along with a selection of movies it says is larger than in competing kiosks, creates a different DVD-rental experience for consumers:
Offering rentals on a per-hour basis gives the customer incentive to bring the movie back in a timely manner in order to save money, and that in turn keeps the inventory fresh in the kiosk. … But combine that theory with kiosk designs that can store up to 15 times the number of discs as some of BigBox DVD's main competitors and you literally end up with a video store in a box, able to serve up classic titles and a wide array of new high-definition Blu-ray Discs, along with the latest new releases.
Customers also can use the BigBox.com Web site to search and view details about more than 100,000 DVD and Blu-ray titles, search for title availability in specific locations and even request to have a certain title added to particular kiosk.
Friday, 13 November 2009
NEXTEP SYSTEMS has announced that Harrah's Entertainment has extended a pilot deployment of NEXTEP's Casino Express foodservice kiosk system to four additional casino locations. Harrah's had initially installed a Casino Express kiosk at its Atlantic City resort and has now expanded the deployment to casinos in Tunica, Miss., St. Louis, Hammond, Ind., and a second facility in Atlantic City.
Tommy Woycik, president and co-founder of NEXTEP, says Harrah's kiosk deployments have mad it a technology leader in the casino segment:
Harrah's is a model example of a visionary company committed to success through the use of technology and integration of industry best practices. The true leaders in the casino industry are distinguishing themselves from their competitors as they extend the use of the self-serve format to their foodservice venues through systems that incorporate reliable and failsafe technology, intuitive user interfaces and creative and appealing screen design content.
NEXTEP says the Harrah's kiosks are branded for each individual restaurant and that the solutions will be supported by NEXTEP's 24/7/365 Diamond Support service.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Alex Camara, NCR Corp.'s vice president of entertainment solutions, Wednesday said the company will carry its $60 million self-service entertainment strategy into 2010, by continuing to roll out its Blockbuster Express DVD-rental kiosks and concentrating on the expansion of its digital movie-download solution developed with MOD Systems.
"It's an enormous investment for NCR," he said. "We've really made a very huge decision to get into this space strategically. It's a very big, important initiative."
NCR on Monday announced that it would test the digital-movie-download kiosk in six Blockbuster and Hollywood Video locations. On the floor of the KioskCom Self Service Expo, Camara demonstrated the solution and spoke about the role of digital download technology in NCR's entertainment strategy.
"Digital is going to play a very important part in our growth," he said. "We see this as the replacement for DVD rental in the years to come."
Camara says that while NCR will continue to concentrate on its Blockbuster Express line of kiosks and consumers will continue to gravitate toward the solution, digital download eventually will eclipse DVD-rental because it will be more convenient and the content more ubiquitous.
In terms of NCR's future plans, Camara says the company will launch an online-reservation functionality for the Blockbuster Express kiosks later this year and that it will continue to explore self-service solutions in the gaming segment.
"Industry data shows that the gaming industry will grow very aggressively in the coming years," he said, "and there are a number of retailers wanting to enter the buy/sell/trade space."
Thursday, 01 October 2009
The EyeSite kiosk, developed by Atlanta-based SoloHealth, is scheduled to appear on Thursday's episode of "The Doctors," a popular CBS talk show featuring four renowned physicians, according to SoloHealth founder and chief executive Bart Foster.
EyeSite offers free vision screenings for customers and provides eye-health information, along with a customized, printed evaluation and information on local eye care providers. EyeSite recently announced a 30-unit retail deployment in St. Louis.
VIDEO: SoloHealth EyeSite kiosk demonstration
The episode featuring the EyeSite kiosk will air Thursday, Oct. 1 in syndication.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Coinstar Inc. has announced in a news release the sale of its entertainment-service business, which comprises gumball machines, children's rides and video games.
Paul Davis, Coinstar's chief executive, says the sale helps the company make good on its promise to investors to focus on its retail self-service initiatives – namely, its coin-counting kiosk and the redbox DVD-rental brand:
As we discussed on our second-quarter conference call, we are focused on leveraging our strength in self-service automated retail to drive growth and increase shareholder value. Our core DVD and coin kiosk businesses provide a solid foundation and, with the sale of our entertainment services business, we are better positioned to maximize the substantial market opportunity in automated retail.
Coinstar sold its entertainment arm to Louisville, Colo.-based National Entertainment Network, a company which the news release says was just formed in August in anticipation of the acquisition.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Animal Planet and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, or AZA, have announced a partnership to deploy interactive touchscreen ZOOTUBE kiosks at 10 U.S. zoos. According to a news release from the organizations, the kiosks will feature behind-the-scenes zoo footage, fun conservation facts and exclusive Animal Planet content. The companies say this is the first partnership of its kind and will bring a national entertainment brand into zoos across the country.
Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet, says the project will benefit both parties:
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Animal Planet prides itself on rich, engaging content, and these kiosks are no exception. ZOOTUBES will not only inform and entertain zoo-goers nationwide, they will remind visitors that exciting animal programming can be found 24 hours a day on Animal Planet.
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The kiosks feature three content areas, according to the release:
"Zoo Scoop" — A series of behind-the-scenes vignettes hosted by Animal Planet personality Zak George that informs viewers about animal nutrition, behavioral enrichment and other zoo preparation activities.
"The Dirt on Animals" — A segment that breaks down facts about various species.
"Animals Save the Planet" — A humorous and lighthearted take on how humans can make a difference in lives of animals and the environment by making small changes in their everyday lives.
Animal Planet also provides additional content to the kiosk from its own roster of programming.
Tuesday, 07 July 2009
The New York Times: Starting this month, Sprint Nextel is sponsoring a movie theater marketing effort and placing kiosks in around 500 theaters nationwide. Via the kiosks, Sprint customers can scan a code from their phones to receive printed coupons, such as for a free upgrade to a bigger popcorn or larger soda.
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In an entry posted today on his blog, BarryJudge.com, Best Buy’s chief marketing officer announced a test of video game trade-in kiosks in several of the retailer’s Texas locations. Last month, Wal-Mart announced a similar test in 77 of its stores, in partnership with entertainment kiosk company e-Play.
“As we continue to explore new ways to make our customers happy, Best Buy is moving into the used games market. This week, several of our Dallas and Austin stores will test a kiosk-based model that allows customers to insert their used games into a kiosk that will scan it for functionality, and immediately issue a voucher that is instantly redeemable for a Best Buy gift card."
Wednesday, 03 June 2009
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Through a partnership with leading online gaming companies, Coinstar will launch a line of digital entertainment products at U.S. retail locations, the company has announced.
According to a news release, Coinstar has partnered with Aeria Games, Rixty Inc., Spare Change and Wild Tangent to offer more than 15 products that provide consumers flexible online spending options. The new prepaid offerings are expected to be available at more than 500 Cumberland Farms retail locations this summer, and Coinstar plans to roll out the program to additional retailers later this year.
“Coinstar is a leading prepaid provider, and we are always striving to offer our retail customers the latest and most market-relevant products available,” said Mike Skinner, president of E-Payment Services and Coin at Coinstar Inc. “With our digital entertainment products and services, retailers have the opportunity to reach the younger demographic that holds the majority buying power in this high-growth online gaming market.”
The digital entertainment product suite will include prepaid cards for Facebook and MySpace applications, online gaming, popular massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) titles, virtual world items and universal online spending. The cards will be available as part of the Coinstar Pay As You Go product suite. Additionally, consumers will be able to obtain the Rixty product through the Coin to Card free coin-counting program at select Coinstar kiosks beginning in the third quarter.
Coinstar’s complete Pay As You Go solution features national and regional prepaid wireless programs, long distance cards, gift cards, digital entertainment and one of the industry’s largest portfolios of financial services including reloadable and one-time use Visa and MasterCard branded debit cards.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
CAMBERLEY, Surrey — Cineworld, the second-largest multiplex cinema chain in the U.K., has installed Protouch’s Xen X5 and X4 self-service kiosks into a number of its U.K. cinemas.
The kiosks are to be used for both Cineworld’s “Unlimited” film program and for ticket collection.
Cineworld installed the Xen X5 self-service kiosks into five of its cinema sites, including Glasgow, West India Queys and Cheltenham in late 2008. They are used in the cinema’s main foyer to sell the company’s Unlimited film program, which entitles visitors to watch any film, any day, anytime and at any Cineworld Cinema for just £13.50 a month.
Cinema visitors simply sign up to the program by entering personal information into the kiosk. From this, an A4 receipt with a photo of the member is then printed and can be used as identification until a membership card arrives in the mail.
In the six months that the kiosks have been operating, they have shown impressive results, increasing membership by 100 new members per week. Due to the success, Cineworld plans to install the Xen X5 kiosk into all of its cinemas to continue selling the Unlimited program.
“The Unlimited program is a large and important part of Cineworld’s business and distinguishes them from every other cinema company in the U.K., and Protouch’s X5 kiosk is helping advance the program,” said John Anderson, Cineworld’s marketing coordinator.
On the back of the success of the X5s, Cineworld has greatly expanded its kiosk operations and is now rolling out 34 of Protouch's new Xen X4 kiosks in 13 of its U.K. cinema sites.
The X4s will be used for ticket purchase and collection and will run either as wall- or floor-mounted kiosks, using the latest Chasis printer technology for receipts.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal: Branch libraries in the Nevada cities of Yerington, Smith Valley, Silver Stage, Fernley and Dayton, all located in Lyon County, have updated their services with self-checkout stations. The systems allow visitors to scan their library cards and check out materials free of staff assistance. The deployment was funded in full by a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act.
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Friday, 08 May 2009
LAS VEGAS — If you’re a Chicago White Sox fan and have made the pilgrimage to U.S. Cellular Field, you may be already familiar with Ecast digital signage.
Ecast, a provider of end-to-end, place-based interactive solutions, put more than 50 large-format full HD displays at the stadium for use in video walls and concession areas, as well as 10 of the Ecast IQ 40-inch vertically oriented, interactive media touchscreens.
Ecast showed the IQ at KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show, a two-day event that concluded yesterday.
With IP connectivity by LG Electronics, the IQ is designed specifically for retail and hospitality deployers. Jon Howe, director of manufacturing for Ecast, demonstrated one retail application that enables video gamers to browse new titles as well as receive game recommendations based on preferences. For hospitality, he showed a virtual concierge that helps hotel guests find local restaurants and entertainment.
The Internet-enabled screens are designed to be installed and serviced easily by one person. Howe spent about 90 seconds on a pair of thumb screws before having the screen all but removed from its mount.
Other potential retail applications include:
• Peer and online reviews
• Employee photos
• Training
Hoteliers can offer flight status updates, surveys, rewards program information and more.
Thursday, 07 May 2009
LAS VEGAS — Music on the go is about to get a boost with the announcement of a recent contract between KIOSK Information Systems and Mix & Burn. The agreement, announced at KioskCom Self Service Expo, affords new levels of self-service download functionality — specifically, KIOSK is now offering a full DRM-free content library with direct-to-device download on a self-payment/self-service kiosk.
The kiosk’s music library is the Digital f.y.e. Music Store, featuring 3 million DRM-free MP3 tracks from all the major labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. Indie artist fans can select content from the largest indie aggregators, including IODA, The Orchard and CD Baby.
Selections made off the kiosk can also be independently transacted on the kiosk — browsing, payment and direct-to-device download are all menu driven functions created for consumers in an unattended environment. As transactions are completed, the labels and their artists are simultaneously compensated for the use of their content. The MP3 downloads are compatible with the vast majority of iPod products, USB/memory cards and MP3 players. Music purchased plays immediately on the device, and transfers easily to add to a user’s home computer library.
Music is the latest feature to be added to KIOSK’s full line of multifunction café capabilities. Through ZOOX Stations, a KIOSK subsidiary devoted to development and manufacturing of pay-for-use kiosk technology, a single kiosk café can now offer music download, photo printing, Internet and e-mail access, office software and casual gaming.
"Adding music download features ultimately enables any broadband-connected kiosk to attract more customers and location traffic by providing continuously refreshed content through digital music downloads," said KIOSK CEO Rick Malone. "With the new direct-to-device MP3 format, consumers get instant purchase gratification — three words that go a long way toward future adoption."
The two-day show, collocated with The Digital Signage Show, concludes today at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
Friday, 24 April 2009
Times Online: Beginning next week a small revolution in bookselling will make searching for obscure, out-of-print and otherwise long-forgotten books a whole lot easier. Instead of checking in vain on Amazon and then spending weeks trawling the nation's second-hand bookshops, you will be able to go into a shop, say, "I would like a copy of North American Starfishes by Alexander Agassiz, please," and then watch it being printed out in a twinkling.
The bookseller Blackwell is installing a machine on a three-month trial at its store in London that can print out any one of about 400,000 titles within a few minutes. It prints something that looks like a book, feels like a book and, to all intents and purposes, is indistinguishable from the thousands of other titles on the shop's shelves (except for the hardbacks, of course, and the sort of blockbuster fiction that has the author's name on the front in big, raised, shiny letters, but then you can't have everything).
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Thursday, 02 April 2009
Display & Design Ideas: Carnival Cruise Lines is placing interactive digital "aquariums" into empty store windows in six U.S. cities. The promotion, which will run through the end of April, will use computer vision, Flash animation and mobile gaming software to let passersby create and control their own fish in the aquarium using their mobile phones. When visitors first walk past the window display screens, seaweed and underwater plants move in response to their presence. A window sign instructs them to call a number on their cell phones and create a digital fish for the aquarium using voice commands.
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Thursday, 26 March 2009
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — AT&T has announced a new way to shop for and experience an array of communications and entertainment services with the official opening of its new AT&T Experience Store in Johnson City. The store is defined as a high-energy retail format that showcases AT&T’s complete set of products and services.
According to a news release, the new store is much larger than the typical wireless store. The free-standing store features a fully integrated media experience, showcasing AT&T’s complete provider profile by housing all of its products and services under one roof. Customers can try out products via several experience and personalization stations located throughout the store.
The 4,000-square-foot store will feature several new retail concepts, including four self-guided information kiosks. The kiosks include a rate plan recommendation tool that customers can use independently or with the assistance of an AT&T representative. The tool walks customers through a few simple questions and, based on their responses, will highlight the most appropriate rate plan. In addition to wireless phone plans, the kiosks also provide information on GoPhone, wireless data access for laptops and smartphone data plans. New device filters allow customers to sort and compare devices and select the best device to fit their needs. For customer convenience, the store also has an automatic bill-payment station, where customers can pay with either credit or cash.
The 4,000-square-foot store offers a comprehensive portfolio of advanced wireless products and services, all of which customers can experience throughout the store.
These include:
- AT&T Home Connections. Customers can browse the Internet using AT&T services and customize AT&T Yahoo! home page portals.
- Entertainment and Style. Customers will be able to test-drive all of AT&T’s music offerings from Napster, iTunes, eMusic, Music ID, Pandora and XM Satellite Radio on wireless phones, Bluetooth headphones and Bluetooth external speakers. Customers can also transfer songs via a laptop or mobile phone. For the gamers, AT&T experts will show customers how to download games to wireless phones and laptops at this station.
- Productivity Solutions. Geared toward road warriors, on-the-go customers and small business owners, this front-of-store station includes wireless phones, PDAs, smartphones with GPS and Bluetooth accessories. Customers can learn how to use e-mail and Microsoft applications on these devices, and they can get the hang of multimedia messaging and photo- and video-sharing capabilities.
- Talk, Text and Browse. Customers can browse the latest, coolest GoPhone and Push to Talk devices offered from AT&T, learn about AT&T’s extensive wireless service offerings and brush up on the latest text and video messaging directions.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
The New York Times: B-cycle LLC, an American company that provides self-service bike rental solutions, is scheduled to deploy a series of bike rental kiosks throughout Denver at the end of July. The company has already begun pilot tests with select city employees in Denver and National Park Service employees in Washington D.C. Users pay $50 in annual membership fees for the right to rent the bikes, which are valued at $2,500 to $3,000. Similar programs have been met with success in parts of Europe.
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Thursday, 12 March 2009
Taipei (China) Times: Five bike rental kiosks were inaugurated in the Xinyi District of Taipei City, China, on Wednesday. A total of 250 "YouBike" bicycles can now be rented at the kiosks, which are located the MRT Taipei City Hall Station, the east side of the Taipei City Hall, Exhibition Hall 3 of Taipei World Trade Center, the Xinyi District Office and the sidewalk across the street from the Grand Hyatt Taipei Hotel. The bikes are currently offered free of charge until April 10, at which point the machines will begin charging per rental.
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Tuesday, 10 March 2009
(Minneapolis) Star Tribune: The city of Minneapolis, in a partnership with the University of Minnesota, is going to announce a self-service bike rental program that will place 1,000 bikes on the street. Residents who sign up for the program and pay $50 a year will receive a special membership card that they can swipe at any of the 75 self-service bike rental kiosks deployed throughout the city. Once the card is swiped, the kiosk releases one of the bikes, which the member can use for up to 30 minutes.
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Read also: The best self-service on two wheels.
Monday, 09 March 2009
MyStateLine.com: The Illinois Senate Gaming Committee has unanimously approved a plan that would legalize horse racing bets made by phone, online or via self-service kiosks deployed at the race track or off-site. Marc Laino with the Illinois Racing Board says the decision could make $2 million dollars for the state of Illinois, which is faced with a $9 billion budget deficit. Critics of the plan say it would promote gambling addiction.
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Monday, 09 March 2009
GreaterGreaterWashington.org: Can stimulus dollars be used to fund a national program for bike sharing kiosks across the U.S.? David Alpert, a blogger for GreaterGreaterWashington.org believes they can, and that the program would yield "a lot of sexy headlines and ribbon-cuttings across the nation," as well as jobs surrounding the construction, management and maintenance of the bike kiosks.
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Monday, 09 March 2009
The Boston Herald: Cycle Loft, a bicycle retailer based in Burlington, Mass., has become the first retailer to deploy the new eSoles 3D TruCapture Kiosk Scanning System. The kiosk scans the dimensions and pressure points of the user's foot so that eSoles can create customized footpads for the user.
"The reason why I was interested in the system was because, during my career as it were, in cycling, I was always looking for the best foot bed because I have some pretty strange feet," said Cycle Loft owner Jeff Palter. "The more support inside the cycling shoe, the more comfortable they are and the better the pedaling motion, power transfer, etc."
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Click to view a slideshow of the eSoles kiosk.
Read also: The 'sole' of self-service.
Tuesday, 03 March 2009
Convenience Store Decisions: R3 Omni and NCR Corp., a member of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association, have joined forces to enable sports fans to purcase merchandise from the NFL, MLB, NASCAR and U.S. Olympics and Colleges via self-service kiosks. The R3 Omni applications, which run on NCR SelfServ 60 hardware, allow consumers to browse a vast selection of products, choosing the ones they want, purchase them and specify how they would like the products to be delivered.
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Monday, 02 March 2009
MediaPost News: New kiosks will empower girls in their tweens to design their own clothing. Deployed by Fashionology, a retail store which opened in Beverly Hills, Calif. in 2008, the computer kiosks are equipped with 42-inch touchscreens. Youngster can use the kiosks to create clothing with a variety of themes, including pop, rock, Malibu, juku and peace. These themes are used to decorate shirts, t-shirts or hoodies. The same application is available online at the store's Web site.
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Wednesday, 18 February 2009
(Minneapolis) CityPages.com: The city of Minneapolis is poised to launch a bike sharing program where residents can rent bicycles from a self-service kiosk with the swipe of a card. But if the program doesn't get federal funding, it may be over before it begins. Under the program, 1,000 bikes would be placed at 75 kiosks throughout the city. Residents could purchase a season pass (for about $50 annually) and check out a bike any time they want, returning it at any kiosk they choose. Proponents of the program say it will help curb carbon emissions from motor vehicles and increase health awareness among residents. Detractors of the program cite theft and vandalism as their top concerns.
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Read also: The best self-service on two wheels.
Friday, 13 February 2009
The Financial: The annual ski holidays in Finland can mean long check-in and security inspection lines at airports. Self-service check-in kiosks can be an effective way of avoiding those lines. "We recommend that passengers use Finnair's Internet or text message check-in services or the check-in kiosks at the airport as this can speed things up significantly," said a statement from Finnair. "When check-in is done in advance, baggage can be left at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at a Baggage Drop desk within minimum check-in times."
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Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Minneapolis Daily: As the bike-share movement gains momentum around the world, bringing the program to Minneapolis has taken longer than expected. Complications in securing the $1.75 million in federal funding necessary to implement the program have pushed the projected start date from May to September of this year. Using Web-based subscriptions and self-service, solar-powered kiosks, the program would start by bringing 1,000 bicycles to 75 stations. Despite the delay, program planners remain hopeful.
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009
The (London) Times: When Vélib bike rental kiosks were introduced in Paris 18 months ago, they were hailed by environmentalists and cycling enthusiasts as one of the self-service industry's most worthwhile achievements. The kiosks enable residents to rent damage resistent grey bicycles at the swipe of a card. The future of the kiosks is now in doubt, however, after roughly 11,600 of the bicycles have been vandalized. Another 7,800 of them simply vanished, only to be recovered in parts of Eastern Europe and Africa. The bicycles are worth roughly €400 (U.S. $520) each.
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Read also: The best self-service on two wheels.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
TechLINKS.net: The Integrated Technology Group (ITG), a division of Vernon Library Supplies Inc., has joined with NCR Corp. to develop and launch the next generation of self-service systems for library patrons. The solution is designed to give library patrons the choice to check out library items without the assistance of library staff, reducing long waiting lines and providing better privacy during checkout. The new self-checkout design from NCR and ITG aims to enable a friendlier, easier checkout transaction, helping to boost self-service adoption and patron confidence in the service.
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Thursday, 29 January 2009
(Brixham, England) Herald Express: Brixham bookworms flocked to the port's library to try out the new self service kiosks — and gave the automated system an overall thumbs up. The machines allow readers to issue and return their own books and DVDs, as well as make reservations and pay overdue charges. It is hoped use of the two touch-screen machines will free up extra space for more books and give staff more time for customers with inquiries.
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Thursday, 15 January 2009
(Torquay, England) Herald Express: The Brixham Library in Brixham, England, is in the process of installing self-service technology, but the new interactive kiosks won't cost anyone their job, according to the town council. Brixham town councillor Chris Bedford said he had spoken to the library manager after hearing about possible job losses. "She was absolutely clear that it was a good system and would not cost us any jobs here." The kiosks will allow people to issue and return books, DVDs and CDs without assistance from a librarian.
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Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Variety: Mark Burnett, the producer of shows such as "Survivor," "The Apprentice" and "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader," has inked a deal to use Studio One Media’s MyStudio service to audition reality show contestants. From kiosks in high-traffic areas such as shopping malls, the Scottsdale, Ariz., company’s program lets people create a high-def audition video for about $20. Studio One also operates a Web-based product so that auditions can be directly uploaded online.
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Friday, 19 December 2008
TORONTO -- Digital signage and smartphones are being combined to facilitate the first real-time giant video game application on Toronto's Eaton Centre Media Tower at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Using Rogers Wireless BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphones, the public can communicate with the Outdoor Broadcast Network's massive video board located in the square. OBN secured the exclusive rights to "Dial to Play" software distributed by iGotcha Media and took the idea to Rogers Wireless through its agencies, MediaCom and Publicis. The software has been integrated into the operating system of the 40-inch x 30-inch digital display on the tower, enabling smartphone users to interact with it.
Rogers will station event teams at the square until the end of the year, inviting up to 10 people at a time to try out one of the new BlackBerry Flip smartphones, which use voice recognition to play the game in real time. Each player controls an avatar by shouting "Flip" into a mobile phone to make the character's hand reach up to a Christmas stocking and grab phones that appear to tumble from the sky. OBN has incorporated the game into the regular programming run of advertising on the digital display.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
ComputerWeekly.com: HMV, the popular music and movie retailer, is continuing to roll out its "next generation" store, complete with self-service kiosks that allows consumers to download music onto USB sticks. The kiosks also enable users to search for product information, including trailers, album-track listings and in-stock availability of a product. HMV is testing the kiosks at a few stores and is tracking customer usage through Christmas. HMV is counting on the kiosks to help it compete with online retailers such as Amazon.com and Play.com.
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Friday, 12 December 2008
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Laufer Film, distributor of the motion picture "Christmas at Maxwell's," has found a way for holiday travelers to enjoy the film on the go.
According to a news release, the distributor has signed a deal with LightSpeed Cinema, deployer of Movie Booth video-on-demand movie kiosks, to offer the film at airport kiosks throughout the country.
"We have been looking for a partner to bring Christmas at Maxwell's to travelers at major U.S. airports and we love the Movie Booth kiosks concept," said Bill Laufer, president of Laufer Film. "With today's air travel concerns, people most often rush to get to their gate to confirm travel details, but once there, they have time and are looking for a productive way to spend it. The Movie Booth concept is a perfect complement to help make air travel a pleasant experience."
The kiosks enable travelers to download DVD quality movies, TV shows and multigigabyte games in minutes
Monday, 03 November 2008
RICHARDSON, Texas — Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. has partnered with Ready Theatre Systems of Hartford, Mich., to provide Fujitsu's U-Serv 100 and U-Serv 150 self-service kiosks to movie theater companies across North America.
According to a news release, RTS will integrate its RTS Ticketing Software with the Fujitsu kiosks and Fujitsu will provide ongoing hardware services and maintenance for the systems. RTS software is installed in more than 1,000 theaters across the United States.
Fujitsu's U-Serv systems are self-ordering kiosks designed for a variety of food-service and entertainment venues, such as quick-service and family casual restaurants, casinos and theatres. The kiosks integrate with existing point-of-sale systems, helping companies improve service and lower costs by reducing peak-time traffic and redeploying labor to more productive activities.
"We've had significant demand from our client base for Fujitsu's quality U-Serv solutions, and this partnership will benefit those customers and attract new business," said Mary Snyder, director of operations at RTS.
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Video Business: NCR Corp. says it is plans to roll out hybrid machines that both dispense pre-recorded DVDs and provide digital-movie downloads in retail locations. NCR has partnered with MOD Systems to deliver kiosks that will allow consumers to download content onto SD memory cards for playback on various compatible devices. The companies expect to start installing these kiosks at unspecified retailers during the first quarter of 2009. Neither NCR nor MOD has said what films and TV content will be available.
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008
Los Angeles Times: There's nothing more discouraging for the weary air traveler than to arrive at the airport only to remember that his iPod contains nothing but 1950s polka music. How will he survive that overseas flight? Previously, the only solution to this quandary was for him to download new songs using Wi-Fi on his computer and then transfer them to his iPod (unless he has a phone that lets him purchase songs from it). But now, travelers can go to InMotion kiosks at 20 airports across the country (including LAX) and buy digital music, then plug their iPods or other devices into the kiosk and download the tunes.
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Thursday, 23 October 2008
T3 Online: U.K. entertainment retailer HMV has announced plans for one of its "next-generation" stores to be opened in London. HMV's next-generation stores will be focusing on digital music, providing customers with interactive digital kiosks that allow them to preview, purchase and download MP3s that can then be stored on any USB stick or memory card. These kiosks, although not likely to make CDs redundant, could affect CD sales, as lack of packaging should in theory means lower prices for customers. If HMV wants its music-download kiosks to compete with the likes of iTunes, however, a pricing war with the download giants might be necessary.
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Wednesday, 15 October 2008
NEW YORK — Kiosk Industries Inc. is premiering a full line of kiosks from Eport Systems and Kiosk Entertainment, both divisions of Kiosk Industries Inc., this week at the KioskCom Self Service Expo in booth No. 465.
"We have five spectacular attractions to stimulate the U.S. economy," said Robert A. Klayman, chief executive of Canada’s Kiosk Industries.
During the expo, Kiosk Industries will demonstrate how its event-specific kiosks can easily adapt to changing environments, such as changing the logo and art on the kiosk’s façade as well as offering video e-postcard features to support a company or group event.
And according to a news release, The Walter Mercado Psychic Network Kiosk is linked to a global call-center network, with bases in Puerto Rico and Mexico City, and is supported by a multimillion dollar advertising campaign. Soon the kiosk is expected to be found in bi-lingual communities, in shopping malls, airport waiting rooms, supermarkets and mega-retailers. Under an exclusive agreement with international celebrity psychic Walter Mercado, a large staff of bi-lingual psychics offer readings in astrology and other psychic entertainment services.
Christian Dion, Kiosk Entertainment's "Psychic to the Stars," will offer free psychic readings during the expo.
Beyond Kiosk Industries’ psychic kiosk are the Glass Panel Kiosk, Sports Franchise Kiosk and the E-Gift Kiosk.
The Glass Panel Kiosk is designed for display in a department store window or as a floating glass image for indoor or outdoor applications.
The Sports Franchise Kiosk from Eport Systems will be on display during the expo, offering fans e-postcards from the game and a menu of gift items.
The E-Gift Kiosk offers live email consultation about gift purchases direct from the store.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
(Phoenix) KPNX-TV, Channel 12: From its place in the Scottsdale Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Ariz., it looks like a new mini bank set-up shop. "It's a 10-by-10, state-of-the-art, stand-alone, self-contained audio and video recording studio," says Anna Madrid, vice president of business and development for MyStudio.net. At $300,000, the MyStudio kiosk is a million dollar idea that could turn into a goldmine for the developers, performers or the next reality TV star. "The technology behind this is just amazing," Madrid said at the unveiling of the company's first kiosk. "You don't look like you're in front of a green screen. It has a three-dimensional quality to where you really look like you're in the video your capturing."
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Thursday, 25 September 2008
SEATTLE — MOD Systems, a provider of digital media delivery systems for retailers, has announced that Toshiba Corp., NCR Corp. and others, have agreed to invest $35 million, giving the companies minority stakes in MOD Systems.
The investment is part of an initiative to leverage breakthrough portable digital storage technology that offers the potential to revolutionize how consumers download movies, TV shows, music and other digital content at a wide variety of locations, and then replay it on multiple devices, according to a news release. The initiative will combine technologies developed by the companies, and is aimed at meeting the explosive demand for easier access to high-quality digital entertainment and other content.
Under the initiative, consumers will download digital content to Secure Digital cards and portable devices such as mobile phones through kiosks and other self-service devices deployed, integrated and maintained by NCR at retail stores, airports, quick-service restaurants and other outlets. Toshiba will develop dedicated set-top boxes for the service, and develop and market high-capacity SD cards for the system, improving the speed of downloads in the future.
The kiosks and other self-service devices will use the MOD Retail Enterprise System for "multichannel" digital media delivery, which enables digital content to be managed and distributed securely using portable devices and portable storage media, including SD memory cards.
"This technology and initiative have tremendous potential," said Bill Nuti, chairman and chief executive of NCR. "We continue to see opportunities to extend our experience in self-service to promising new industries like entertainment. Our initiative with MOD Systems is designed to offer consumers one of the fastest, most convenient ways to access high-quality digital entertainment."
MOD Systems provides retailers with a complete digital media system for consumers to load entertainment to portable devices and storage media, or burn content to an optical format (CD/DVD). The MOD Retail Enterprise System, deployed with leading global retailers, supports all content types and distribution scenarios including manufacturing-on-demand, delivery in optical or digital format, and hybrid online and in-store systems. Video entertainment content will be provided by major and independent studios, which will provide approximately 4,000 titles at the launch of the service. Initial content downloads will be in standard definition, and the service may also be applied to downloads of high definition content in the future.
"Digital media has not been able to truly impact sales at retail and therefore has not become truly pervasive and accessible to all consumers," said Mark E. Phillips, chief executive of MOD Systems. "Our goal of creating richer retail destinations for digital entertainment will be furthered with Toshiba and NCR as strategic partners. We are humbled and excited to have leaders in consumer electronics and self-service accelerate our vision for entertainment in retail."
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Video Business: Polar Frog Digital will begin rolling out digital download kiosks to seven college campuses next month through a deal with the National Association of College Stores, the two announced. NACS, a collegiate retail trade organization with 3,100 member stores, will add kiosks to campus bookstores at NYU, UCLA, San Diego State University, University of Colorado —Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Bowling Green State University. Students at those schools will be able to use the touch-screen kiosks to download movies and TV shows and burn them to DVD or transfer them to a Flash or USB drive. They also will be able to buy downloads online or via mobile phone with the ability to download to a PC or burn to DVD for pickup at the bookstore.
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Friday, 19 September 2008
Film Journal International: As today's consumer becomes increasingly independent and more apt to choose self-service solutions, ticket companies are moving quickly to deploy new ticketing kiosks. Find out what companies like Clarity Commerce Solutions, Fandango, Mobiqa, MovieTickets.com, National Ticket, Omniterm, Radiant Systems, Retriever Software, Splyce, Ticketsoft and Vista are doing.
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Tuesday, 16 September 2008
New Media Age: As head of Woolworths-owned Entertainment UK Digital, Matthew Porter explains the concept behind the company's retail digital media kiosks — self-service devices that enable the user to download music, movies and television shows. "The aim was to make the kiosk as simple as possible to use," says Porter. "Customers have access to a selected range of content, not the full Digital Vault database, because we wanted to ensure a shorter dwell time at the kiosk and so increase the number of people accessing it." The kiosks are being rolled out in the Middle East following a deal with the Al-Fozan Group's consumer electronics retail brand Zonik.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Australian IT: The ABC has forged partnerships with fellow public broadcasters in Britain and Canada to pool ideas on emerging broadcasting technologies as it seeks to cement its foothold in the rapidly evolving digital world. The national broadcaster's next digital drawcard, planned for a November launch, would be a mobile interactive kiosk that would enable viewers to tape themselves talking about whatever they want.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Business of Cinema.com: The seven-screen multiplex Fame Malad in Mumbai, India, has introduced a specially designed ticket ATM kiosk, which provides tickets on the spot. This machine is the first of its kind in the western region. The ticket ATM kiosk has been in use for a week now, however the official launch is likely to take place Aug. 28.
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008
MarketingVOX.com: Five dozen bands played to thousands at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Aug. 22-24. And the three-day event was well-documented — not by local cable stations and newspapers, but by the thousands of digerati that attended. To complete the scene, pavilion kiosks were spread throughout the venue. From those kiosks, concertgoers could upload and tag digital content, which was aggregated into an online media stream. Site visitors can search by tags (e.g., "stage one tree grove") to find specific content and interact with others through posts and comments, much like on a social network.
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Thursday, 21 August 2008
ABERDEEN, N.C. — Mediaport Entertainment Inc., a provider of digital media content and global distribution, now provides the capability to offer digital entertainment in partnership with Meridian Kiosks, according to a news release.
The kiosks are full-service solutions that bring the ability to sell a library of more than one million songs from all the major recording labels, including the newest releases, which are updated on a weekly basis. The point-of-sale systems allow customers to burn or download custom mix selections or full album content to CDs, mobile phones, USB storage devices, flash cards and compatible digital music players in minutes. Other digital-on-demand products with download capability, such as ring tones, audio books, games and a movie downloads, also will be added later this year. Customers now can purchase their digital content on the go.
The advantages of deploying this technology, according to the news release, include:
- Customers spending more time in the deployer's location.
- Customers return to the deployer's location because they know they can get their favorite selections via a self-service experience.
- The customer can burn to a CD, DVD or download to a compatible portable music player, digital device or USB drive.
- The deployer can make additional money on the devices; Mediaport will help the deployer source and brand them.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
SMARTHOUSE: Sanity Entertainment has launched the first online music subscription service in Australia for Microsoft's Windows Media Player, and one that will be available through retail kiosks soon. According to the company, for $29 AUD (U.S. $25) a month, subscribers can download up to 300 music tracks each month, which equates to 3,600 tracks per year. The cost works out to be less than 10 cents per track, which compares to the recently released BigPond Music, which charges $1.49 AUD (U.S. $1.29) per track.
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Friday, 15 August 2008
PaidContent.org: Jim Keyes is very passionate about setting the record straight about Blockbuster, after being declared dead at every point during the last decade. The year-old CEO of the video retailer is eager to clear up the misinterpretation about Blockbuster's competition with Netflix, only being a brick-and-mortar store, its now-abandoned quest to buy Circuit City and its recently-announced partnership with NCR to develop digital download movie kiosks. A complete transcript of the interview is only a click away.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
ContactMusic.com: The introduction of Blu-ray movies at DVDPlay rental kiosks at Safeway-owned supermarkets in California has been described as "a great experience" by Tom Szwak, vice president of video for DVDPlay. "Throughout 2009, we look forward to seeing the number of kiosks we operate in their stores expand." DVDPlay is the first major video kiosk operator to offer the high-definition Blu-ray disks for rent.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008
VideoBusiness.com: Don't expect to find many kiosks burning DVDs on demand in stores this fall. Despite expectations of large-scale pilot tests and a commercial rollout this year of kiosks that would save retailers aisles of shelf space while offering thousands of movies and TV shows on demand, technical and economic challenges have led to a shakeup among DVD manufacturing-on-demand players that is likely to push most retail launches back into 2009.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008
DALLAS — Blockbuster Inc., a global provider of media entertainment, and NCR Corp. a global provider of self-service and assisted-service technology, have entered into an agreement to deploy Blockbuster-branded, state of-the-art DVD vending kiosks in a pilot program that could be the first step of a national rollout of thousands of units.
The initial deployment of 50 Blockbuster-branded kiosks should begin in the third quarter of 2008 with all units expected to be installed by year-end.
The pilot vending kiosks initially will offer DVD rentals, but the machines will allow for future applications, including digital downloads and other services, such as sales of DVDs and video games.
The companies have not announced the markets or site locations for the first units.
Earlier this year, Blockbuster and NCR announced an agreement to test digital movie downloading kiosks in select Blockbuster locations. The first of those units is expected to be installed in two Dallas stores this summer.
"With NCR's advanced technology, these machines will dispense a wide array of DVDs and could offer digital downloading in the future, all under the Blockbuster brand," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and chief executive. "This initial rollout provides consumers increasingly convenient access to their favorite movies and is one more step in the fulfillment of our mission to transform Blockbuster into a multichannel provider of media entertainment."
Analysts are projecting DVD vending kiosks could grow by more than 60 percent over the next three years, increasing from 9,300 units at the end of 2007 to more than 22,400 by the end of 2010. Additionally, consumer spending on movies from vending machines during that same period is expected to grow from $197 million to more than $760 million.
Monday, 04 August 2008
GLENDALE, Calif. — Nero, creators of liquid media technology, and Polar Frog Digital, a provider of innovative on-demand video services for DVD and downloadable solutions, has announced an exclusive U.S. agreement to bring on-demand video DVD creation and distribution to retailers and consumers, according to a news release.
Together, Nero and Polar Frog Digital are extending digital entertainment content beyond its traditional confines, enabling on-demand DVD production for online and traditional retailers and making the much-touted commercial DVD kiosk delivery model a reality.
"The Kiosk format and ability to manufacture commercial DVDs on-demand brings countless benefits to retailers in terms of reduced overhead and increased customer satisfaction," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principle analyst with Parks Associates. "Many have argued that digital downloads would serve this need, but while consumers have seen the benefits of downloads, there are still limitations to how they can be used across devices."
While there has been significant industry discussion on the importance of on-demand video DVD manufacturing, the use of proprietary standards and file formats has inhibited the ability for other organizations to bring a viable solution to market. Nero is able to deliver on this new content frontier because of its commitment to aligning and developing with industry open standards, such as those put in place by the DVD Forum, and platform interoperability.
Polar Frog Digital is the only on-demand company to offer the ability to burn, buy, download and rent multiple medias. This is made possible by their adoption of Nero’s vision for liquid content distribution and creation options for consumers. With the Polar Frog solution consumers have the ability to choose where and when they want to buy their media. Agnostic delivery options will serve to expand the sales of media in traditional and nontraditional retail channels alike.
Each year thousands of movies, television programs, educational and special-interest titles are created. However, due to shrinking shelf space and cost of manufacturing, only a fraction will become available on DVD, and fewer still will remain available six months after release. By using kiosks, retailers can stock an entire physical DVD inventory in as little as two square feet of store space. Gone are the days of needing to anticipate how many copies of a new title release to have on hand or worrying about DVD theft. With a kiosk format, inventory "shrinkage" can be eliminated and retailers are able to offer their consumers an unlimited quantity and assortment.
"On-demand manufacturing of commercially released DVD video content will revolutionize both the retail marketplace and the way that consumers experience and access video,” said Todd Rosenbaum, chief executive of Polar Frog Digital.
With the joint Nero/Polar Frog Digital solution, consumers will have access to a full range of commercial video copy-protected content with Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption.
Available in late 2008, the offering will be based on Polar Frog Digital's patented "DVD On Demand" software and licensed library of digital movie and television content. This library is the world's largest database of on-demand content available at retail.
Friday, 25 July 2008
CBSNEWS: Blockbuster, which recently abandoned its foolish quest to buy Circuit City, is now on to the next thing, which it has been talking about for the last year: its digital reinvention. The company has a strong presence at Comic-Con going on this week in San Diego, and also is demonstrating its digital kiosks, reports Home Media magazine. It has talked about these kiosks before. They're being tested in select Blockbuster stores in the Dallas area, and plans are to roll it out countrywide in the next three years. These kiosks allow consumers to download movies to portable devices in less than two minutes, though for now, it only works on Archos portable media devices.
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Thursday, 24 July 2008
Wired: Time to sell those ten-year old DVDs. NCR reached a licensing agreement with e-Play to manufacture DVD kiosks that can be used for rentals, sales or trade-ins of old DVDs. Right now the kiosks are available as part of a pilot program in Columbus, Ohio (including the airport), but e-Play plans to expand the program to include stores in Georgia and North Carolina.
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Monday, 21 July 2008
The (U.K.) Guardian: HMV, a provider of entertainment media, is extending to its stores in the United Kingdom a value-added, tax-avoidance system that it currently operates solely through the group's Web site, which is based offshore. The move will offer shoppers discounts and free delivery on out-of-stock titles, at the expense of Treasury coffers. The retailer is planning to install instore "HMV Delivers" kiosks in its 250 stores. Customers will be able to place orders for CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and console games and avoid the 17.5 percent VAT charged on conventional in-store purchases.
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Friday, 18 July 2008
DAYTON, Ohio — NCR Corp. has announced a licensing deal with Columbus, Ohio-based e-Play LLC to add "bare-disc" technology to its existing self-service portfolio, expanding consumer self-service options for the delivery of digital entertainment.
According to a news release, the new platform allows bare-movie or game discs to be vended and returned, without cases or sleeves, and offers the option of checking discs for quality.
The technology presents added revenue opportunities for retailers and other enterprises through kiosks that can each inventory up to 4,200 discs in a few square feet. The technology also creates a better experience for consumers, NCR says, by improving access to merchandise and providing a self-service option for buying, selling and trading used media, and offering a large number of titles from which to choose.
NCR plans to integrate e-Play's bare-disc technology into its NCR Xpress Entertainment portfolio, which includes a multichannel software platform — allowing consumers to interact via the Internet, mobile devices or kiosks — and hardware options ranging from DVD-vending to digital-download kiosks.
Planned future enhancements include support for other types of digital media.
"The e-Play technology is a great complement and addition to the NCR Xpress Entertainment portfolio, which we launched earlier this year," said Bill Nuti, NCR chairman and chief executive. "This agreement will further expand our portfolio of self-service-entertainment solutions to include bare-disc as well as packaged DVD media."
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
ABERDEEN, N.C. — Darien Lake Theme Park Resort has selected Meridian Kiosks for its Orange County Choppers promotional giveaway.
The promotion focuses on the park's new thrill ride, the Orange County Chopper MotoCoaster. As part of its partnership with the park, OCC built a custom chopper inspired by Darien Lake, which was featured on an episode of American Chopper. Darien Lake Theme Park Resort guests will have the opportunity to win an exclusive Orange County Choppers production bike, painted with a unique Darien Lake design, by entering information on the Meridian Enterprise kiosks.
"We are excited to partner with Darien Lake Theme Park Resort as we present resort guests with an opportunity to win a custom OCC bike," said David Annas, vice president of operations for Meridian Kiosks. "From wayfinding to food ordering and ticketing kiosks, the theme park industry presents a multitude of options for self-service solutions."
Friday, 20 June 2008
Telecomasia.net: Taking traditional movie rental to the next level, Digisoft.tv has introduced its eRental movie download platform that enables customers to download high-definition and standard-definition movies from an in-store kiosk to a portable storage device for later viewing at home. Digitsoft.tv developed the service in conjunction with Video Ezy of Australia and uses best-of-breed encryption and watermarking technologies from Verimatrix, the market leader in this space.
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Thursday, 19 June 2008
Video Business: MOD Systems and Domino’s Pizza are in talks to give consumers the opportunity to have their pizza and movie delivered by the same person, according to participants at Wednesday’s Entertainment Supply Chain Academy. MOD Systems has been testing music manufacturing-on-demand to CD and/or portable device through kiosk installations at Best Buy. But retailers, including pizza chain Domino’s, see value in offering impulse-produced DVDs as a new revenue stream. The idea is that a Domino’s customer could order a pizza plus a movie of their choice and both would be churned out at the storefront for home delivery.
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Thursday, 19 June 2008
ContactMusic.com: The music industry needs to adapt to the "digital landscape" as downloading increases, experts have claimed. A survey published by the British Music Rights (BMR) organization this week found that a huge proportion of 14- to 24-year-olds admitted to downloading music illegally, with some fans downloading thousands of songs per month. Music retailer HMV plans to combat this trend by deploying music download kiosks and social access points to improve the customer experience of obtaining music the legal way.
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008
Ars Technica: Retail chain FYE has announced the testing of a kiosk in two of its stores. The kiosk allows customers to browse and purchase MP3s from a retail store, and also provides a way to get the music back onto a computer at home. The idea is simple: patrons are able to browse a catalog of songs at an FYE Tunes kiosk in a store for single tracks or complete albums, then build a playlist. The customer can then either pay to have the songs burned to CD or downloaded as DRM-free MP3s to an iPod or other USB-compatible player for $.99 per track.
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008
ReadWriteWeb: Blockbuster is struggling, and seems to be trying as hard as it can to keep that moniker. Even though the company's finances are looking up, it continues to make one questionable move after another in its attempt to compete with Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. Blockbuster first started talking kiosks last November, and last week unveiled the prototype to the press. Despite some good revenue news, Blockbuster still seems like a company that's making all the wrong moves as it struggles to transition to the digital world.
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Monday, 02 June 2008
ABC7 (San Francisco, Calif.): A first-of-its kind service for BART public transport riders started recently. You can not only enjoy the ride, you can enjoy a book from the BART library, available right at an automated book lending system. There are 400 fiction and non-fiction books inside the kiosk and all you need is your Contra Costa County library card to access it. You can check out up to three books at a time. You can keep the books for three weeks and then you have to return the books to the kiosk.
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Friday, 30 May 2008
The Associated Press: Blockbuster Inc. recently unveiled a prototype of an in-store kiosk for downloading movies at its annual meeting, part of its plan to transform into more than just a DVD rental chain. The sleek prototype kiosk unveiled is just one way that Blockbuster is looking to deliver movies digitally. The design, which the company’s CEO said is likely to change with testing, offers a range of features to help customers make movie choices, including previews and recommendations. The company is working to reduce the download time for movies to about 30 seconds.
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Friday, 30 May 2008
Home Media Magazine: DVD rental kiosk operator Redbox has been certified by the Payment Card Industry (PCI), which determines security standards for payment account data. The PCI conducted an audit of Redbox’s more than 7,700 machines to determine if they met the group’s standards.
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Thursday, 29 May 2008
Blu-ray.com: DVDPlay announced that it will add Blu-ray titles to its popular kiosk-style DVD rental machines that are present at many grocery stores this June. The machines will offer these titles at the same $1.49 rental fee as their DVD selections. The first Blu-ray titles available via the kiosks will be "Untraceable" and "Men In Black," both of which should be available around June 10.
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Monday, 19 May 2008
Home Media Magazine: Blockbuster Inc. said it is beginning pilot tests of digital kiosks that will let consumers download movie rentals to portable devices and memory sticks — the latter playable on a PC and television. During an investor call, CEO Jim Keyes said the tests would be conducted over a six- to 12-month period.
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Thursday, 15 May 2008
CNN: Foreseeing the future is a tricky business. Why, for instance, should Hollywood moguls have paid much attention when the USB standard emerged in the mid-90's? Now USB ports are to be found in $300 portable video players and $3,000 50-inch plasma HDTVs. So in retrospect it was only a matter of time before entrepreneurs tried out this idea: public kiosks that allow consumers to download movies directly onto a USB memory device, to be watched later on their portable video players, computers, or TVs.
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Thursday, 15 May 2008
Pop City: East Liberty, Pa.-based Electric Owl Studios is keeping children happy while they wait, one hospital at a time. The company’s flagship toy, K.I.C.K., kids interaction creation kiosks, is a futuristic fun device that entertains children to age seven with short interactive games while they pass the time in waiting rooms.
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008
DUBAI, United Arab Emirites — MxN Middle East FZ-LLC, a Dubai-based digital signage and digital media company, has been appointed as distributor by KIOSK Information Systems. MxN is pleased to add the Self Service Kiosk products of KIOSK to the impressive list of products it distributes for the Digital Signage and Digital Media industry. KIOSK manufactures information kiosk solutions with functions such as touchscreens, ticket printers, card readers, card dispensing solutions, bill payment, money accepting, money dispensing, order entry, photo kiosk solutions, music download, public Internet access terminals, gaming kiosks as well as biometric solutions such as fingerprint readers.
"In today's digital world, solutions like the ones MxN provides will increasingly become the norm. MxN provides a full turnkey solution including the hardware, software, content and technical support," said Raad Raad, managing director of MxN.
Dan Stewart, director of international sales for KIOSK said, “I strongly support the fact that we are learning and growing together in a business where sharing our knowledge with the right partner is critical. Our partnership with MxN enables us not only to support our customers with a complete solution, but most importantly, brings their attention to cost effective and world leading products with partners they can trust.”
Preliminary research indicates that the out of home media industry is growing at a very fast rate. There are many underutilized opportunities for the integration of digital signage and information kiosks. More and more customers are requesting overhead LCD screens to be integrated into their service kiosks to promote their products or to generate extra revenue. MxN has developed innovative solutions for integrating digital signage into kiosk solutions. The main benefits of this are to leverage the kiosk placement and use an overhead screen for media sales or information distribution.
MxN is one of the only companies in the region to be able to provide a full turnkey solution for its customers. MxN is an example of a company committed to maintaining its dominant leadership position in the area of digital media.
"In choosing MxN, one of the determining factors was their ability to deliver on all aspects of a project from hardware, software and technology to content," continued Stewart.
"We are very excited about adding KIOSK as a product that MxN distributes. We are constantly looking for solutions and products that take our integration and installation abilities above those of our competitors. KIOSK is a very real example of a product that helps us achieve that goal," said MxN's Raad.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
LAS VEGAS—It was triple vision for SoloHealth at KioskCom’s Self Service Excellence awards ceremony as its innovative EyeSite kiosk won two of three categories where it had been entered and snagged the day’s grand prize, the Best of the Best, for receiving the most votes of entries in all categories.
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David Drain (left), executive director of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association, congratulates IBM's Cortlandt Johnson, who was inducted into the association's hall of fame.
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Users of the EyeSite kiosk enter sight-related information on a touchscreen, such as the person’s age, the date of his last eye exam and whether he wears contacts or glasses. The kiosk then presents a series of stimuli for both near and distance vision. A printout of the results and a video analysis help the user determine the next steps for eye care.
In addition to overall best, the application was voted best healthcare application and best new innovation in a kiosk deployment. Manufacturer KIOSK Information Systems and software vendor Netkey submitted the kiosk for the Self Service Excellence awards, which were presented on the first day of KioskCom Self Service Expo.
For the first time, the Self-Service and Kiosk Association announced its Hall of Fame inductees as part of the awards ceremony. They were Cortlandt Johnson and Janet Webster. Johnson’s background includes helping Eastman Kodak develop the first photo kiosk and being a leader of self-service technology at IBM. He also helped found the association. Webster, who manages self-service for the United States Postal Service, is responsible for the deployment of 2,500 Automated Postal Center kiosks. For 2005, she was the recipient of the 2005 Kiosk Industry Leader of the Year Award in the Deployer category.
Below are all entries and winners of the KioskCom Self Service Excellence Awards.
Best Retail Deployment
• Cabelas - Best Retail Deployment, submitted by KIOSK Information Systems
• Self-Service Networks: Electronic Gift Card Dispenser, submitted by Self-Service Networks
• WINNER: Self-Service Networks: Thule Interactive Point-of-Purchase, submitted by Self-Service Networks
Best Financial Services Deployment
• Alltel BillPay Kiosk, submitted by Source Technologies
• Automated Commerce Machine (ACM), submitted by Pay-Ease LLC
• WINNER: Multi-Function Financial Services Kiosk, submitted by INFONOX
Best Goverment/Education/Non-Profit Agency Deployment
• WINNER: Automated Commerce Machine (ACM), submitted by Pay-Ease LLC
• Barcelona City Council Service Kiosk, submitted by FOCUS ON EMOTIONS
• SWANSON SERVICES CORPORATION COBRA KIOSK, submitted by Source Technologies
Best Travel/Hospitality Deployment
• Northwest Airlines Mobile Website, submitted by Northwest Airlines
• WINNER: PDC Smart Kiosk, submitted by MEI
• SITA S2 AirportConnect Kiosk, submitted by SITA
Best Entertainment/Gaming Deployment
• Dave & Buster's Loyalty Kiosk, submitted by KIOSK Information Systems
• WINNER: Foxwoods Resort Casino Promotions Kiosk, submitted by Livewire International
• SanDisk Digital Media Download Kiosk, submitted by Nanonation
Best Healthcare Deployment
• WINNER: EyeSite Kiosk by SoloHealth, submitted by Netkey and KIOSK Information Systems
• Patient Passport Express, submitted by D2 Sales
• Phreesia - The Patient Check-in Company, submitted by Phreesia, Inc.
• RemoteNurse Patient Monitor, submitted by Elo TouchSystems
Best Food Service Deployment
• Mandalay Bay - Bayside Buffet, submitted by NCR Corporation and MGM
• WINNER: Prepayment Kiosk by School-Link Technologies, submitted by MEI
Best Other Industry Deployment
• BMW ICS (Indoor Communication System), submitted by Reality Interactive
• EyeSite Kiosk by SoloHealth, submitted by Netkey, KIOSK Information Systems
• WINNER: Ford SYNC Kiosk, submitted by Frank Mayer & Associates, Inc., Wireless Ronin Inc.
Best Overall Software Solution
• BMW ICS (Indoor Communication System), submitted by Reality Interactive
• WINNER: Dave & Buster's Loyalty Kiosk, submitted by KIOSK Information Systems, St. Clair Interactive
• Showroom Technology SHOW/PRO V3 Kiosk, submitted by Netkey
Best Hardware/Enclosure Design
• Automated Commerce Machine (ACM), submitted by Pay-Ease, LLC
• BMW ICS (Indoor Communication System), submitted by Reality Interactive
• WINNER: CVD's, submitted by CVD, Inc.
Best New Innovation in a Kiosk Deployment
• WINNER: EyeSite Kiosk by SoloHealth, submitted by KIOSK Information Systems & Netkey
• Live Nation - Interactive Mobile Phone Digital Signage, submitted by Nanonation
• Phreesia - The Patient Check-in Company, submitted by Phreesia
• Qflix, submitted by Sonic Solutions
Best of the Best
EyeSite Kiosk by SoloHealth, Netkey & KIOSK Information Systems
Industry Deployer of the Year
David Forbes, exec director, IT, AT&T, for his work using kiosks and digital signage to enhance the customer experience for mobile customers.
Monday, 14 January 2008
NEW YORK — The popularity of Apple’s iTunes and Redbox’s DVD-rental kiosk was evident Monday at the National Retail Federation’s annual Show & Expo, though not in the form of those devices.
The popular online digital music store and DVD kiosk were not on display at the NRF show, but their influence was felt on several of the retail digital media offerings on the show floor. Digital media kiosks were introduced by self-service giants IBM and NCR as smaller companies like Mediaport introduced their own products.
The rise in digital media kiosk popularity is due largely to consumer demand and the fact that only a small portion of music is bought on the Internet, said Dave Champlin, vice president of marketing for Mediaport.
“We offer them a place to get quality content onto their cool devices (such as a cell phone or MP3 player),” Champlin said.
Mediaport's MediaATM system is a self-service kiosk that allows consumers to download digital content such as movies and music on-demand. The company recently inked its first video-download deal with a major studio, NBC Universal.
Last week, Mediaport installed several of its kiosks at the Consumer Electronics show and let convention-goers download free NBC Universal-owned episodes, spanning such shows as 30 Rock and Project Runway. At NRF, Mediaport let attendees create a custom mixed-CD from the kiosk’s music catalog, which included Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
The launch of NCR’s Xpress Entertainment follows the company’s acquisition of Touch Automation, a privately held firm that provides the digital media merchandising kiosk.
The machine enables rentals, sales of shrink-wrapped media or a combination. In addition to transactions at the kiosk, future versions of the device will allow consumers to interact and download content via the Internet or their mobile devices.
“Self-service is best when all three self-service channels (automated kiosk, Internet and mobile device) are utilized,” said Mike Webster, vice president of NCR's self-service solutions. “This is only the first phase for this kiosk.”
Webster said the kiosk can be deployed in virtually any venue, including retail stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, quick-serve restaurants, shopping malls and airports.
IBM’s Digital Movie Kiosk, touted as the ATM for movies, is the culmination of a partnership with Ireland-based Portomedia. The kiosk allows consumers to rent or purchase DVD-quality movies, which are downloaded in under a minute to a small USB device called the Movie Key. The kiosk itself can be loaded with anywhere from 500 to 1,000 movies and can be refreshed with new content from a remote location.
“It’s essentially a Blockbuster in a box,” said Cathal Deavy, Portomedia’s director of marketing.
One of the reasons movie studios have allowed companies like Portomedia to sell its content is the kiosk’s use of DRM, or digital-rights management. For example, if a consumer rents a movie, that person may only have 48 hours to watch that movie before the movie’s license expires. That person would then have a chance to either rent the movie again or purchase it before they could watch it yet again.
Portomedia and IBM bypassed the Redbox-like DVD-rental kiosk for digital content because they see it as being more flexible, Deavy said. With a digital download kiosk, the content is always in stock and there are no returns.
Watch this Web site in the coming days for more news and insight from NRF 2008.
Monday, 24 September 2007
Media Daily News: NBC is promoting its late-night lineup on kiosks that allow users to download songs to mobile phones or burn them to CDs.
Read more
Monday, 24 September 2007
SciFi.com: If you've never been able to realize your own personal modeling fantasies, a booth at Shinjuku's Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, Japan might do the trick. Anne's Fitting Room is an interactive holographic display that will let anyone play dress-up with Japanese supermodel Anne Watanabe using World's "Untitled" fashion line. The display uses the Free Format technology developed by a Danish company called viZoo to achieve the effect, and is considered to be a first in the fashion world.
Read more
Friday, 14 September 2007
World Golf News: Range Revolution Inc. has announced its RR72 Simu-Game, an interactive kiosk capable of rating the accuracy and performance of an individual golfer's shots.
Thursday, 13 September 2007
TORONTO · Curiosk Marketing Solutions Inc. has released its new in-store, touchscreen wine information kiosk. Launched at the Wine Rack in downtown Toronto, the kiosk displays product information on screen after a scan of a wine bottle's barcode. The patent-pending system then allows customers to create a personalized greeting card designed to fit over the neck of the bottle.
"Since customers pay a nominal amount for the card ($2.95), retailers can put in the Curiosk system with very little risk or cost," said David Weinberg, president and founder of Curiosk. "With this low cost of entry, we hope to rapidly penetrate the North American wine retail market. By using our kiosks, customers will learn about their wine selection · such as tasting notes, food pairing notes and cellaring information · and be able to take the information home to share with others."
Monday, 10 September 2007
MUMBAI, India · Saregama India is selling its music to mobile consumers through digital kiosks. Currently launched in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, in association with Nokia stores, the 25 kiosks have a music library comprising nearly 30,000 tracks.
Consumers connect to the kiosks using USB cords and download songs to their music devices after paying for each download.
Saregama India is the sole content provider of all major music companies like EMI Virgin, Venus, HOM Records and other major national players in the industry for this initiative.
In 2004, music from Saregama's catalog was made available for digital download on global sites like iTunes, MSN Music, Napster, Real Networks, Musicmatch, Virgin Digital and eMusic Sound Buzz.
Tuesday, 04 September 2007
Albotas: According to some reports, Apple will this week unveil its new iTunes kiosks that will be set up through various retail outlets in North America. No word has yet been released about how many or in what stores the kiosks will be placed, but reportedly the kiosks will allow users to directly dock iPod/iPhones for the download of songs on a whim.
Read more
Thursday, 30 August 2007
BusinessOfCinema.com: India multiplex chain Cinemax has inked a slew of tie-ups in order to enhance patrons' movie-watching experience. One tie-up is with HPCL, wherein Cinemax and Ags Infotech will set up multiutility kiosks at 25 HPCL outlets in Mumbai.
Read more
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Belfast (Ireland) Telegraph: Music and film lovers across the world are hooking up to a Belfast company's entertainment downloading device. Ripfactory's CD2 retail kiosk is available in Europe, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Dubai. The company develops hardware and software solutions for transferring digital music and films from CDs and DVDs to MP3 players and home entertainment systems.
Read more
Monday, 30 July 2007
Business of Cinema: With a severe drop in CD sales, retail outlets are using other options to sustain their stores. Planet M, a music store in India, says it soon expects to introduce digital-music downloading in its stores. Through the kiosks, customers can download the songs available in the store.
Read more
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah · Digital music kiosks from Mediaport have been placed at three more U.S. Army bases bringing the total to 21 military locations. The expansion includes two new locations — Fort Dix in New Jersey and the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, as well as the deployment of a second kiosk at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Mediaport also recently announced it is testing music kiosks at coffee houses in the Greater Salt Lake City region as well as fitness centers.
Friday, 25 May 2007
SmallCap Investor.com: Trans World Entertainment Corp. execs say the company will focus on re-branding in an effort to turn around poor results. Part of the effort might entail its Mix and Burn mall kiosks, but officials say they don't have the "proper metrics" yet to make a decision. The company bought Mix and Burn, a kiosk merchant that offers CDs and downloads of customizable songs, during the first quarter of 2006.
Read more.
Friday, 11 May 2007
ESSEN, Germany · MusicGenome presented its Smart Multi-Terminal May 8-11 at the Kiosk Europe Expo. The terminal, a digital media kiosk, was developed in cooperation with IBM.
According to a news release, the new kiosk is designed to recognize personal music and movie tastes based on users' selections. The kiosk offers cross-content-recommendations with an 80 percent success rate. It also supports traditional music searches and has a barcode scanner for product recognition.
Users can view and build their profiles via the Internet and/or cell phone.
Tuesday, 08 May 2007
TechNewsWorld: The standard jukebox has changed from 45 RPM records to CDs and now to digital touchscreens. Ecast's digital jukeboxes hold thousands of songs and can also support interactive advertising that directly targets the most important entertainment demographic: the coveted 21-to-34 year olds.
Read more
Friday, 16 March 2007
Hindu.com: In an attempt to curb piracy in digital content, Giri Trading Agency, part of the South India Music Companies Association, has launched Anytime Digital Download kiosk in the Chennai Airport. The kiosk, with a touch-screen facility, would have a database of film, classical Indian music, devotional songs, video clips and ring tones that could be downloaded onto iPods, USB-mp3 players and pen drives.
Read more
Thursday, 08 March 2007
LAS VEGAS · Rimage Corp. announced the launch of its Digital Manufacturing Center platform designed exclusively for on-demand digital-content delivery at retail.
The Rimage system produces Hybrid DVDs · a new format that combines photos with a musical soundtrack or video introduction · plus conventional photo CDs and music CDs from a complete catalog of music on demand. All these products are produced on the Rimage Digital Manufacturing Center, automatically, complete with full color direct-to-disc imprinting.
"Many of our customers have asked us for an all-in-one digital content solution for retail applications," said Manny Almeida, chief operating officer for Rimage. "We are looking forward to working with our partners in the retail and photo marketing categories and helping them realize new revenue streams using the Rimage Digital Manufacturing Center."
According to Rimage, implementing the Digital Manufacturing Center in a retail environment is seamless, since the system features flexible hardware and interface configurations to meet a wide range of installation requirements. Retail-specific programming interfaces help retailers quickly integrate the Rimage Digital Manufacturing Center with existing photo labs, customer-facing kiosks and other workflow processes. The Rimage system also has a consumer-friendly user interface for kiosk-based applications.
Wednesday, 31 January 2007
LAS VEGAS · Leroy's Race and Sports Book and ISI Ltd. officials announced today their sports gaming kiosks now are on the gaming floor of Hooters Casino Hotel, offering bettors a faster, more convenient method to place sports bets.
The two orange iSports Stands, which display a photo of Michelle Nunes · Miss Hooters International and a blackjack dealer at Hooters Casino Hotel · are the first specially designed kiosks in Las Vegas. The iSports Stands are expected to be fully operational in time for the busiest sports book day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday.
"Hooters is a unique, world-famous brand with a very loyal following," said Bill Stearns, president of ISI. "We designed the kiosks to attract curious guests to take a look and try this new technology. It's very simple to place bets, and the kiosk can be open practically 24 hours."
The new betting kiosks feature pictures of
Miss Hooters International Michelle Nunes
Stearns compares the machines to using the ATM at a bank instead of dealing with the teller.
"We believe once legal bettors experience the additional features like receiving special offers from our advertisers, checking weather during events, obtaining advice from a professional sports handicapper, booking show tickets or making golf reservations, they will prefer the kiosks," he said.
ISI co-developed the iSports Stand with AWI Manufacturing, Inc. (AWIM). Acting as a stand-alone sports book, the iSports Stand provides the same services as an in-casino sports book. Also unique is the ability for local and national businesses to advertise on the kiosk's video screen, side panels and through on-screen banner ads. This is the first time companies and products outside of the casino can reach guests on the gaming floor.
Tuesday, 02 January 2007
Video Business: After a series of false starts, DVD burning has cleared its last technical hurdle, smoothing the way for movie download services and DVD kiosk companies to offer on-demand disc burning using CSS copy-protection technology.
Read more
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Indianapolis Star: An Indianapolis company today said it expects by year's end to have more than 100 of its CD-burning kiosks installed in record stores across the country, including at 17 Karma Record stores in Indiana.
Read more
Monday, 11 December 2006
SAN FERNANDO, Calif. - Precision Dynamics Corp., provider of automatic wristband identification, announced the implementation of its patented Smart Band radio frequency identification wristbands and PDC Smart Kiosk RFID Cashless Point-of-Sale System at the new Great Wolf Lodge at Paramount's Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, that is scheduled to open Dec. 14.
The 401-suite family resort and indoor waterpark implemented PDC's RFID Wristband System to provide guests with enhanced services, including hotel room keyless entry, cashless payment options, automated arcade token dispensers and more.
"The wristband system has been embraced by guests and employees at both the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, locations, and we expect the same here at Mason," said Jim Metzger, general manager of the Great Wolf Lodge. "The system is a great way to provide the utmost in safety and convenience for our guests."
At registration, guests are given a Smart Band, which is embedded with a 13.56MHz RFID inlay. MICROS POS workstations allow guests to make cashless payments with the RFID wristbands throughout the resort. Also, the RFID wristbands eliminate the chance of money getting wet or lost while at the waterpark.
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
SYDNEY - Australian hardware and software developer 22Moo announced it has begun development on its third-party iTunes/iPod kiosk.
Under current plans, the prototype will be powered by an Apple Intel-based Mac Mini running a 15-inch TFT touchscreen with virtual keyboard software, a wireless Internet connection and a customized application for timed access to iTunes.
The "PodBuffet" (project name) will also feature multiple dock connectors and a female USB and Firewire port for older iPods and Shuffle owners.
Monday, 13 November 2006
GameSpy.com: Sony has dubbed its in-store PS3 demo kiosks, of which there will be 1,000 placed in shops around Japan by next week, "PS3 TV." Certainly, at least while it remains difficult to buy a PS3, these kiosks are going to be very popular.
Monday, 30 October 2006
TheAge.com.au: It's another nail in the coffin for the album and may spell the end of the music megastore. Victorians are now able to walk into a store, cherry-pick individual songs from albums using a digital kiosk and make their own compilation CDs. Video clips are also available.
Read more
Thursday, 12 October 2006
LATimes.com: Macrovision and Sonic are the first to offer software that uses digital downloads of films from Hollywood studios to create copyright-protected DVDs with artwork and bonus features. Buyers get a physical copy of a movie that can be played in home-DVD players.
Read more
Wednesday, 20 September 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. · Precision Dynamics Corp., provider of automatic wristband identification technology, will demonstrate its Smart Band RFID Wristband System during the World Waterpark Association Symposium and Trade Show, October 20-21 in Orlando, Florida.
Smart Band wristband applications provide waterpark venues and patrons with automated, cashless, point-of-sale, keyless entry to hotel rooms and lockers, park admission, and nontransferable patron identification, as well as other customizable applications.
The Smart Band wristband system consists of PDC Smart Kiosks and Smart Readers as well as third-party software and hardware as needed. Smart Kiosk is an ATM-like booth with a touchscreen that allows patrons to load money using cash, credit or debit cards onto the RFID wristbands.
Thursday, 10 August 2006
SYDNEY, Australia · Ryarc Media Systems announced the commencement of a two-year deal with out-of-home media operator Eye to provide the software component for Eye's expanding portfolio of digital-media assets in airports and shopping centers across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Europe.
"We were impressed with the system's efficiency and reliability," said Eye group manager Stephen Rubie. "Ryarc's software consumed less than one-fifth of the processing power of our previous solution. This is crucial, because stressed PCs are prone to heat and hardware failures. In digital signage, these can be very expensive."
Ryarc's digital-signage software, called CampaignManager, will power Eye's expanding international network of digital-media screens.
"Eye needed a solution that was not only reliable and manageable, but also one of sizeable scale," said Fergal “ Ceallaigh, founder and chief executive of Ryarc. "It needed to keep pace with Eye's rapid expansion plans. CampaignManager allows Eye to easily manage hundreds of sites across multiple time zones and continents from a single desktop."
Ryarc's CampaignManager is capable of handling all modern formats including HD video, Live RSS feeds and even digital HDTV.
Thursday, 10 August 2006
San Francisco Gate: A film-industry group is set to remove some of the procedural hurdles that prevented the legal recording of movies onto blank DVDs · a further sign that Hollywood studios are preparing to expand what consumers can do with downloadable movies.
Under rule changes soon expected to be finalized by the DVD Copy Control Association, retailers could create movie jukebox kiosks, with which customers can select, say, an obscure title and burn it to a DVD on the spot.
"It'll open the floodgates for a lot more premium content to be burned onto DVD," said Jim Taylor, a general manager at digital-video-software company Sonic Solutions.
Read more
Friday, 28 July 2006
CBC News: A new program from the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver allows viewers to access art via a drive-thru window. Drivers can pull up to the kiosk and select one of six short videos from Vancouver artist Brady Cranfield. Each piece from the series called Day Tripper is modeled after a hypothetical day in the life of a Vancouverite.
Read more
Thursday, 27 July 2006
SYDNEY · Australian hardware and software developer 22Moo has begun development on it's iTunes kiosk, PodBuffet.
Currently the prototype will be powered by an Apple Intel based Mac Mini running a 15-inch TFT touchscreen with virtual keyboard software, a wireless Internet connection and a customized application for timed access to iTunes.
The kiosk also will feature multiple dock connectors and a female USB and firewire port for older iPods and Shuffle owners.
Users will be able to download videos and music to their iPods from places such as airports, train stations, hotels and shopping centers
Friday, 21 July 2006
The Sydney Morning Herald: In a sprawling downtown Sydney music store, shoppers clutching MP3 players weave through a phalanx of CD racks to line up before what appear to be two sleek new automatic teller machines. They are, in fact, Virgin's answer to Apple's online iTunes Music Store, repositories of vast amounts of music that can be downloaded to the minute, ubiquitous gadgets one in five Australian adults has bought.
Virgin's holding company, Brazin, which also owns HMV Australia and Sanity music stores, has installed 10 Fast Tracks kiosks in five of its largest stores and is expected to install at least another two at Sydney International Airport in the next few weeks.
Read more
Friday, 14 July 2006
Indianapolis, Ind.— Champ Car is registering thousands of members a week to its official fan club with touch screen kiosks at race events throughout the 2006 season. Starting with the season opening Long Beach Grand Prix in April, more than 2000 race fans at each event have joined the Champ Car Inner Circle Fan Club using interactive fan club activation kiosks by SeePoint Technology of Redondo Beach, Calif.
The Inner Circle kiosks, which travel with the three-day Festival of Speed that is part of every Champ Car race, allow the league to interact one-on-one with fans during the race weekend and get them into the Fan Club. The fan club activation kiosks provide a unique, low cost form of customer acquisition that capitalizes on the excitement of attending a race.
SeePoint designed the Champ Car Fan Club activation application and kiosks for efficiency and ease of use. To join the Inner Circle at the track, fans need to provide only the most basic contact information, allowing Champ Car to maximize the number of fans that can be added to their database at any event. Once a fan is added to the database, Champ Car can use email to communicate more extensively with members. The freestanding kiosks, manufactured by SeePoint, offer the combination of small footprint, durability and plug and play operation that is necessary for systems that will be packed, shipped and set up again as they travel with Champ Car across the country from race to race.
"The SeePoint kiosks that are in operation at our event streamlines the ability for our fans to get information about our Inner Circle Fan Club," said Vice-President of Marketing and Sales Will Wilson. "It also gives us more ways to reach our fans as well, allowing us to provide greater information flow to those that demand it."
In addition to registering fan club members, the kiosks can also be repurposed to facilitate data collection through surveys and to promote the marketing efforts of Champ Car sponsors. The SeePoint kiosks feature easy to replace overhead and center signage so the systems can be boldly yet almost effortlessly re-branded as the use of the kiosks changes. For Champ Car and its sponsors alike, the fan club activation kiosks provide not only a new grass-roots way of marketing to fans but also valuable information about who their fans are.
About SeePoint & the Champ Car World Series
SeePoint Technology is a leading provider of interactive, Internet-ready, fully integrated self- service kiosk systems. SeePoint designs and manufactures interactive information systems that are ideal for entertainment, marketing and survey applications as well as retail services, ticketing systems, public information terminals and healthcare applications.
SeePoint offers a full line of standard kiosk products with a variety of mounting options, all of which may be customized to maximize branding opportunities and integrated with a full range of peripheral devices. SeePoint also offers full service engineering, design and manufacturing services to create custom developed solutions for customers with unique project specifications.
All of SeePoint's kiosks unite design, durability, reliability, flexibility, customizability and modularity to bring Internet based information, commerce and communication to the public.
SeePoint has provided interactive display solutions to Billabong, Deloitte Consulting, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Fuji, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Constitution Center, Neutrogena, Pfizer, Polaris ATV, the San Francisco International Airport, the States of New Mexico and Wisconsin and the United States Air Force and Army. Contact SeePoint Technology at (310) 725-9660 or visit www.seepoint.com for more information.
The Champ Car World Series features some of the greatest race car drivers in the world competing in the most diverse and exciting series in the world. Champions Sebastien Bourdais, Cristiano da Matta and Canadian Paul Tracy along with 2004 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year A. J. Allmendinger, Bruno Junqueira, Alex Tagliani and Mexican Mario Dominguez are among the drivers who battle for the Vanderbilt Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The title is contested on oval circuits, temporary street circuits and permanent road courses.
SeePoint is a trademark of SeePoint LLC. Other company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Friday, 07 July 2006
Canada.com: Mediaport Entertainment Inc., which deploys unmanned point-of-sale kiosks, called MediaATMs, today announced an agreement to offer consumers music from Sony BMG Music's recorded music library through Mediaport's MediaATM retail kiosks, and website. The MediaATM, with its patent pending digital download technology, is an unmanned kiosk store that sells digital entertainment content like music, games, and videos, to customers in a just in time, user-friendly manner.
Read more.
Wednesday, 05 July 2006
ABCNews.com: SafeTzone uses radio frequency technology which almost instantly pinpoints the location of every member of a family whenever a parent or child swipes their SafeTzone wristband at kiosks in amusement parks.
SafeTzone also eliminates the need to carry cash. Parents authorize a specific spending limit and their kids can make purchases at restaurants and shops flashing their wristband not their wallet.
Read more.
Thursday, 15 June 2006
BAY CITY, Mich. · Burned Media, a digital music and media company, has announced its first self-service music burning kiosk location in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada market.
The company has announced that the first QuickTunes music-burning kiosk in Canada is operating in a cafe newsstand concept store called Journo, located on King Street in the entertainment district of Toronto, Ontario. The self-service unit also offers the QuickPix instant digital photo processing application.
Friday, 07 April 2006
LAS VEGAS — The gaming industry is teeing up for a good cause. The 8th Annual JCM/AGA Golf Classic hits the greens at the Anthem Country Club in Henderson, Nev., on April 24, and organizers are expecting to host executives from the industry's top companies.
The tournament is a fundraiser for the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG). Since its inception, the golf classic has raised more than $425,000.00 for the NCRG, including $75,000.00 last year.
Chairman of the National Center for Responsible Gaming Dennis E. Eckart said, "This is an extremely important event for us. The work we do progresses every day, and we have made significant strides in research and education. However, as gaming continues to spread across the U.S., our mission grows in tandem. We are grateful to JCM American and the American Gaming Association for sharing our vision and helping to move our mission forward."
Registration for the tournament is available now. Cost for entry is $325 for an individual or $1,400 for a foursome. Several levels of sponsorship are also available, including hole and prize sponsorships, and packages start at $1,000. Raffle prize donations are also being accepted. Deadline for entry is April 7. For registration and sponsorship information, contact Jill Grismer at JCM, (702) 651-0000 or .
JCM American President Aki Isoi said," We are very pleased to continue our relationship with the AGA in supporting the National Center for Responsible Gaming. We have seen direct results of the organization's efforts, and we are proud to be a part of their important work."
About National Center for Responsible Gaming
The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG), the only national organization devoted exclusively to public education about and funding of peer-reviewed research on disordered gambling, was established in 1996. The NCRG supports the finest peer-reviewed basic and applied research on gambling disorders; encourages the application of new research findings to improve prevention, diagnostic intervention and treatment strategies; and enhances public awareness of pathological and youth gambling. To date, the casino industry and related businesses have committed more than $13 million to this effort, and the NCRG has issued more than $8 million in support of groundbreaking research on gambling disorders. For more information, visit www.ncrg.org.
About the AGA
The American Gaming Association represents the commercial casino-entertainment industry by addressing federal legislative and regulatory issues. The association also serves as a clearinghouse for information, develops educational and advocacy programs, and provides leadership on industry-related issues of public concern.
About JCM
JCM American Corporation is the industry leader in currency handling systems and provides products, software and services to the gaming, vending, banking, amusement, and petroleum industries. Since 1995, its products have validated an estimated $2.2 trillion in currency for the gaming industry alone. From its international headquarters in Osaka, Japan, and subsidiaries in Dsseldorf, Hong Kong, London, Sydney and its U.S. headquarters in Las Vegas, JCM's progressive spirit continually sets worldwide industry standards with innovative products such as the World Bill Acceptor (WBA), Universal Bill Acceptor (UBA), Trident Table Safe System and Intelligent Cash Box (ICB). For more information, visit www.jcm-american.com.
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