Sprocket recently had the chance to do a site visit to a previously installed directory. The Building Directory at the Argus Centre at 300 Latrobe street Melbourne was installed in 2012. Building management contacted us and requested some modifications to the software. When these were complete we stayed around took some photographs of the directory in its foyer.
This location is an excellent example of how the sleek DW Directory integrates into a modern building. Many of the walls at this address are asymmetrical. With its strong lines and solid construction the Sprocket Directory provides a visual anchor within the foyer; as well as providing easy to understand building tenant list.
Based on design concepts by Hive Creative, Sprocket engineered a customised enclosure for the City of Melbourne Christmas display in the the city square. The aluminium and steel housing was in the form of a giant story book and featured dual hi brightness46″ LCD screens displaying an animationof the story of the nativity in picturebook form. The presentation played day and night leading up to Xmas and was an instant hit with children and adults alike.
Hive Creative also did a wonderful job on the animation and a special thanks also goes to Atco Pickering as the manufacturers who worked tirelessly on the project [check out the video].
The entire project was great success and Sprocket are looking forward to expanding the concept further for the following year.
Sprocket and LaunchPad had a significant presence at the Australian International Motor Show. The LaunchPad iPad kiosk is ideally suited to exhibitions. Companies can feature their own content or run application to perform specific tasks. At this exhibition the iPad LaunchPad Kiosk assisted in helping 6 major car manufactures to deliver their marketing message on over 35 individual LaunchPads. Featured heavily on the Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai, Suzuki and Better Place Australia stands Launchpad integrated seamlessly into these companies overall stand designs.
On the Better Place Australia display sprocket was commissioned to develop software specifically for the event. This software collected valuable marketing information for the company.
The LaunchPad ipad enclosure was used by several car exhibitors at the recent Melbourne motor show. In fact it was the most popular information kiosk at the event! Toyota, suzuki, Mazda, Nissan and Better Place had a variety of our launchPads configurations on show. Some LaunchPads were running websites or customs apps, and in the case of Better Place an application built by us for them especially for the event. Check out the video to see LaunchPad in action.
Ever wondered whether technology would work at a cemetery, well the Adelaide Cemeteries Authority recently commissioned Sprocket Kiosks to develop an interactive system at the Cheltenham Cemetery that makes light work of finding loved ones, memorial services and other relevant information.The kiosk , featuring a secure 17″ screen with secure keyboard and a 32″ informational screen above it also includes an A4 printer to enable visitors to print maps and memorial notices and timetables.
Sprocket’s challenge was to design and manufacture a robust yet elegent structure that would function in the extreme climate of Adelaide and provide a visible focus for visitors to the cemetery. The system has inbuilt temperature control and a proximity sensor that reduces energy consumption when no visitors are present.
The elegant software developed by ACA is a simple to use web based program mirroring the ACA website and it is hoped that the success of the Cheletenham kiosk will enable further devices to be installed in other ACA managed cemeteries.
This week Microsoft offered a sneak peek at the new Windows 8 OS. As the largest software platform developer for kiosks this new Windows OS looks set to really shake up the marketplace.
We all love the Apple OS, but Windows with its reach and 3rd party device support is a very important platform for traditional information Kiosks. Now, with this “touch first” Windows being build it appears that Windows is destined to be a major player in the emerging Micro Kiosk market as well.
The single most common impediment to Microsoft’s strategy of putting Windows on a tablet is a the perception that the Windows behemoth is just too big for the new generation of tablets. But it seems that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to strip back the the OS to the kernel and rebuild. So perhaps the “touch first” Windows 8 interface will not just be another layer on top of the old. That, coupled with the inevitable increase in the processing power of the next generation of tablets, means that this might be a real game changer for the Micro Kiosk market.
Sprocket is winging its way to Macworld in San Francisco to release the new LaunchPad on January 26.
Macworld is the perfect place to premiere our new innovation in public kiosk design. Launchpad is all about cool design, functional flexibility and ease of use. It’s sleek yet rugged injection moulded housing can be mounted to your choice of stand using quality steel and aluminium fittings in either a portrait or landscape orientation.
If you are on the westcoast of the US of A this week you can find us at the the show at stand 552; as close as we can get to the cafe!
Keep tuned to this blog for updates and bulletins.
What is the most common cause of kiosk failure? Well one thing for sure it is not the components that are in it, selected well they will outlast the main cause every time. It is not the software although that is part of the real cause. So what is the real problem behind the failure of the majority of kiosk deployments?
Well in my experience it is the lack of forward planning that will cripple the potential of any kiosk rollout and no matter the budget of the initial deployment it is doomed to disaster unless some basic rues are observed. It is foolhardy in the extreme to concentrate on one Friday night first exciting stage of a rollout and believe that those gleaming pieces of technology with the cool software all wirelessly connected to a robust backend server will work forever.
Rule 1: Unless you plan for failure you will experience it sooner than you think.
Estimate how many cycles the kiosk will endure over it’s typical lifespan of 3 years and even more if you expect it to last 5 years and then try to anticipate how often it may fail, including software glitches over that period…and then double it. Factor in an appropriate and realistic budget for service and maintenance over the entire anticipated lifespan and then set that in stone. It is safer to over compensate for failure than over estimate for success.
Rule 2: Don’t be fooled by price.
Coming from a technology component supplier this may seem obvious but it is true. Don’t buy kiosk components on price alone..it is far more important to select your supplier for their ongoing support and product development over the full period the deployment. By all means source the lowest priced product available but unless you match it will reliability and service then it is false economy of the highest order. Being left with poorly performing or defunct components with no supplier support will sound the death knell of your deployment.
Rule 3: Never believe what you can’t prove
Thinking of undertaking a kiosk deployment program? Research is the key to success and the best research does not always mean the researching the best. More can often be gained from looking closely at why the majority kiosk deployments failed to make profit than from studying the few that made it big. Don’t be distracted by extravagant claims of success and large volumes of kiosks deployed instead apply your own fiscal measurements to determine a more accurate picture. Remember if you can’t work out how they made profit it probably didn’t exist in the first place.
