Travelers frequently cite crowded hallways, insufficient wayfinding directions, and difficult-to-locate flight information as their greatest pain points about air travel. Irritants like these obviously impact a traveler’s overall airport experience and according to research from J.D. Power & Associates, the mood of a traveler in an airport has a high degree of correlation with how much money he or she spends while there. Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport recognized that they were not doing enough to address the needs of their travelers and that deficiencies in these aforementioned areas were costing them money. To remedy these problems they opted initially to completely revamp a selection of entry lobbies so that arriving passengers would immediately be met with friendly, accessible, and engaging content. The first phase of the project renovated just two lobbies, but following the success of that original venture, completed in early 2016, the airport team decided to continue their push to reenergize the traveler experience by turning their focus to four additional entry lobbies.
The Challenges:
Honolulu is the Aloha state, known to be amongst the friendliest in the union, so it was crucial to the airport’s image that they communicated actionable and welcoming content to travelers throughout their time on site. There are roughly 20 million travelers who pass through the concourse of Daniel K. Inouye each year, and they require an immense amount of information in order to move safely and efficiently from the curb to their gate, and vice versa. The first points of contact between the airport and many of these travelers are of course the entry lobbies. Airport entryways are typically quite large spaces flooded with natural light and are usually crowded with travelers moving to and fro. These factors obviously complicate the process of communicating content, but they were not the only issues under consideration. The airport team also wanted the displays to integrate seamlessly into existing architecture while covering enough square footage to showcase not just flight information data (FIDS), but also wayfinding directions, news updates, and advertising content.
The Solutions:
The airport management team believed that by revitalizing the first impression their concourse made on travelers, that nitial experience would resonate throughout the remainder of each traveler’s stay. The group realized shortly after contracting integrator Ford Audio-Video that the only technology that could capably accomplish each of their goals while overcoming all of the space’s challenges was large-format LED. Brighter, lighter, and more energyefficient than all rival display technologies, large-format LED also carries greater off-axis viewability and sharper resolutions, allowing travelers to see content clearly from a much larger range of angles and distances. The first two display installations were completed in early 2016 and following their tremendous success, the airport group saw no reason to change their tack.
The Results:
According to Ed Knoll from Ford AV, “Nanolumens was selected for this project because of their strong integrator support program, superior product performance, and long-term performance reliability.” Initially chosen to install the original two 44.65-foot by 7.28-foot displays in the first two lobbies, Nanolumens was chosen to provide the next four features as well. These newer displays all feature a 6mm pixel pitch and shine with a brightness of 2,000 nits, the industry measure for brightness. Three of the four are 56-feet by 6-feet, while the fourth is 45-feet by 7-feet. Together with Ford AV, the six total installations were completed without a hitch, and now are used to display FIDS data, weather updates for destination cities, vibrant advertising and tourism content, and a text ticker. This diversity of content ensures visitors to Daniel K. Inouye International are always being engaged with helpful and actionable information. Travelers who are catered to in such a way right as they arrive become far more likely to spend money throughout the rest of their time in the airport, so it’s safe to say the six Nanolumens displays have been a massive success on all fronts.
The Technology:
The first phase of the project included two 44.65-foot by 7.28-foot NanoSlim displays, each complete with a 6MM pixel pitch. The second phase of the project incorporated four additional displays, with one measuring 45-feet by 7.5-feet, and the other three checking in at 56-feet by 6-feet. Every display was integrated by Ford AV with SITA manufactured software that runs on Dell Optiplex XE2 computers, which source the flight information for the displays. The displays also are networked with a BrightSign 4K242 solid state media player to generate the weather reports and showcase the other video content.