Shopping Center Uses DOOH to Enhance Shopping Experience

March 15, 2012 - PRLog -- Baricentro was the first shopping center built in Spain. As visionary entrepreneurs in the 1980’s the founders of Baricentro set out to revolutionize the shopping experience by building an enormous shopping center nearby the heart of Barcelona, with an ample offering of stores and entertainment.

Today, over 25 years later, Baricentro continues to be an innovator. With over 140 highly acclaimed establishments, spread out across 65,000m² of commercial space, Baricentro now holds an unparalleled offering of value-oriented stores, capable of tending to all the needs and expectations of buyers.

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The Challenge
Being one of the first companies in Spain to have built a shopping center, Baricentro is challenged to stay ahead of the game. Their strategy is to keep integrating new technologies, to enhance the shopping experience and attract new visitors. With their extensive background in retail, Baricentro now seeks to heighten the shopping experience by using forms of digital signage and wayfinding. The shopping center needed a system that would guide customers to their destination, to make shopping more convenient. Besides the informative aspect, store owners in the shopping center were also looking for a way to promote sales and increase profitability in an efficient and cost effective manner and the management of Baricentro gladly supports that need.

The management of Baricentro notes: “We are very pleased to have a digital circuit for information and publicity. It gives us the opportunity to provide better service to our retailers with an attractive, fast and interactive environment for visitors and an excellent cost/benefit ratio.”

The Solution
In 2011 the management of the shopping center chose to install an innovative digital information and advertising system. They trusted the company ALOOHA, a Spanish Digital Signage solution provider and Digital Out Of Home operator, to supply, install and oversee the commercial operation of the project.

ALOOHA designed, integrated and installed an interactive digital touchscreen directory at each of the 6 entrances of the shopping center, replacing the obsolete static and paper directories. The directories were equipped with monotouch technology, using the AOpen Digital Engine DE2700 fanless systems as media player of choice. Thanks to the accurate design of the graphics, texts and menus created by ALOOHA for Baricentro; customers can now navigate through the directory in an intuitive and effortless manner, making it incredibly easy to find the store or service that they are looking for. The system is able to provide all information in three languages: Spanish, Catalan or English.

Besides the directories, ALOOHA also added 11 digital advertising screens (dPoP®) to the DOOH circuit, placed strategically across the two floors of the shopping center. Every one of these advertising panels or dPoP® is enforced by the powerful AOpen Digital Engine DE7000, making it possible to offer signage with the highest quality images at Full HD. The set-up has the ability to directionally and conditionally aim sound towards the shopper viewing the images, avoiding any acoustic noise. ALOOHA also developed a cutting edge application to incorporate facial recognition technology into the system. Based on non-intrusive and anonymous recognition, the system can make an extensive analysis of the direct impact on those viewing the projected content. The analysis is important for the creators of the content: to measure customer behavior in response to the content that was shown on the displays each day and to find out the number of people directly watching the content and the average watching time. This information can help to create better targeted content to increase sales and brand awareness.

PLC technology
For the installation of the entire circuit the integrator relied on ground breaking PLC broadband technology. Power Line Communication allows digital content to travel through the cables of the electrical grid. Power wire circuits have the ability to carry different frequencies, so they can also be used to transmit digital information to all the elements of the DOOH circuit, therefore eliminating the need for installation of dedicated data network cabling. Using PLC technology for this type of application, allows for significant savings concerning costs and installation time without losing capacity in terms of bandwidth and keeping a very high reliability of communications.

Since the implementation in December 2011, the concept has received very positive feedback from shoppers, advertisers and store owners alike. The system integrator and DOOH operator ALOOHA is now focused on implementing new and advanced services that promote sales thus to increase profitability for the retailers housed in Baricentro as well as brands and advertisers outside.

About ALOOHA
ALOOHA is a company dedicated to providing Interactive Digital Audiovisual Communication, pioneering the transformation of OOH media into the digital era in Spain since 2008. It is their mission to integrate various informative technologies and marketing into a new form of out-of-home communication, to become one of the primary DOOH operators in Europe. ALOOHA deploys digital communication circuits; they call dPoP®, which allow advertisers to promote their products and services through means that are more flexible, powerful, accessible and affordable than traditional media. ALOOHA is responsible for the design, manufacturing, installation and operation of the DOOH circuits in shopping malls, corporate and retail environments. ALOOHA continues to innovate day by day in digital signage, to provide new and improved services to its customers.

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AOpen, Inc. has more than 15 years of IT hardware manufacturing experience along with keen insights into IT industry trends that help drive the continuous development of high-end IT solutions.

As the leading manufacturer of reliable, powerful and green hardware solutions world-wide, combined with the unique small form factor of the specially designed media player called AOpen Digital Engine, AOpen is able to provide an outstanding platform for 24/7 operability in applied computing. The range of players, from low-end to high-end with fan or fanless, are designed for excellence: from basic bare systems to state-of-the-art multimedia solutions built to fit customers’ needs. The WarmTouch series complements the AOpen product line with small and extremely sleek displays with or without touch. With in-depth market knowledge AOpen can offer advice for complete digital signage platform solutions. AOpen cooperates with its global value added channel network to go to market.