Harris Digital Signage Sets Tone At Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

The Tampa Bay
Performing Arts
Center, the largest performing arts
center south of the Washington, D.C. Kennedy Center, has installed a Harris InfoCaster
digital signage solution to compile and display high-definition video and
program content on monitors around the Arts Center.Harris
channel partner Professional Communications Systems (PCS) of Tampa managed the design, engineering,
installation and maintenance of the complete visual display and digital
messaging system.

The InfoCaster digital signage solution is at the core of the visual
display and digital messaging system, consisting of an InfoCaster Creator
content creation station, InfoCaster Manager network management products, and
multiple InfoCaster Player content playout devices. The system is integrated
with a Symetrix Symnet audio system and an AMX Netlinx control system that
feeds nine video zones equipped with 23 Sharp LCD displays.The primary
zones are within the Morsani and Ferguson Hall lobby areas and also include
multiple other on-site theaters, exterior locations and the Patel Conservatory,
feeding broadcast-quality graphics and program data to patrons and
visitors.Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center operators control the displays,
messaging and media playback from a central location using the InfoCaster
Manager solution.

“Our goal is for our patrons to experience the arts center long before
taking their seats,” says Michael Kilgore, vice president of marketing and
customer experiences at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.“We use the
InfoCaster system to power 48 loudspeakers and 23 monitors scattered over our five-theater
campus, and run it all from a marketing office on the administrative
floor.The content is segmented and customized to the shows our patrons
are coming to see, and before shows they see videos of upcoming events,
recognition of our top-level sponsors and welcoming messages from our
president. By using InfoCaster and the accompanying elements of the system, we
can set the tone for the night’s entertainment and extend enjoyment past the
show and into the evening.”

According to Greg Amato, account representative at PCS, the flexibility
and precision of the InfoCaster scheduling environment set the system apart
from the competition.
“The objective of the Tampa
Bay Performing
Arts Center
digital signage system is to extend the customer experience beyond the main
event through the use of high-definition video and music branding,” Amato says.
“PCS was challenged with designing a system that would make patrons feel as if
they were part of the show and, ultimately, InfoCaster was the only product
that offered a comprehensive solution.The TBPAC staff is tasked with
developing simple, looped graphics for everyday activity as well as highly
complex, time-critical, multizone, scripted events when touring Broadway shows
come to town.And, like the business they are in, this system has to ‘go
on’ when the curtain goes up.”

InfoCaster offers a complete suite of products for creating, scheduling,
distributing, playing and reporting video and graphics. Users can acquire or
create digital content and manage it throughout the entire delivery chain —
from a central site or multiple remote locations — on a TCP/IP network.
InfoCaster Creator enables easy acquisition and content creation of graphics,
video and dynamic data content, while InfoCaster Manager and players
synchronize and deliver content from multiple sources to thousands of remote
displays spread over a nationwide network, addressing individual messaging
display requirements.

Harris Digital Signage solutions incorporate the same high-caliber HDTV
video and graphics technology, as well as media asset management, automation,
scheduling, and traffic and billing systems, used daily to manage many of the
world’s advertiser-supported broadcast operations.

Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.