Lufthansa’s 700 Displays

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LG’s business partner MultiVision has supplied more than 700 advertising and information displays to Lufthansa. Flight promotions and offers, as well as travel information, can now be communicated flexibly and on an individual-basis to travellers in airports across Germany.
 
Situated close to Lufthansa check-in areas of airports and also in travel agencies, the display is in a vertical format built into a distinctive Lufthansa-yellow pillar with the image of the crane on the front. Before visitors speak directly with an employee, they are provided with initial information about different destinations and offers that are currently available. Further information, such as international weather reports, news and sport, are also featured on the digital signage.
 
These point of information displays have a number of key roles, in particular providing information and conveying – and enhancing – Lufthansa’s corporate identity.
 
Over the past two years, these advertising displays have been installed at over 500 travel agencies as well as all German airports. LG manufactured the public displays integrated into these pillars. The screens are HD-capable, high resolution TFT monitors (models M4210C-BA, M4212C-BA and M4212F-BA) that are are 42” wide and have a viewing angle of 178 degrees. As a special feature, the displays can be used in portrait mode, as is the case in the Lufthansa project. The XD Engine ensures sharp and detailed rendering of image and video content.
 
Lufthansa approached MultiVision, an LG partner, to carry out this project for them. MultiVision looked to find the best manufacturer for each service of the system, from the building of individual components to creating content and system maintenance. As well as fulfilling specified functional criteria in terms of hardware and software availability within a 24-hour service over a five-year warranty period, stability was considered crucial in order to guarantee smooth operations. The LG public displays are of a high quality and are extremely robust and reliable.
 
Wolfgang Key, Head of Project Development & Product Management at MultiVision, comments, “For us, the quality of the LG displays was particularly important as the displays are used non-stop, 24/7. In tests, the LG devices scored highest.”
 
MultiVision brought a total of five partners on board to enable them to offer the Lufthansa project as a whole solution. The stylish pillars which are designed in keeping with Lufthansa’s corporate identity are from Vangenhassend. When developing them, it was important to meet fire protection requirements, which are particularly stringent at airports. Vienna-based Grassfish Marketing Technologies provided the digital signage software and jumptomorrow Design, also from Vienna, prepared the content. T-Mobile Deutschland supplied the UMTS/GPRS connection, which is particularly impressive in a network of this scale.
 
Lufthansa uses the advertising displays for flexible communication of its large, and rapidly changing, range of offers. One employee is responsible for preparing the content and the information is centrally available to all the advertising displays. The content – 80% of which is generated automatically – is distributed via a database connection. If necessary, travel agencies can input individual content, such as short-term local travel offers. For this reason, the ease of operation of the digital signage software was an important project requirement. Training was able to take place in less than 15 minutes and can take place over the telephone.
 
After the project concept was drawn up, partners selected and a three-month system test phase in 2006, the first 500 pillars were rolled out in the first half of 2007. Since then, Lufthansa has been communicating flexibly and quickly with the customer at the point of information. Not only do the displays provide customer information and promote customer loyalty but they also serve to increase sales.
 
At the Digital Signage Best Practice Award 2008, presented at Viscom, the advertising display developed by MultiVision secured first place in the Information Signage category.
 
The Lufthansa digital signage advertising medium is a consistent information and marketing tool that, using UMTS technology, enables simple and comprehensive use. It is the first widespread utilisation of UMTS technology in the digital signage field. In terms of usage, it offers the consumer both a sophisticated information system and a presentation in keeping with the individual brand and is integrated to optimum effect in the brand communication. Internally, the technology is designed to ensure that maintenance is kept to a minimum.