Disruptive tech to engage growing theme park crowds

Separating the noise from story line falls to multimedia professionals, who will be sharing experiences and emerging technology at InfoComm in Las Vegas this year.

The ideas come at an important time, as the theme park industry records strong growth. Additions and expansions are happening this year at more than 75 world destinations, according to the International Assoc. of Amusement Parks and Attractions. At the same time, there is growing concern among industry pros that people are becoming over-saturated and confused by the growing amounts of media vying for attention. Many are wondering if these new noise levels are driving away commerce instead of generating engagement. 

To address this, hospitality brands are seeking to connect technologies in an exacted way so they can provide a personalized engagement that leads customers through the competing noise. For instance, a hotel that can connect to your music subscription account and has your most listened-to song ready to play on the Bluetooth speaker when you enter your room, while providing box scores of your favorite sports teams on the television.

Trendsetters in hospitality & retail increasingly rely on disruptive technologies to accelerate their businesses, and to create unified experiences. They’re investing to improve things like personalization and communication, and see a time when artificial intelligence will play a critical role. Panasonic is deeply engaged in these technologies. We believe that connecting them into integrated solutions is essential to creating entirely new experiences. We commissioned a new research series, Moving Forward, on how disruptive technologies are impacting businesses, government agencies and entire industries.

Our research finds that mobile devices, apps & commerce and the cloud are the most commonly adopted disruptive technologies across the supply chain, particularly within food service, hospitality & retail industries. These customer-facing industries are especially bullish on artificial intelligence, which can help them better understand the needs and behavior of their customers.

There’s incredibly interesting work occurring as cinema and theme park efforts converge, informed by a growing understanding of customer behavior. In both film and parks, things used to be purely physical set pieces. That evolved into set pieces with limited projection and now it is largely sophisticated projection imaging with some set pieces.

It’s where the science of imaging meets the psychology of imaging. The human visual system is a physiological system that science and technology address. But how the image impacts a person is the psychology of imaging. We take the technology core and infuse it with a creative effort to make imaging different. When it’s done well in the physical environments of themed entertainment, you see technology become magic.

Read more about how cinema and theme park efforts are converging and Panasonic’s collaboration with Walt Disney Parks & Resorts in The Psychology of Imaging.