Kansas City, MO, USA – Kansas City’s brand-new International Airport terminal has opened with a focus on traveller experience, offering a technology-rich terminal with large LED walls driven by tvONE’s Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers.
The new multimillion-dollar, 39-gate single terminal is billed as the largest single infrastructure project in Kansas City’s history and the natural light-filled, spacious building reflects the city’s aspirations. Local artists have created pieces that are installed throughout, and it is home to more than 126 women and minority-group-owned businesses.
The modern, dedicated ticketing area features an LED wall that spans the entire counter space, standing at more than 38,000 pixels wide and 480 pixels tall. The LED wall displays key information and branded airline content. A smaller LED wall is located in the arrivals area at the information desk. Three Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers drive all of the visual content, with one primary Boreal+ MK2 and one backup for the ticket counter wall and another for the arrivals screen.
Experiential technology firm Dimensional Innovations was contracted to deliver the content and install the system. “This was our first time using Green Hippo in an installation, and we were led to Hippotizer because the client requirements aligned perfectly with Hippotizer’s capabilities,” explains Chris Riebschlager, Director of Creative Technology at Dimensional Innovations.
“It is the perfect tool for the job. The rock-solid playback performance was a nice surprise and the ability to manage several machines from within a single UI was hugely beneficial. Also being able to very easily save, export and backup shows was very helpful.”
Dimensional Innovations says its first challenge was quickly ramping up knowledge of the Hippotizer system to complete the job before the airport opening. “Thanks to Nick Spencer and the Green Hippo team, we had plenty of support as we worked through learning the system,” says Riebschlager. “Nick Spencer met us on-site to help us through the initial setup. It was incredibly helpful to hear directly from someone with much experience with Green Hippo.”
The content for the displays was created by the video production team at Dimensional Innovations, and there is also airline-provided content in the mix. In addition to looping branded airline content, status messages appear above each ticket counter to direct travellers to specific areas of service. Each airline has custom content that runs behind its ticket counter space.
Dimensional Innovations was also tasked with developing a content management system that would allow the airport and airlines to alter the display information in real time.
“There are custom status messages that the airlines can change at any time using our specially created cloud-hosted content management system,” Riebschlager continues. “We used the TouchDesigner plugin to render these status messages as a web page, which is then sliced up with Hippotizer VideoMapper and placed in each mix. Additionally, the airlines can trigger different presets in Hippotizer via this content management system. A locally hosted web service relays these content management system changes to Hippotizer over the REST API interface, which we are taking full advantage of.”
The main content runs on a loop and is essentially on autopilot, and the team reports that the project was completed well in advance of the airport opening. “It’s a stunning accent to Kansas City’s beautiful new airport terminal,” adds Riebschlager. “All the planned functionality was able to be completed using already existing features of Hippotizer.”
Dimensional Innovations’ Patrick McMahon served as Producer on the project, Devin Kelly-Collins as Developer, Dexter Brewer as Motion Designer and Emilio Servigon as UI/UX Designer.
“We’re excited to help these central visual features at Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal become a reality,” said Scott Kehoe, Regional Sales Manager for tvONE.
“The experience created by Dimensional Innovations and tvONE using our Green Hippo® Media Server platform will provide dynamic visuals and excitement for air travellers as they whisk past the ticker counter and information desk.”
Kehoe continues, “This project is another great example of how Green Hippo’s Hippotizer® technology – developed over the past 20+ years in the world of Live Events for concert video and lighting – is translating to our everyday ‘Life Events’ such as going to the airport.”
Kansas City International Airport officially opened on February 28, promising a ‘total travel transformation’ for people arriving to and departing from ‘The Heart of America’.
Image Credit: © Dimensional Innovations
