Habegger

Add‑On Products Customer Case Study: Kursaal Bern

Large Swiss conference centre and hotel improves customer service and corporate branding with Ariadne, the digital signage solution from Add-On Products

“Ariadne’s features put the product in a class of its own compared to other digital signage solutions. It is extremely easy to implement, use, and scale and the Kursaal Bern has been able to reuse existing information screens without any problems.”

Andreas Gemperle, Technical Consultant, Habegger

Industry: Tourism

Country: Switzerland

Customer profile:
The Kursaal Bern is one of Switzerland’s largest conference centres and concert halls with an on‑site casino, hotel, and bars & restaurants.

Learn more about Kursaal Bern: kursaal-bern.ch

Challenge

In 2012, the Kursaal Bern completed a major overhaul of its technical infrastructure. The main contractor and technical advisor for this modernization project was Habegger, a Swiss AV consultancy group with 120 employees and an Add‑On Products Ariadne partner.

As part of this project, the Kursaal Bern wanted to implement a digital signage solution that was more up‑to‑date than its existing Ariadne solution from Add‑On Products.

Solution

After thoroughly researching several different digital signage solutions, the Kursaal Bern decided to upgrade to the new enhanced version of Ariadne.

The number of door signs was increased from 25 to 27 and the number of information and wayfinding signs was increased from 5 to 38. The Kursaal Bern chose to use a mixture of self‑sourced Windows‑based signs and Modulex hardware to derive the most benefit from Ariadne.

The Kursaal Bern has also signed a maintenance contract with Add‑On Products that includes 24/5 telephone, chat, and e‑mail support as well as access to all new versions of Ariadne.

“We evaluated several other digital signage solutions but determined that Ariadne software package best suited the Kursaal Bern needs, particularly because it smoothly integrated into its booking system and other IT-systems.”

Andreas Gemperle, Technical Consultant, Habegger

Impact / Customer Value

Large Swiss conference centre and hotel improves customer service and corporate branding with Ariadne, a digital signage solution from Add‑On Products.

The Kursaal Bern uses Ariadne to display meeting information and guide guests with its Wayfinding module. Guests can easily find their way to the correct meeting rooms, even if meeting rooms are changed with short notice. Seamless integration with the hotel’s booking system ensures that signs always display the latest information.

The Kursaal Bern also uses digital signage to advertise current and future events, such as concerts and shows in its casino. These advertisements can be displayed as static images, videos or streaming web content, all of which are easily updated via the Ariadne editor.

The AV consultancy group Habegger, which spearheaded the project, is among the largest vendors in Switzerland of media systems for hotels, congress centres, and corporate buildings.

Advantages

• Integrates with hotel booking systems and updates meeting information in real‑time.
• Professional multimedia solution with RSS feeds, video, images, and streaming content.
• Improves communication and customer service via Wayfinding signs guiding guests.
• Enhances marketing of the conference centre and its events and services.
• Meets the customer’s unique requirements thanks to the option to choose from different hardware platforms.

Ariadne is one of Add‑On Products’ digital signage software solutions that allows organizations to easily manage event info, wayfinding, and multimedia content on signs. It supports Outlook® integration, real‑time updates, and various hardware options.

Collaboration with Add-On Products

The implementation of Ariadne’s digital signage solution was carried out simultaneously with a number of other technical projects for which Habegger was also responsible. Thus, many different parties were involved, giving rise to potential communication challenges. However, the collaboration with Add-On Products went very
smoothly.

“We had a great working relationship with Add-On Products and have been very satisfied with the way this project has gone. Add-On Products was available to assist us 24/5 and the help we received was both quick and technically competent. In addition, all of our communications were in German, as we requested. I expect this
partnership to continue as Ariadne is upgraded with new features and functions.”

Andreas Gemperle, Technical Consultant, Habegger