Booth Operation Overview

Inside the customer booth you will find a large 27 inch LCD high definition monitor or in the large Theater booth a 42 inch LCD high definition monitor. The viewing screen is divided into a large area designated as the primary screen and three small screens located vertically on the right side. While watching a movie in the primary screen area the 3 small screens are able to show 3 different movies and also offer complete control and the ability to swap into the primary screen area by the customer.

Both booth types are equipped with high quality stereo sound. Maximum volume level is adjusted for the store owner on each booth at system installation and is easily adjust if necessary in the future.

Customer interaction is achieved with the use of a touch-panel located on the booth housing enclosure on the standard booth or a remote housing in the larger booth. The customer has complete control of the movies he is watching. Channel up and down, Volume up and down, swap buttons for the small viewing screens and cursor control when in the tiled-player mode. Also a Help button, which will explain the booth controls while not using time is available for the customer.

While watching a channel the customer has only to press the play button to break the movie into 16 quadrants. The beginning of the movie is in the top left and the end of the movie is in the bottom right. By using the directional buttons on the touch pad he is able to highlight any of the 16 areas and press play to start the movie from the location indicated by the highlighted box. The customer then has 2, 4, 6, 8, 16 and 32 x fast forward and rewind from that location. This enables the customer to go directly to the part of the movie he/she is interested in quickly without having to fast-forward through the whole movie. This greatly enhances the viewing pleasure of the customer and has shown to keep them in the booth longer spending more money on average then the analog booths without the control flexibility.

A Mars bill acceptor with 700 bill stacker is located in a secure separately keyed enclosure on the standard booth and inside the high security remote enclosure. The secure separately keyed money enclosure allows store personnel to have access with a separate key for booth cleaning purposes. The bill validators accept 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 dollar bills. The Mars bill acceptors are easy to clean and maintain and have been proven to be one of the most reliable bill validators available on the market. Preset time incentives can be issued for putting in larger bills at the start of the movie viewing. The remote housing also has a padded arm rest for customer comfort while using the controls.

Booths can also be outfitted with an optional debit card reader. With the press of a button a screen will appear that allows the customer to select 5, 10, 20 or 50 dollars worth of viewing time. After selecting a dollar amount the customer swipes his card and is asked for his pin which he enters using the touch-panel. The debit card is processed and if valid will provide the amount of time to the booth. Money is transferred to the store account like any other debit purchase at the store, A daily report will be automatically generated listing each transaction and the amount. The money from debit purchases is reported separately from the cash in the bill acceptor. Each transaction is encrypted and processed by the bank directly daily.

An I-button, coded to individuals, can be read by the button reader located on the front of the cabinet and can be used to track cleaning personnel. If the booths are equipped with cleaning lights they will also be automatically turned on when the button is touched and turned off when the cleaning personnel touches it again upon exit. This feature allows you to track how long they spend cleaning each booth and the frequency. Automated reports can be generated and/or emailed to designated individuals by shift or weekly time periods.

The I-Button can also be issued to those individuals with access to the bill acceptor. Each time the money is removed the system will keep track of the exact amount that is being removed and who removed it and will clear the current count. Reports by shift of money emptied or daily, weekly can be printed automatically and/or emailed.

Each time the bill acceptor area is accessed by unauthorized individuals an email is sent to key personnel as well as activating a local system alarm which can only be cleared by a valid I-button.