Article

Kiosks, entertainment, and Scotland

The sports bar concept is about to hit Scotland with a flourish, and kiosks could play a prominent role in entertaining patrons.

April 11, 2002

In the United States, the sports bar is the classic no-brainer killer entertainment app. Find a location that needs an entertainment option, slap some signed, framed jerseys on the wall, make sure the beer is cold, and watch the profits flow like the taps at the bar.

But in Scotland, ruled by centuries-old traditions and a finite amount of entertainment space, the sports bar is not as prominent on the entertainment radar screen. If a Scottish entertainment company has its way, however, the concept will be comfortable to Scottish nightlifers.

Castle Leisure Group is putting the finishing touches on a 25,000-square foot sports bar adjacent to the Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of four sports bars CLG plans to open in Scotland this year -- the others are in Falkirk, Glasgow, and Perth. Autographed jerseys of English soccer stars will probably replace those of NBA stars and NASCAR drivers featured prominently at sports bars in the United States, but the concept is similar.

A key component to the project could be kiosks. CLG is taking a close look at two different kinds of kiosks: One for patrons to play games and access the Internet, and another to offer staff interoffice communications and human resources information.

Nothing is set in stone, but the company has done enough research to suggest the kiosks will be part of the Edinburgh location when it opens later this year.

"Much of what we're working on just now is theory and `would like to's,' " said Andrew McKnight, CLG IT assistant director. "We have a trial staff system running in one of our units at present, which is giving us an idea of the problems we can expect from a larger system. This has been running for a few weeks now and has received some very positive feedback from staff, so it's a small step in the right direction. Once we are confident in our staff system we will open (our kiosks) out to the public."

If employees are happy Â…

Each complex will start off with one kiosk dedicated to staff members. McKnight said the system will connect to the staff's intranet system, offering employees the opportunity to update their human resources files, access company news and job openings, and view staff awards.

Castle Leisure Group's Sportsters sports bar could feature kiosks set up as desktop units alongside the wall.

"Our staff retention and development are very important within the company and we're constantly looking for ways to improve this," McKnight said. "In an unusual step for our industry we have decided to issue all part-time bar staff, kitchen staff, stewards, and cleaning staff with a network logon and email address. This way we can ensure that everyone has a secure and private method of communication with their colleagues, their managers and CLG senior management."

"Effectively we would like a member of staff to be able to begin working for the company, say behind the bar, on a Saturday night and have the ability, should they wish, to contact a managing director with a query," he added.

McKnight said the company is experimenting with running the system using a basic Windows 2000 operating system and running it with NetShift Software Ltd.'s NetShift Builder version 5.5 kiosk software program. CLG is also trailing a third system that allows URL blocking and user-profile auditing so the company can keep tight control over the system.

For the patron

While CLG employees can keep up with internal happenings, bar patrons could eventually have an opportunity to surf the `Net and play games while sitting at their tables.

Designed with LG Flatron flat touchscreen monitors that can either be placed on the table of attached to the wall, the units are intended to be as unobtrusive as possible.

"Having a small footprint is very important with what we're trying to do," McKnight said. "As we're planning on putting kiosks on the same tabletop as people will be eating their lunch on, we would like to keep as much free space as we can.

"The Flatron's are ideal for this," he continued. "We're really looking at putting the kiosks in booth-style tabling and possibly wall-mounting the screens. This way we can both free up a lot of space and reduce the chance of damage through spillage. The Flatron screens also look very good, which is important in a hospitality-entertainment environment."

With the Edinburgh location not scheduled to open until late spring or summer, CLG has plenty of time to consider content. What the company is finding out is that the possibilities are nearly endless. Internet access, menus, in-house games and activities, and advertising are all possible on the kiosks. CLG is considering a membership structure to allow regular patrons more features than other customers.

McKnight also said the kiosks will serve more traditional entertainment functions by offering television feeds.

"This is important as we Â… show many live sporting events in these bars," he said. "We also plan to offer archived sporting events and sporting blooper videos that customers can watch while at the table or show advertising while not in use."

Conceptualization, capitalization

With any new project there are bound to be questions of viability. In the case of CLG, there are questions over the necessity of a modern sports bar in a city like Edinburgh and the cost of developing such a high-tech facility.

To answer the first question, Catherine Bromely, editor of Edinburgh nightlife publication The List, believes CLG could serve a niche. She said the potential departure of Edinburgh techno venue and artist colony Bongo Club leaves the door open for a project like CLG's.

"There is always room for new venues opening in Edinburgh, especially when clubs like the Bongo Club are facing closure," Bromely told the Edinburgh Evening News. "Mainstream venues are always popular and (Edinburgh nightclubs) Eros and Elite and Revolution are packed every week."

As for the costs involved in launching the project, McKnight said CLG has budgeted $18.7 million to open the four new clubs. He could not estimate how much will be spent on kiosks because CLG is unsure how many kiosks will be deployed at each site.

How much the company spends could be determined by the revenue model that is created for the project. McKnight pointed out that CLG is not expecting the kiosks to be the primary revenue generator at each club. However, the company has not decided whether to go with pay-per-use or membership models, or just offer free content.

"We haven't been tied down to any specific budget for this project but, at the same time, we're not throwing money at it hoping it'll sort itself out," he said. "As we are still considering offering this as a free service to our customers, we're not about to blow our annual IT budget on it."