How digital signage automatically displays today’s menu for a college restaurant
Getting students as fast as possible to the right food counter, minimising waiting times an maximising efficiency. That’s what Alma, a college restaurant, wanted to achieve using intelligent digital signage systems.
How Centomedia helped
A good digital signage partner can empathize completely with their customer. So when Alma asked us to help figuring out a clear and automated communication system for displaying today’s menu, we felt eager to face this challenge.
A crucial condition for this project was the possibility to connect the digital signage messages to the data system of the customer. That’s why we came up with a specific flow: at the end of the week, the chef creates next week’s menu. He lists the ingredients with additional info like allergies and number of calories. Next, the ingredients are automatically sent to the different suppliers and the management determines prices. Last but not least, the chef takes a photo of each dish with his smartphone, using an inhouse light box, which is automatically transferred to the digital signage system as well. And after that… all done, the menu is ready!
Why Alma chose Centomedia
The data integration was of course a crucial part of this project. But we wanted to go beyond that. Digital signage is all about communication and is more than technicalities. That is why, together with design expert Bailleuil, we implemented a system of colour coding that guides students immediately to the right counter.
At the entrance, we installed 6 different screens with different colours. Each colour represents a type of kitchen: e.g. green for vegetarian food, red for Asian, blue for Italian, etc. These colours are also used at the counters, making it possible for students to see at a glance where they need to go to get their favorite type of food. Each counter also has 3 screens, displaying the menu again, attractively designed, and using the right colours of course.
Maximum result with minimum effort. That’s what this project was all about. We are proud having helped Alma out with this intelligent data connection system, but also with the attractive menu templates and – last but not least – an efficient long-term data communication flow.
In the future
The Alma management wants to take the automated process a few steps further. They’re investigating how to connect the point-of-sale system to food availability, price setting and offer. For example, it would be great to automatically update which dishes are available and which aren’t, so the sold out dishes are no longer shown on all screens.
We are looking forward to assist Alma in their journey toward fully automated screen communication.