- Since deploying an immersive experience for dairy and pig farming, the museum has been able to create a more reliable connection between the physical and digital worlds
- Several of the digital players, provided by BrightSign and Nexmosphere, leverage sensor data with RFID reader and motion sensor to track presence
Indiana’s Fair Oaks Farm is immersing visitors in the world of farming with a digital experience provided by BrightSign and using sensor technology from Nexmosphere. The system employs motion sensing, RFID technology and cloud-based software to update the content as needed to keep visitors engaged and serve them on their first and subsequent visits.
Since the system went live in January 2023, the experiential museum has been bringing the world of dairy farming, crops and raising pigs to visitors in a digital setting, said Brock Gorrell, Fair Oaks’ museum and tour operation director.
The tech company based in San Jose, CA, BrightSign offers end-to-end digital signage solutions for immersive experiences in museums—from a single screen to thousands of them. In the case of Fair Oaks, the goal was to make the experience of learning about farming accessible to families, from young future farmers to adults.
Sharing a Farming Community
Fair Oaks Farm, established in 2004, is a tourism and hospitality organization that educates and advocates on behalf of agriculture. Fair Oaks partners with local farms to offer tours and firsthand views into some of the farming that feeds our world. Early on, it began showcasing dairy farming practices and innovations. The farm’s founders pointed out that two percent of the U.S. population are farmers, and many of the remaining 98 percent understand little about how food was produced and where it came from.
Since its founding, Fair Oak Farms has become an agritourism destination. It most recently features the highlights of fall and family farming: apple cinnamon donuts, and apple fest, Halloween train rides, and a November Pumpkin Smash Bash.
As the farm experience program has grown, the company also offers an interactive museum experience that started with Dairy Adventure, centered around sharing and demonstrating dairy farming. It now offers Pig Adventure and Crop Adventure as well.
Fair Oaks attracts a wide range of visitors from school field excursions to business trips. Sharing dynamic content is critical to engaging these audiences, said Gorrell. Bringing farming to a public audience includes some digital experience. The company wanted to ensure content was presented in an engaging and immersive way and can be updated as needed throughout seasons and years ahead.
Digital Signage and RFID Tracking for Visitors
Before the deployment with BrightSign, the Fair Oaks’ touchscreen displays operated inconsistently and occasionally the screens would go blank. The farm initially considered installing new mini-PCs and rebuilding apps for them, but that would have been time-consuming. Fair Oaks ultimately came to BrightSign for a better solution, said Gorrell
They replaced mini-PCs with 14 BrightSign XC4055 and HD1025 digital players deployed across its museum to bring more personalized content to visitors. Fair Oaks keeps additional players — one with a single port and one with four ports — in the back, for testing and building new content.
One display features a touch-screen map of the United States where visitors can tap images to learn about dairy farmers in different states. Another attraction includes projection-mapped visuals. As a visitor enters the projection goes live, to make visitors feel as if they are standing in a forest.
For some programming, one of the team members utilizes a hidden RFID tag to trigger custom videos specific to that program. The system reads the tag and displays a particular video or game for that individual. This helps deliver a customized experience for new or repeat guests, the farm reported.
Each of the player devices connect to the cloud-based servicer, known as BSN.Cloud, so that museum management can develop and control content. Devices leverage BrightSign’s operating system and System-on-a-Chip (SoC) software which enables the museum to manage and update content for each player as the exhibits evolve.
Future Planning Still Ahead
Fair Oaks is exploring additional RFID applications and experimenting with emerging technologies in the visitor experience space.
“Together, we are exploring additional concepts for further deployments,” said Gorrell.
BrightSignOS can also connect directly to partner solutions, so users can scale and expand the capabilities of digital signage as they need, said Brian Rowley, BrightSign CMO.
“Visitors appreciate the motion sensing capabilities of Fair Oaks exhibits as it makes the experience much more interactive,” Gorrell said. He added that Fair Oaks staff members indicated they have more reliable tools to work with.