- QR Code Scan Provides an RFID Wristband
- Tapping to Play
- Contactless Food Purchasing
- Future Use Cases
U.K.-based entertainment company Lane7 has opened a family entertainment center known as Level X, which leverages radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for cashless game playing. The new location, which opened this summer in Glasgow, Scotland, employs Connect&Go‘s Konnect software and app, as well as HF RFID wristbands and self-serve kiosks from Olea Kiosks, which users can tap to access games, top up payments and pay for food.
The new venue, which opened in August 2022, is intended to merge traditional childhood games with technology, says Emma Luke-Ward, Lane7s head of sales and marketing. That, she explains, means families have access to virtual reality play, as well as traditional arcade games, bowling (known at the venue as gutter ball) and golf. According to Luke-Ward, the company is unique in its use of technology for ticketing as well.
QR Code Scan Provides an RFID Wristband
The goal, according to Lane7, was to design an entertainment center focused around offering its guests more playtime and less queue time. Therefore, the technology allows users to pre-book a time and pay ahead, then move seamlessly from one game to the next, or access food and drink within their allotted time onsite. New appointed time slots start every 30 minutes. Once individuals have selected their preferred length of time in hourly increments, they can prepay and receive a QR code linked to their account.
When guests arrive onsite, they scan their QR code at a kiosk or present the code directly to a member of the venue’s team. Once the code is approved, based on their payment and the proper time selected, the guests receive their wristbands with built-in HF RFID chips that transmit a unique ID number at 13.56 MHz, compliant with ISO 15693. The ID built into each person’s wristband is linked in the Konnect software with that individual or family and their prepayments.
Users will have paid into one or more of three wallets. One wallet is dedicated to games, such as bowling or virtual reality digital play, another pays for access to the arcade games, and the third is for buying food and beverages. The use of three separate wallets is necessary, the company explains, because three different vendors onsite provide the services. A family can purchase a wristband-managed ticket for each member, with wallets filled for the activities in which the family wants to take part n. For instance, a family could prepay £10 ($11.75) for each individual to play, or they could open a single wallet for play across all family members.
Tapping to Play
At Level X, attendants at the entranceway scan each player’s wristband using a handheld device to confirm that the guests have arrived within their appointed timeframe. Once approved, they can enter and choose the specific activity that interests them first. At the entrance to each game or virtual reality gaming arena, staff members are equipped with a handheld RFID reader, which they tap against the wristband of each player upon their arrival.
Players can then move into the line, or they can begin playing if there is no queue in which to wait. Virtual reality games include cyber-darts, karaoke pods and a pool hall, and they can win tickets at the area dedicated to arcade games (19 such games are available), according to Tom Rooney, Level X’s head of operations. “Then you convert your tickets to prizes,” he says, “which you get through a prize hub,” to gain a prize that can be anything from a whoopee cushion to an iPad.
To ensure queues are kept to a minimum, the games are provided for limited spans of time. Virtual reality pods are available in 10-minute increments, Rooney says, “so you can play that for 10 minutes and then go on to another game.” The games can accommodate up to six people as a group, playing against either each other or the computer.
Contactless Food Purchasing
If players choose to purchase food or beverages, they can use their wristbands, which provide touch-free access to their prepaid concessions wallet. Guests have choices when it comes to ordering, the company explains. They can place their order at a kiosk or via smartphone by scanning the QR code on their wristband, or they can place the order at the point of sale and pay with a tap of the bracelet against a reader.
In addition, users have the option of purchasing a £2 ($2.35) silicone wristband that is more durable than the disposable paper version. The guests can take the silicone bands home, and the related, existing wallet balances are maintained so the bracelets can be reused for up to six months. After that period has ended, the wallet funds are returned to the users’ account. Not everybody who visits Level X needs to pay, Rooney notes. For instance, parents could come to simply oversee their children, or they could limit their prepaid funders to arcade games or concessions.
The Konnect platform, released in 2020, is an all-in-one cloud-based management software for attractions, says Anthony Palermo, Connect&Go’s cofounder. “It’s a back end that populates your e-com, onsite POS [point of sale] for ticketing,” he says, which integrates with existing management systems and access-control peripherals.
Future Use Cases
The wristband solution has been in place at Level X since the August opening, through school half-term holidays, when the venue is busiest. According to Rooney, the technology has been working well thus far. “We’ve been testing the capacity of the venue,” he says, in part to decide what constitutes an acceptable queue wait when visitors pay for time-based products. The intention, Luke-Ward adds, is to ensure players “are nearly always engaged in an activity rather than in the queue.”
The next Level X site is slated to open in January 2023 in Middlesbrough, England, which will also leverage the Connect&Go technology. In the future, the company hopes to use queue length data analysis to provide additional services. For example, the venue could offer guests a pager that will buzz when it’s their turn at a game, or when their ordered food or drink is ready for pickup. “For us,” Luke-Ward states, “the Connect&Go solution is very much guest experience-driven.”
Whether the technology is used for other features, Luke-Ward says, such as further understanding the movements of guests through the facility, “That will be a case of learning and developing alongside Connect&Go.” Guests have proven to quickly grasp how the wristbands and prepaid wallets are used, she says. “This has been a bit of an educational piece with guests, because it’s not traditionally how bowling or golfing is operated. But we factored [the educational needs] into our customer journey” through the booking system and the kiosks.
Key Takeaways:
- Scottish entertainment center Level X offers digital and physical gaming, as well as food and drinks, which can be accessed via an RFID-based wristband.
- Since the system was taken live in August, Level X says guests have quickly adapted to tapping their wristbands for game access and concessions purchases.