The use of kiosk terminals in theatres and on concert meetings has been so far not very common. In Au­gust 1991 there has been used with the "Philip Morris Infoterminal" at the "International Summer Theatre Festival Kampnagel" in Hamburg an information system for a theatre festival for the very first time. With this solution it concerned a "digital brochure", which held ready for the visitors an area plan, play places, programs and contents of the festival. The information interesting for them could be printed at an attached printer.

Since the beginning of 2003 background information about the Vienna State Opera, about the different operas, about with scene photos enriched play plans, all biographies of the ensemble members and much more visitors can call up at information terminals before and after the performances as well as in the breaks. In addition, information about the opera and ballet school, the Vienna Opera ball, about the architecture and history of the Vienna State Opera as well as information about guidance dates and offerings for the young people is available. In addition, those, which employ themselves around a standing seat, can shorten the waiting time at the terminals and query the ticket availability for the next weeks rapidly and uncomplicatedly. The interactive information terminals were developed by design experts especiallly for the Vienna State Opera due to the guidelines of the Austrian Office for Federal Monument. They are in red and brass and adapt thus harmoniously to the character and the tradition of the rooms.






Nintendo  has used concerts of the Evanes­cen­ce rock music band in order to promote its GameCube resp. GameBoy games to a new audience. There the concert visitors could try out the current games on kiosk terminals. The in June 2004 as „Super Bowl for Music Fans" called Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, where stars like Eric Clapton, B.B. King or Car­los Santana performed,  has also been used by sponsos like SBC for promoting their pro­ducts and services to a broader public. Concert visitors could use the 10 kiosk ­ter­mi­nals for sending eCards to friends and family members, listening to music and having access to the Internet. On each of the eCards there has been the photo of the sender together with information about the brand and product offerings.






A lot of theatre and concert organizers use ticket terminals for a long time in order to make it possible and convenient for visitors to purchase tickets over the Internet as well as over kiosk terminals. Since April 2006 Tulsa Performing Arts Center / Tulsa Convention Center has installed a  ticket kiosk network together with Tickets.com installiert, which also allowed to book concerts in the Oaklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall, the Claremore Robson Performing Arts Cen­ter, the Oaklahoma Stage Center, the Mid­west City Rose State Performing Arts Thea­tre as well as a lot of other theatres. At the 500-seat-music hall The Soiled Dove in Denver alone in the first six weeks after the instal­lation more than 1,000 tickets at the ticket terminal were bought and/or picked uped, which had been ordered over the Internet. Among others also The Dan Show in Las Vegas has decided for the deployment of ticket ter­minals, which have been installed at every place visited by tourists . At them they can buy tickets for the show, pay fort hem and finally print them. On a second screen over the kiosk terminal trailers of the show could be seen, in order to stimulate thereby appropriate purchases.







A very interessting solution  can be found at symphony concerts in the USA: at concerts of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Kansas City Sym­phony and the Philadelphia Orchestra as well at the Aspen Music Festi­val Digital Signage has been used outside the concert hall, in order to let latecomers or those who want to watch from outside the theatre see or listen the show  in the foyer. Furthermore concert visitors call also access all information about the orchestra, the conductor and the artists as well as descriptions and interpretations of the music and English subtitles for a German opera via portable information kiosks resp. PDAs. It is even possible, to see aspects of the performance through the live video feed  and to zoom the actors' face and gestures like the function of an opera glass.  This service is well accepted at opera and concert visitors in the USA - with an increase of 166 per cent from 2005 to 2006. On average 50 to 70 units will be rented per night.

Since 2005 at the AmsterJam Music Festival in New York Heineken USA has already used so-called AgeBand Wrist­band systems and ID-Check Mobile units in order to avoid that young people under 21 years will get alcoholic drinks. Due to the age verification system more than 1,000 visitors could be rejected at the AmsterJam 2005, which has been visited by more than 30,000 visitors.

Projects, in which cinema tickets could be picked up and/or ordered at the kiosk terminal did exist already in earlier times. Thus there were already 1996 with CinemaxX Hanover the first attempts in this area. Owners of the GeldKarte could provide at the multimedia terminal not only an overview of the current film offerings, but also buy cinema coupon tickets, whose amount was deducted automatically by the GelKarte. In the cinema the customer had to change his coupon only against a ticket card.

At strongly frequented places  in Francfurt like the Zeilgalerie, Kino­po­lis, the Paramount Discoteque and the Hertie Francfurt store „Cinema Information Systems (K.I.S.)" have been installed since April 1996, which were addressed mainly for young people between 16 und 30 informing them about new films and events in the Wald­stadion Frankfurt. Per touchscreen one could touch on specific genres as „Action" or „Comedy" and afterwards one could select among the selected films the suitable trailer. The offering of the Info ter­mi­nal included also music videos and information films und dates of the Frankfurt Galaxy and Eintracht Frankfurt. Monthly about 350,000 contacts could be obtained, so that advertising partners like the Hessian Radio, Marlboro Music and Reebok have used this terminal as advertising and marketing platform.


One of the world-wide first ticketing systems has been the service of Movieline in Australia, which in 1998 has deployed a kiosk terminals network with 89 ticket terminals in the Hoyts Cine­mas, Greater Union Cinemas and Village Cinemas in Victoria, Mel­bourne, Sidney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Cinema visitors could get their online ordered tickets. 50 terminals provide even ATM functio­nalities, so that they could get also money.  More than 30.000 Titan AutoTicket-Kiosks have been deployed in the years 2001 / 2002 in several cinemas like Odeon, ABC, Showcase Cinema, Pathé in England, Ireland, France, Argen­tinia and USA. They have been used either terminals for picking up pre-ordered tickets or as specific ticket-purchase ­terminals and therefore have been equipped with a smartcard  or credit card reader, with a  ticket printer and optionally with a PINPad.

Since 2001 cinema visitors in the Famous Players Paramount Theatre in Toronto, Montreal, Van­couver and other Canadian towns could buy soundtracks, DVDs, signs and other reminders of their favourite films via kiosk terminals. In total, this cinema chain has deployed more than 600 of such terminals in Canada. Already in 2001 even 85 per cent of cinema tickets have been directly purchased at ticket terminals, which look as an eye-catcher  like exterritorial beeings - only 15 per cent have been bought at the cash.










Also in Eastern European countries kiosk terminals have been deployed in cinemas - e.g. in the    „Ukraina" in Kiew, where cinema visitors can access the WebSite of the cinema theatre and can inform about actual, future or past films and view them in text or as trailer. In addition, it was possible to generally access to the Internet,  to view eMails and also send Photo eMails  as well as SMS to friends. And because the installation of a ticket terminal was so successful in the Kolosej cinema in Ljubljana/Slovenia that over it it could be sold more than 10 per cent of the tickets, promptly another terminal was set up, which has been equipped with an additional advertising screen, in order to still additionally intensify the attention on the film offerings.





The Regal Entertainment Group in Knoxville/Tenn. is the world largest group of cinemas, to it belongs the Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edward Theatres with 6.386 screens at 539 locations in 40 US states.  In the year 2004 there have been installed 300 „Regal Express" ticket kiosk ­terminals, in order to provide cinema visitors to buy tickets, to make pre-orders and to print Online-Tickets out of Fandango's Print-at-Home-Ser­vice. At some terminals it is also possible to draw cash. In the meantime the Re­gal's cinemas are alos equipped with Digital Signage, providing their visitors a quite better service and presenting itself as an innovative company. They call themselves as the at present only enterprise with a cinema-internal Digital Signage network in HD quality whose contents are radiated over satellite.



The Douglas Theatre Company in Lincoln, Nebraska belongs also to the largest cinemas in the USA. Via a kiosk system cinema visitors can call up trailers of actual and shortly in the cinema shown films and can let them play at the same time on two large screen displays in the lobby. Douglas Theatre Company was thereby already in the year 2003 the first enterprise, that has combined kiosks and Digital Signage. While the trailer on the large screen runs off, on a small round screen left beside it paid advertisement of the sponsors is played Beside the effect that the advertisement e.g. about in the cinema offered services is seen by everyone, it experiences the management now up-to-date, which films encounter the largest interest with the visitors. Therefore this application has been awarded with the  „2005 Kiosk Marketpace Award" in the category „Best Digital Display Application".

In Germany the CinemaxX AG has equipped in November 2003 all CinemaxX theatres with kiosk terminals for picking up the tickets,  so that the past queues and the otherwise usual 30-minute collection period are void. The customer now receives the online purchase tickets in the cinema  at one of the 64 picking up automats. This is well visibly deployed in the entrance hall of the cinema. At the screen of the terminal the picking up number has to be entered and then the tickets are printed out within only few seconds (using the direct debiting system then additionally the  ec-Card is neccessary). For this service CinemaxX AG cooperated with the cinema ticket shop of T-Online, since mid of February 2007 this service will be done by the Atrada Trading Network AG.

CineMark USA, Inc,. located in Dallas - with 4.506 screens in 397 theatres in 37 US states and additional 14 non-ameri­ca­n countries - has analyzed that on weekends about 80 per cent of the cinema visitors prefer to purchase their tickets at the ticket ter­minal than at the counter waiting in a queue.  Interesting was it to see that turning the screen in direction toward the visitor ways one obtained by 134 per cent better use of the terminals. Due to a common study of Radiant Systems, Inc. and Georgia Tech University in Atlanta three kiosk terminals do replace the functionality of two traditional counters.

Vue Entertainment is with presently 54 theatres UK's largest operator of modern multiplex cinemas mit 126.351 seats and over 30 Mio. visitors per year. Last year an integrated retail and hospitality software developed specially for cinemas  as well as around 700 point-of-sale termi­nals and 150 self-service kiosks have been installed.  They contributed to the fact that the queues at the ticket counters and at the concession stands for buying drinks or popcorn could be  drastically re­duced - with the benefits that the productivity of the staff could be increased, the ser­vice level improved and the labour costs re­duced. Having the right number of people at the right time means more efficient use of staff. And that now visitors can pick up their tickets at ticket terminals as well as at each concession stand, means an increase of customer loyalty and by this an uplift in hitrates which is adding additional sales per person. Until now the projects has so far exceeded all expectations, therefore the return on investment is expected within three years.

The list of interesting kiosk solutions is quite long. More information you will find shortly in the „MediaCityReport"- the extensive study about the practical deployment of kiosk terminals and digital signage all over the world.