After Superstorm Sandy, the Statue of Liberty was closed for eight months to repair damage to the island’s facilities. The closure became an opportunity for Evelyn Hill Inc., the food and retail services concessionaire at the National Park, to implement a planned redesign to the popular Crown Café. As part of the renovation, Evelyn Hill sought to utilize the latest digital signage technology to present café menus and promotions in a dynamic, attractive and cost-effective manner. Learn how Samsung digital menu boards powered by MagicInfo breathe new life into this landmark café devastated by Superstorm Sandy. samsung.com/smartsignage
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Samsung Digital Menu Boards Breathe New Life Into Landmark Café Devastated by Superstorm Sandy
1. Case Study: Statue of Liberty Crown Café
Samsung Digital Menu Boards Powered by MagicInfo Breathe
New Life into Landmark Café Devastated by Superstorm Sandy
Customer Need
After Superstorm Sandy, the Statue of
Liberty was closed for eight months to
repair damage to the island’s facilities.
The closure became an opportunity
for Evelyn Hill Inc., the food and
retail services concessionaire at the
National Park, to implement a planned
redesign to the popular Crown Café.
As part of the renovation, Evelyn
Hill sought to utilize the latest digital
signage technology to present café
menus and promotions in a dynamic,
attractive and cost-effective manner.
Samsung Solution
Working with leading integrator
VideoSonic Systems, Evelyn Hill
selected the Samsung MD-C Series
of commercial displays to power the
Crown Café’s menu boards and to
engage guests waiting in line. The
Samsung Smart Signage Platform-
capable displays – featuring an
embedded system-on-chip media
player and MagicInfo software
– provided an integrated, easy-to-
manage digital signage solution that
lets staff directly adjust content and
schedule updates throughout the day.
Results
Serving more than 600 guests an
hour, the Crown Café has seen an
improvement in service flow with
the vibrant digital menu boards. The
displays in the queue have also helped
to lessen guests’ perceived wait
time. Most significantly, the Samsung
displays eliminated the need for
an external media player to deliver
content, helping to reduce the cost of
deployment and maintenance, as well
as energy consumption.
Overview
2. 2
When Superstorm Sandy made
landfall on the East Coast on
October 29th, 2012, Liberty Island
was hit hard, with the storm surge
flooding 75 percent of its 12 acres.
While the Statue of Liberty itself
survived the storm unharmed,
many of the facilities that supported
the iconic attraction took a heavy
beating, resulting in the closure of
the island to visitors for more than
eight months.
For Evelyn Hill Inc., the official food
and retail concessionaire for Liberty
Island and several other National
Park Service monuments, the
closure was devastating. “The eight
months that the Statue of Liberty
was closed was a tough time for
us all,” said Brad Hill, president of
Evelyn Hill.
According to a park service report,
3.7 million people visited the Liberty
Island in 2011, generating $174
million in economic activity and
supporting 2,218 jobs.
Hill is the third generation of his
family to lead Evelyn Hill Inc., which
has been serving visitors to the
Statue of Liberty for more than 80
years. The company operates the
Statue of Liberty Crown Café and
the Liberty Gift Pavilion, as well
as another café and gift shop on
neighboring Ellis Island.
Through the years, Evelyn Hill has
honed its focus on environmental
sustainability and on providing
healthy, locally produced and
organic food selections. Opened in
2010, the Liberty Gift Pavilion is one
of only five Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED )
Platinum buildings constructed in
New York City in a national park.
It features recycled materials, LED
lighting, a geothermal heating
and cooling system, and rooftop
rainwater recycling. In addition,
Evelyn Hill recycles or composts
over 94% of its waste.
While the lengthy closure of the
Statue of Liberty hurt Evelyn
Hill financially, it did provide the
company the opportunity to move
ahead with a planned redesign of
the popular Crown Café. “On the
positive side, it allowed us to do
the renovation without interfering
with visitors,” Hill says. “We were
very excited to create a new,
contemporary environment.”
Evelyn Hill has a long heritage
of innovation, priding itself on
introducing new technologies and
design improvements as part of the
regular renovations carried out at its
facilities. In particular, the company
has been an early adopter of digital
signage, first installing flat-panel
displays at one of the cafes way
back in 2004, and later integrating
dynamic video walls when the
Liberty Gift Pavilion was constructed
in 2010.
“When we partnered with Evelyn
Hill to install those first digital signs,
each display needed a dedicated
PC to serve the content,” recalls
Glenn Polly, president and CEO
of VideoSonic Systems, a leading
New York-based provider of audio
visual systems that implemented
the project. “By 2010, technology
had evolved so we were able to use
Samsung LCD displays with content
run off internal media players.”
So, when Evelyn Hill approached
VideoSonic to discuss the AV
outfitting for the renovated Crown
Café post-Superstorm Sandy, Polly
knew that they would be looking
to push boundaries and further
streamline their digital signage.
The Crown Café menu boards and
digital signage would need to be
vibrant, slim and elegant, to fit with
the modern interior of the renovated
café. They had to be energy-
efficient to conform with Evelyn Hill’s
strong emphasis on environmental
sustainability. And, lastly, they
needed to be streamlined, easy
to manage and to enable smarter,
automated content updates.
Dynamic Menu Boards and Displays, Energy-Efficiency and Easy
Management of Content
The Customer Need:
The Customer
Statue of Liberty Crown Café
3. 3
Evelyn Hill Inc. selected Samsung’s
40-inch MD-C Series LED -direct
lit commercial displays for its digital
menu boards at the renovated
Crown Café on Liberty Island. A
total of 10 displays were installed
above the nearly 50-foot span of
the service counter, providing a
dynamic, attractive and modern look.
Additionally, the café featured three
40-inch displays at the entrance while
a number of 22-inch LED -backlit
Samsung displays were installed in
portrait format on pillars along the
queuing line, displaying promotional
menu items interspersed with fun facts
and trivia about the Statue of Liberty
to keep guests engaged.
Aesthetically, the MD-C Series
displays provide bright, full HD images,
with their narrow bezels and thin
profile accentuating the appearance
that the menu boards are floating
above the counter. Utilizing energy-
efficient LED-direct-lit technology, they
are more affordable to deploy and
contribute to lower ongoing operating
costs. In fact, LED-lit LCD displays
consume an average of 40 percent
less power than traditional LCD panels
with cold-cathode florescent lamp
(CCFL) backlights.
Most important, however, the MD-C
Series features the Samsung Smart
Signage Platform, an integrated
solution built around an embedded
system-on-chip media player that
resides directly on the display’s
circuitry board. The system-on-chip,
which combines a Dual Core CPU,
a full codec video processor, and
between 4GB and 8GB of storage
depending on the model, eliminates
the need for a PC or external media
player to serve content.
As Polly of VideoSonic explains, this
not only reduces hardware costs but
also results in savings in installation
and provides a cleaner design. Other
advantages of the system-on-chip
media player include less maintenance
and display downtime due to fewer
potential points of failure, and reduced
power consumption.
The MD-C Series also comes
preloaded with Samsung’s MagicInfo
software, a management tool which
that enables any non-professional user
to schedule, play and update display
content simply and conveniently.
“MagicInfo is very powerful,” says
Polly. “It’s user-friendly and easy to
grasp. It delivers dynamic content
that can change depending on time
of day and guest traffic. It can be
programmed ahead of time, and
managed from anywhere.”
According to Hill, the overall value
package of the Samsung Smart
Signage displays with MagicInfo
meant the choice was obvious. “I
have been to tradeshows to see the
displays from a number of different
manufacturers,” he said. “I’m very
impressed with Samsung product –
it is high quality, easy to use and
the service has been excellent
over the years.”
Quick Profile:
As used by the Statue of Liberty
Crown Cafe
The Samsung Solution
MD-C Series Displays Featuring Embedded Media Player and
MagicInfo Content Management Software
Panel Technology: 60Hz Direct-
LED backlit LCD
Resolution: 1920x1080
Brightness: 350 nits
Contrast Ratio (Typical ): 5000:1
Response Time: 8ms
Screen Depth: 3.7 inches
Internal Media Player: Cortex A9
1GHz Dual Core, 1GB DDR3, 4GB
FDM
Bezel Width: 16.3mm (bottom
21.9mm) for MD32C; 17.4mm
(bottom 22.0mm) for MD40C/
MD46C/MD55C
Weight: 14.1 lbs for MD32C;
21.6 lbs for MD40C; 27.6 lbs for
MD46C; 42.1 lbs for MD55C
Features: Samsung Smart
Signage Platform compatible;
MagicInfo software (Lite,
Premium-S, VideoWall-S);
RS232C/RJ45 MDC; Plug
and Play (DD C2B); Video
Wall (10x10); Smart Scheduling;
Smart F/W update
Power Consumption (Typical/
Max): 47W/77W for MD32C;
58W/110W for MD40C; 65W/121W
for MD46C; 165W/86W for MD55C
Environmental: Energy Star 5.0
compliant; RoHS compliant
Standard Warranty: 3 years on-
site (parts/labor)
SAMSUNG MD-C SERIES
COMMERCIAL LED LCD
DISPLAYS