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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
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
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
Learn more: samsung.com/prodisplay | 1-800-SAMSUNG | 1-866-SAM4BIZ
Follow us: youtube.com/samsungbizusa | @SamsungBizUSA
© 2015 Samsung Electronics America, Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co.,
Ltd. All products, logos and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Screen images
simulated. This case study is for informational purposes only. Samsung makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study.
CASEST-LFD-CROWN-JUN15J
The Results
Easy Installation, Lower TCO and New Capabilities
When the first ferry boats arrived at the
Liberty Island around 9 a.m. on July 4,
2013 following its eight month closure,
the Statue of Liberty Crown Café
was ready to serve guests in a newly
renovated, contemporary environment
featuring its streamlined new digital
menu boards.
According to Polly, installation of the
Samsung MD-C Series displays was as
“quick, easy and straightforward” since
– without an external media player –
the only cables required are power and
Internet. “For the most part, with the
MD-C Series, everything comes in the
box,” he explains. “There’s nothing else
you need to buy.”
For Evelyn Hill, the Samsung Smart
Signage Platform displays have
provided a streamlined and cost-
effective digital signage solution,
representing a significant evolution
from earliest displays it deployed with
PCs in 2004.
The digital menu boards are operating
seamlessly and provide a dynamic,
customer-friendly ordering experience.
The café serves more than 600 guests
an hour and the menu boards have
improved the service flow. In addition,
the displays on the café queue
featuring menu items and Statue of
Liberty facts and figures have helped to
reduce the guests’ perceived wait time.
“The response to the new technology
that Samsung has brought to Crown
Café is terrific,” says Hill.
The Samsung MagicInfo content
management software has also
allowed Hill to add “AV Manager” to
the many hats he wears, updating
content from his PC and sending it out
instantly to all the displays. “Having
the embedded media player is perfect
for our type of operation. We’re a café
with a consistent menu and we want
to provide the information to guests
without a problem,” he says.
“MagicInfo is made for the everyday
person to use. It is really simple to learn
and execute – upload, add to playlist,
schedule and you’re done.”
The Crown Cafe is taking full
advantage of MagicInfo’s “day-parting”
capabilities. Hill is able to schedule
automatic updates to promote specific
menu items throughout the day and
have the displays power down on time
at the end of the day. Plans are also
under way for additional, dynamic
content for the displays, including
employee-focused messages before
the café opens, and information for
guests on the organic foods the café
offers, on nutrition and on Evelyn Hill
Inc.’s environmental programs.
“Evelyn Hill and the Statue of Liberty
Crown Café are an excellent example
of how digital signage is becoming
simpler, easier and increasingly cost-
effective for businesses of all sizes,”
says Kevin Schroll, senior product
marketing manager for commercial
displays at Samsung’s Enterprise
Business Division. “They have tapped
into the potential of smart digital
signage to simplify message delivery
and their business.”

More Related Content

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
  • 4. Learn more: samsung.com/prodisplay | 1-800-SAMSUNG | 1-866-SAM4BIZ Follow us: youtube.com/samsungbizusa | @SamsungBizUSA © 2015 Samsung Electronics America, Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All products, logos and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Screen images simulated. This case study is for informational purposes only. Samsung makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. CASEST-LFD-CROWN-JUN15J The Results Easy Installation, Lower TCO and New Capabilities When the first ferry boats arrived at the Liberty Island around 9 a.m. on July 4, 2013 following its eight month closure, the Statue of Liberty Crown Café was ready to serve guests in a newly renovated, contemporary environment featuring its streamlined new digital menu boards. According to Polly, installation of the Samsung MD-C Series displays was as “quick, easy and straightforward” since – without an external media player – the only cables required are power and Internet. “For the most part, with the MD-C Series, everything comes in the box,” he explains. “There’s nothing else you need to buy.” For Evelyn Hill, the Samsung Smart Signage Platform displays have provided a streamlined and cost- effective digital signage solution, representing a significant evolution from earliest displays it deployed with PCs in 2004. The digital menu boards are operating seamlessly and provide a dynamic, customer-friendly ordering experience. The café serves more than 600 guests an hour and the menu boards have improved the service flow. In addition, the displays on the café queue featuring menu items and Statue of Liberty facts and figures have helped to reduce the guests’ perceived wait time. “The response to the new technology that Samsung has brought to Crown Café is terrific,” says Hill. The Samsung MagicInfo content management software has also allowed Hill to add “AV Manager” to the many hats he wears, updating content from his PC and sending it out instantly to all the displays. “Having the embedded media player is perfect for our type of operation. We’re a café with a consistent menu and we want to provide the information to guests without a problem,” he says. “MagicInfo is made for the everyday person to use. It is really simple to learn and execute – upload, add to playlist, schedule and you’re done.” The Crown Cafe is taking full advantage of MagicInfo’s “day-parting” capabilities. Hill is able to schedule automatic updates to promote specific menu items throughout the day and have the displays power down on time at the end of the day. Plans are also under way for additional, dynamic content for the displays, including employee-focused messages before the café opens, and information for guests on the organic foods the café offers, on nutrition and on Evelyn Hill Inc.’s environmental programs. “Evelyn Hill and the Statue of Liberty Crown Café are an excellent example of how digital signage is becoming simpler, easier and increasingly cost- effective for businesses of all sizes,” says Kevin Schroll, senior product marketing manager for commercial displays at Samsung’s Enterprise Business Division. “They have tapped into the potential of smart digital signage to simplify message delivery and their business.”