Apteekkari restaurant

Background

Apteekkari is a three-story bar and restaurant complex in Kuopio, Finland, attracting thousands of visitors annually. Hailed as the heartbeat of the city centre, Apteekkari is a hotspot for locals and tourists looking to relax, celebrate and socialise with friends and family.

The venue offers extensive food and drink menus, an always populated dance floor and regular live entertainment. These can be enjoyed in the main bar and restaurant areas, as well as on the hugely popular ‘Apteekkari Sky’ roof top terrace.

As with many other hospitality businesses, Covid-19 meant several months of closure for the restaurant. Now, with a gradual lifting of lockdown, Apteekkari needed an effective, cost efficient solution for queue and capacity management.

Challenge

With high footfall, monitoring capacity at Apteekkari is a fulltime job, taking staff away from their daily tasks or resulting in a costly additional expense by increasing headcount.

To counter these rising costs, the Apteekkari management team turned to Avek Esitysratkaisut Oy, a local AV integration firm with whom they have worked for around 20 years. The brief? To source a dedicated solution to help easily and accurately monitor capacity on its rooftop terrace.

A specialist for the hospitality and restaurant industry for over a decade, Avek has a long-standing relationship with PPDS, choosing Philips displays for almost all installations for Osuuskauppa PeeÄs locations to date.

Jari Pöykiö, sales manager at Avek, commented: “Finnish regulations for restaurants are very tough even during normal times. Keeping people safe and socially distanced to help reduce the potential spread of a new and invisible enemy (Covid-19) is a major consideration for many industries and present some major challenges. That’s where technology can play a vital role and that’s why we again turned to PPDS.”

Solution

With time critical, Avek selected to install PeopleCount, including two 32” Google-certified, Android-powered and wi-fi connected D-Line displays, together with a Bosch FLEXIDOME IP Micro 3000i IH intelligent camera and the Philips Professional Display Solutions PeopleCount app.

Designed for 24/7 use, with full remote management control using the exclusive CMND platform, and capable of delivering complex content to capture any audience’s attention, the D-Line displays were strategically positioned in portrait mode at the entrance of ‘Apteekkari Sky’ rooftop terrace and inside the rooftop’s indoor bar area.

Connected to strategically-placed Bosch cameras, the number of people entering and exiting the terrace is calculated and displayed in real-time, with a traffic light system to indicate when it’s safe for people to enter, as and when capacity is reached and reduced.

In addition, the displays are used to communicate marketing messages and promotions to customers, whether waiting or not – ensuring investments are maximised and future-proofed. Avek’s Jari commented: “Before PeopleCount there was no other viable choice, which is a testament to PPDS’ foresight and ability to respond to market conditions. After testing PeopleCount, we had no hesitation in recommending it to our client.”

Arto Hujanen, restaurant manager, added: “The safety of our customers and staff is our number one priority and, with PeopleCount, we now have a solution that brings a new level of safety, as well as trust, as we continue to move forward in a post Covid-19 world.

Benefits

Automated queue management solution: Real-time monitoring of capacity and social distancing to help keep people safe.

Cost effective: Self-managed queuing system, removing the need for costly dedicated staff for low cost of ownership.

Multifunctional/Future-proof: Displays are also used to provide marketing messages and promotions to customers.