A digital kiosk also known as an electric kiosk is omnipresent everywhere we go. It has been widely used in many public spaces like stores, shopping malls, plazas, train stations, movie theaters, and so on for a wide range of purposes for business promotion via audio-visual content, public notification, and bookings and orderings, and other self-aided services. It is a great helper in the business. Therefore, kiosk operation and management have become a top concern for so many. However traditional kiosk usually comes with unreliable AV contribution due to network conditions affecting business, while some of users are even looking for ways to put kiosk and other device under unified control and management. Q-NEX is designed to meet all these requirements and maximize control and management efficiency. Let’s find out in this article about how the fast and reliable AV distribution and remote and unified control and management of kiosks and other devices can be achieved.

1. What is a kiosk?

The kiosk is something we see on a daily basis, but not many of us seem to know in detail about its wide range of applications in different fields. In fact, the kiosk is mainly used to provide information, services, and transactions in an efficient way. And here are some of the popular applications of Kiosks:

2. Non-interactive kiosk

None interactive kiosk comes with providing information for notification, guiding and promotion and so on.

2.1 Kiosk for Information

informational kiosks can be made of a display that does not come along with touch features and an embedded operating system. It is designed to display the information to the general public in a way without on-screen interaction for one-way informing and notification purposes. And this kind of display can be found in museums, parks, hotels, and public spaces, offering helpful information.

2.2 Guiding kiosk

The guiding Kiosk is also one kind of information kiosk, it can be deployed in many public places like airports, train stations, subway stations, and so on. Where the Kiosk can be used as a display to inform the general public by displaying such text and graphic information as map, flight schedule, travel routes and so on.

2.3 Promotional kiosk:

This kind of kiosk can be found in retail stores and is used to showcase the product to attract customers’ attention by displaying AV content, product picture, information and so on.

3. Interactive kiosk

Interactive kiosk can be made of touchscreen monitor and interactive display panel that come along with touch-screen features and are embedded with operating system such as Android and Windows operating system. Its self-contained system allows users to run specific software or apps on the screen for business where visitors or users can interact with the kiosk on the screen.

3.1 Ordering and payment kiosk

This kind of kiosk is very common and is often found in stores, and restaurants like KFC or MacDonald where an interactive kiosk display is set up for the customers to select and order food on the screen. Kiosks can also be found in the hospital where patients can select the doctor and pay for the diagnosis and medicine cost.

3.2 Kiosk for ticket and reservation

And it also can be found in the movie theatre where the ticket-booking kiosk is deployed for the moving-goers to buy tickets through the touch-screened kiosk display. And public spaces like airports, bus stations, train stations, and kiosks are also coming to wide use that allows efficient and self-aided booking experience on the display. So interactive kiosks display really helps improves operational efficiency and reduce labor cost.  

4. How to select a kiosk?

The selection of a kiosk is pretty much determined by your application purpose. If you only want the kiosk to provide information needing no interaction from the users on the display, then it will be enough for you to buy a display without a system like a TV. Or if you want to use it for booking or ordering purposes where interaction with customers is required then you will need a kiosk that comes with a system.

But if you want the kiosk display to be multi-purpose and multi-functional for providing information, product promotion, booking, and order, then an interactive display panel with certain sizes seems to be a good option to cover all these requirements. A cost-effective interactive display panel can be like the IQTouch 1100 series interactive display panel here (with popular sizes 65″, 75″,86″) that comes with dual system: Android OS and Windows system allowing great comparability with a range of software and apps for your various applications. On top of that, it provides a smooth and highly responsive touch experience.

5. How to operate and manage the kiosk?

To operate and manage the kiosk, the kiosk needs to be installed with third-party softwares and or apps for interaction with customers like ordering and booking and so on. And for the promotion, ads, information, and notification, then it will require a server or software that is used to send the AV content to the targeted kiosk. But what needs to be considered in the operation and management of kiosk AV distribution?

5.1 Reliable AV distribution

Currently, internet-based AV distribution is popular. AV content is usually stored on a cloud or a server and is distributed from a software or a dashboard on an interface. However, AV distribution over the internet is not reliable and stable due to network congestion or breakdown, which usually results in disrupted, delayed, or even discontinued AV content distribution to the targeted displays.

5.2 AV control and power management

Traditionally, the kiosk display control is done manually, which means when an employee starts working, the first thing for them to do is to turn off the whole kiosk, then turn it off after work. And it can be inefficient for the employees to turn it on or off when the display becomes so many, specifically when you have to power or turn off other devices every day.

6. Q-NEX solution for kiosk management

Q-NEX provides fast and reliable Kiosk AV distribution. More importantly, it allows you to achieve a unified control and management for kiosks along with other devices for highly efficient and automated device control management.

6.1.1All-in-one integration

Q-NEX has Networked Media Processor (NMP), which converges multiple devices like kiosks, lights, air conditioners, and so on for unified control and management. With NMP, you can control the device remotely on the Q-NEX web platform or app at one stop. And the centralized control can be reinforced by automation schedules.

6.2Automation schedule

You set when and which kiosk to power on or off, and what AV contents to be sent to different kiosks at the same time or at different time. And of course, apart from the kiosk, you can do the same things for other devices for power on and off. So, it really improves the operation and management efficiency.

6.3Prerecorded and real-time AV distribution

-NEX solution offers LAN-based deployment, so it ensures smooth playing of the AV contents. The good things about the Q-NEX are that it not only allows you to send the uploaded AV contents to the targeted kiosk smoothly, freeing from the impact of narrow bandwidth but also enables you to live stream the AV contents to the kiosk for effective real-time communication.

Conclusion

In summary, Kiosk is a very popular and widely used tool worldwide in all businesses for promotion, ordering and bookings, and other self-aided operations in many public places like movie theaters, shops, airports, stores, hospitals, restaurants, and so on. Therefore, ensuring fast and reliable AV content to the targeted kiosk is important for business, while effective and automated control and management of the kiosk along with other equipment surely maximize the operation and management efficiency and improve productivity. Q-NEX solution is designed to meet all these requirements by providing the user with reliable AV distribution, remote and centralized management.

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