Kinepolis : Eyes wide open on the comfort of its spectateurs

Kinepolis : The ultimate cinematographic experience

The Kinepolis group was created in the 60's, developing a network of cinemas on the Belgium market. The new cinema concept was successful and the group soon became leader on the Belgium market and the European specialist in up-market cinemas.

The Kinepolis group was created in the 60's, developing a network of cinemas on the Belgium market. The new cinema concept was successful and the group soon became leader on the Belgium market and the European specialist in up-market cinemas

They are specialized as well in size and comfort of the multiplex infrastructures as in the techniques used for optimum broadcasting of the movies: THX sound, numeric cinema. Kinepolis is one of the rare pioneers offering numeric cinema thanks to the revolutionary DLP technology. Its cinematographic complexes are conceived as real leisure temples integrating restaurants, cafes, shops, fitness centers, etc.. The mission of the company is based on two key values: Innovation and Client service.

There are 20 Kinepolis complexes throughout Europe: France, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Switzerland. In 2004, The Kinepolis Group has received 24,5 millions visitors.The Kinepolis group was created in the 60's, developing a network of cinemas on the Belgium market. The new cinema

Kinepolis in Lomme optimizes its system

Kinepolis has been constrained to modernize the Centralized Technical Management of the Lomme multiplex. This cinematographic complex opened in 1996 near Lille:

• 23 screens, all are THX certified.
• SDDS, SRD and/or DTS numeric sound
• 7 286 seats
• One of the 5 cinemas in France to be equipped with the numeric screening for a perfect screening.

Kinepolis maintenance staff encountered temperature regulation problems which had direct impact on the comfort and satisfaction of the spectators.

The problem came from the automatons which were in charge of the managing of the temperature variations. The problem did not come from the equipment but from its parameterization. Kinepolis thus decided to revise the piloting of its heating and cooling system. They looked for an intelligent product capable of anticipating and avoiding these functioning problems. Axima was the selected service provider and proposes a system including three products among Micromedia range: Alert, Visual Access and ProgTime.

Kinepolis confides Axima with the maintenance of the air conditioning and heating equipments including

• 31 air treatment stations
• The boiler room, the air conditioning groups via indicators such as:
• Temperature in the rooms
• Air quality, pollution rate: the installation reacts according to the number of persons in the room so as to modulate the air composition by addition of pure air. The position of the air flaps determines the air volume sent.

Axima/Micromedia Synergy

Axima maintenance decided to implement the solution in two phases: First, Axima technicians revised the parameterization of the automatons, and then they implement a complementary module on the automatons that integrate three products by Micromedia. The disposal proposed can be defined as follows:

• The communication with the automatons is made throw an OPC driver. The installation is made of an application PC and a server enabling consultation from any PC via Internet Explorer.
• ProgTime is the scheduling server used for time scheduling of the movie theaters and annexes. In fact, the functioning of the movie theaters is determined by time periodicities, according to scheduled performances. In addition, it offers a Web interface enabling to control and modify remotely this time programming.
• Visual Access allows remote control of the functioning status of the heating stations, air conditioning and air treatment groups
• Alert perfects the prevention capacity of the system and guarantees the reactivity of Axima maintenance staff. Axima is responsible for the right functioning of the equipments and thus ensures a secure piloting based on a preventive and effective management. A selective approach was privileged in the use of Alert on this site. Alert only treats major alarms such as default of the air conditioning group, a fan out of order and any physical defect of the equipments. All the alarms generated by Alert are transmitted to Axima Maintenance that ensures to Kinepolis its service supplier role permanently for all the heating and air conditioning system.

Axima can thus react in real time, estimate the urgency need and launch appropriate actions and thus guarantee customer satisfaction. The malfunctioning which are not managed by Alert are supervised in situ. Kinepolis maintenance staff permanently control the right functioning of the installations thanks to Visual Access. Remotely, they can consult and modify the time scheduling defined in ProgTime from any station on the site. The accesses are defined according to different information access levels thanks to passwords enabling either the right to consult or the right to consult and modify. These rights are modulated according to the users reporting to different technical, maintenance or managing teams.

This implementation was all the more successful as the solution was implemented rapidly: three months to revise the parameterization of the automatons, three months to integrate Micromedia software products and the installation was operational

The technical performances serve emotions

The efficiency of the interventions has been considerably improved. Before the new implementation, when a problem occurred, the spectators transmitted the information: they left the show and complained to the responsible for the movie theater.

The defect was thus transmitted to the operation manager who then transmitted the information to his team to trigger the necessary correction actions. The spectators should receive compensation for the inconvenience. Sometimes, the information was not immediately received by responsible and a second movie began with a second wave of annoyed spectators coming out. They also received compensation for the inconvenience and Kinepolis financial loss was even more important.

The remote control capacities have permitted to develop the mobility of the agents on the site and the service providers. Their reactivity has been reinforced and the quality of the interventions has been optimized.

By reinforcing the anticipation capacity, incidents have been sold out before customers are affected. Customer satisfaction as well as the positive image of the company have not only been preserved but also developed.

The process has become completely transparent:

• for the customer who is no longer affected by the inconveniences of the system and only benefit from the advantages of the system.
• For the company the performance of which has been increased. The risks have been minimized thanks to the reliable and efficient work of sub-contractor
• Axima guarantees a system corresponding to the expectations of the customer