E-pub: the digital DJ
In the space of a couple of years technology has transformed the way we listen to music. The ability to download a personalised selection of tracks from the internet has almost made CDs redundant. Sections of the music industry have been caught on the hop and the charts have had to change the way they measure sales to accurately reflect the market.
But what about pubs? The internet jukebox is steadily transplanting the CD jukebox, but there are many pub and bar operators who want control over the music playing in their venues. They are aware that it's a key element in creating atmosphere and defining the experience they want their customers to have. A lot of independent licensees are left fumbling around with CDs behind the bar. Others hire DJs. There are systems, too, that enable you to download a tailored music selection via satellite. But, according to one supplier, a new development is about take pubs into the iPod age.
Avanti Screenmedia is well known to the pub industry having been originally set up - under the name Translucis - by drinks giant Diageo as an experimental vehicle for the promotion of its brands on big screens at point of sale.
As time went on, the entertainment content, devised to draw attention to the ads as well as give pubs and bars added value, grew more sophisticated. Avanti's MVN service, for instance, offers licensees music video programming, tailored to audience and ambience, broadcast direct to screens by satellite. And now we have a third generation of Avanti's Genie system, which aims to give pubs more control than ever over their screen and audio entertainment.
John Bagguley, the man drafted in to introduce Genie III to the marketplace, is, significantly, not a techie person. A former professional musician who has designed recording studios for top bands, including the Spice Girls, he sees his job as helping licensees to make the best use of music to drive their businesses. "The system is devised with bar managers and pub DJs in mind," he says. "We talked to music-friendly chains including Walkabout, Litten Tree and Revolution to find out what they needed from it."
What Genie III gives them is flexibility. With a simple brush of the touchscreen a pub can switch between controlling the music from behind the bar to the DJ consul. Larger managed groups can also take control from their HQ. DJs and bar managers can create their own playlists from a satellite library of more than 2,000 music videos (there's room for 10,000 more) by physically dragging them across the screen. They can home in on the right tunes by choosing a style (such as pop, soul or jazz); an era (say, the 80s or 90s); and, importantly for pubs that want to ramp things up or tone them down, the tempo (in beats per minute).
A virtual dual turntable enables DJs to generate similar effects to spinning discs by moving seamlessly from one track to another. Advertising content can be pre-programmed to interrupt the videos with, for instance, a 30-second ad which might screen twice every half-hour. Ads can be created by the outlet itself from a choice of five templates that come with the system, promoting future events and food and drinks offers or advertising a local taxi firm, for example.Genie takes over automatically
Should the bar get busy and the playlist run out, or the DJ disappear, Genie III takes over automatically, switching music video programming from MVN."We knew the system had to be simple to operate," says John. "It gives everyone the opportunity to be a video DJ, and there is only ever one page on the screen for whoever's operating it to worry about.
"One of the great things, too, is that the system need not get in the way of a pub's usual sports screenings. If you've got, say, four screens, you can have one showing football, two with music videos and run ads on the one behind the bar. "You don't just have to use music videos downloaded from our satellite. It can be linked to Sky or play DVDs."
John aims to get Genie III into up to 300 outlets within the next six months. "I'm hoping it will spread eventually to all music-friendly venues in the UK," he adds.
