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Story Summary

• West Palm Beach is working with a Columbus, Ohio-based firm to have as many as 20 interactive, wayfinding kiosks installed in the downtown area.
• The kiosks would display advertising until they are touched by a pedestrian. That touch would prompt the kiosk's interactive landscape application, which would offer information on everything from directions to a particular restaurant to what time a show starts at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
• The tentative agreement between West Palm Beach and IKE calls for a five-year contract with two five-year automatic renewals based on performance, usage and market conditions.

West Palm Beach is working with a Columbus, Ohio-based firm to have as many as 20 interactive, wayfinding kiosks installed in the downtown area.

City Commission members voted unanimously Monday night to have the city work with IKE Smart City to install and manage the kiosks, which will display advertising until they are touched by a pedestrian. That touch would prompt the kiosk's interactive landscape application, which would offer information on everything from directions to a particular restaurant to what time a show starts at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

The location of the kiosks have not been determined, nor did city officials say when they would be installed. West Palm Beach has directional signage, but Harvey Oyer III, an attorney who represented IKE Smart City during the commission meeting, said IKE's kiosks are more modern and helpful.

"We would be graduating from static, one-dimensional wayfinding that costs you money to very interactive (kiosks) that makes you money," Oyer said.

Would the new kiosks generate any advertising revenue for the city?

The tentative agreement between West Palm Beach and IKE calls for a five-year contract with two five-year automatic renewals based on performance, usage and market conditions. West Palm Beach would share in IKE's advertising revenue, which is expected to bring the city about $391,140 per year. That would be about $5.9 million over a 15-year period.

Assistant City Administrator Armando Fana touted the kiosks in a brief staff presentation to commission members.

"Having a digital wayfinding map in a downtown will not only be great for navigation purposes, but you'll be able to get step-by-step instructions," he said.

IKE, which stands for "interactive kiosk experience," has erected kiosks in 19 cities in the United States, including in Miami, Coral Gables, Tampa, Denver, Houston, Detroit and Minneapolis.

"They are the only provider of interactive kiosks that can tolerate our weather," Oyer said. "They are rated to 165 miles per hour winds as well as extreme heat, which is why you see them in Phoenix as well as south Florida."

The kiosks would have an emergency call button that is routed to a 9-1-1 dispatcher. They will also include three cameras that could, if city officials decide to deploy them, provide footage to police if they are investigating an incident that took place nearby.

Oyer noted that some cities on the West Coast have opted not to use the cameras because of privacy concerns.

"You do not have to utilize those," he told commission members. "That's completely your option. This makes people on the sidewalk feel safer."

What would the interactive kiosks offer pedestrians?

The kiosks would offer directions, event start times, restaurant types and names and menus, and public transportation schedules. They could also be used to collect survey information and display public safety messages. Pedestrians could use them for city-branded selfies.

"Anything you want to find or utilize in our city, it's there," Oyer said.

The kiosks would have eight pages of content, one of which would be set aside to display city information. Ad content on the other pages would not be allowed to contain tobacco, marijuana, nudity or profanity. IKE says it would pay local artists to display their work on kiosk ad pages and that any pages not sold would be turned over for city use.

Commissioner Christy Fox, whose district includes downtown, said she likes the idea of the kiosks.

"I think this is really exciting for the businesses," she said. "It's an opportunity for more exposure. I can't tell you how many times I'm walking down the street and somebody asks me, 'Where's the closest coffee (shop)?' This is going to be a fantastic addition for the city."

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Autor(en)/Author(s): Wayne Washington

Quelle/Source: The Palm Beach Post, 08.08.2024

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