Page 131 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

goers’ experience, was to count the people in speci c areas that needed to be monitored, such as the concert areas or VIP zone. The aim this rst year was to experiment with this new tool for festivals that attract a large number of attendees.45their range who had enabled this option of the app.This function performed by beacons at festivals to improve user experience is basic but quite useful. However, at this particular festival the organisers went slightly further, allowing the map displayed by the app to have ‘a life of its own’.It geolocated users in real time and, with no need for GPS, informed them of what was going on in other places on the map or of which areas were most crowded at that particular moment. This feature is very useful, for example, for managing key aspects such as portable toilets, so that people with urgent needs have faster access, and also for the festival as it can help avoid overcrowding.What is more, the festival endeavoured to create slightly more gami ed experiences by providing ‘secrets’ such as surprise gigs to be discoveredor unreleased content for TV viewing such as backstage interviews.47The SXSW festival, as pointed out in connection with its app, has also been a pioneer in the use of beacons since 2014. That year it used one of the largest numbers of beacons employed sofar – more than 1,000 in all areas (it is a very large festival in terms of both attendees and grounds) – and two types: some very small and simple and easy to hang in areas that need a high density of emitters (spaces where more people tend to congregate, for example), and a larger type in airtight casing for areas likely to come into contact with water or in large, open spaces. They also prefer to deploy them in places where their visibility is low.48SXSW’s use of beacons is very similar to that of the festivals mentioned above: they provide festival goers who enable the option of communicating with these devices with information and noti cations about the scheduled events, changes in them or eventsThey also analysed the amount of noti cations the apps received, the number of attendees who had installed the app, the average distance users travelled and how many used the beacons option (around 20% the rst year). By collecting this information they hope to be able to implement better strategies for future editions and improve festival goers’ experience.One of the immediate advantages was not having to send all attendees with the app installed on their devices messages and noti cations on all the events that were occurring; instead, they informed themonly about events in the area they were inand provided they had chosen to receive noti cations of this kind. This means that users can control what they receive, limiting it to the most relevant information, and that organisers do not need to collect personal data or emails, for example.Returning to Coachella Festival, it hasbeen using this new technology for the past two editions (once again, since 2014).46 By installing beacons by area (for example, in the concert zones), the organisers were able to transmit relevant information (on upcoming performances, delays, etc.) to everyone withinAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2016131Focus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals