The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) voted to approve the installation of a full-building, real-time location services system at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC). Using “ActivLocator,” a geolocation technology from Sherpa Solutions, the MCCA will provide turn-by-turn navigation inside the BCEC, providing digital wayfinding for visitors looking for meeting rooms, exhibit halls, exhibit booths, and MCCA offices from wherever the visitor may be in the facility.
Sherpa’s system relies on Bluetooth low energy beacon transmitters, 270 of which will be installed throughout the BCEC. Meeting attendees can access turn-by-turn walking directions provided by a mobile app, including the exhibit hall floor. Once the navigation’s mobile app has been downloaded, no cellular or wireless connection is needed for the directions to work on a user’s mobile device.
“At the MCCA, we have never been reserved about our mission to remain the most technologically advanced convention centers in the world,” said IAVM member James E. Rooney, executive director of the MCCA. “We are thinking about technology that meeting attendees will be asking for not just in 2015, but five and 10 years from now. Real-time location services are just one of the technology initiatives we are focused on right now to better serve our customers and their attendees.”
Turn-by-turn navigation is just the beginning, said Steve Snyder, CIO/CTO for the MCCA.
“It will be a tremendous value-add for our customers because we will be able to map their entire show floors, booth by booth, and customize information such as shuttle drop-off and pickup locations,” Snyder said. “And we can use it internally to map our administrative offices, monitor the safety of the facility, and much more.”
The system installation is expected to be complete in March 2015.
(Image from the MCCA Facebook page)
