Anadarko (APC) is one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. During construction of their modern 30-story headquarters building near Houston, Texas, they realized the value of their 20 elevators to deliver content to employees. “We saw that many high-profile, class-A office buildings were using corporate digital signs in their elevators.” Michael Bialas, Senior ITS Administrator, tells us. “We evaluated several systems but we wanted to display our own news and content – not something ad-based. We needed the content delivery platform, not the content. So, we developed our own in-house solution.”
Anadarko tried a hard-wired system that physically connected to each of the elevator cars, but they were dissatisfied with the results. “Cables kept breaking and the single, central player couldn’t keep up with increasing demand.”
They then saw AxisTV digital signage software at the InfoComm trade show and knew that this was what they had been looking for.
“We have been really pleased with it as a wireless content delivery system,” says Bialas. Content is sent to a mini form factor player in each elevator car in the main building and also to four elevators in a second, nearby building via the LAN/WAN. The system has been dubbed “Ele-Vision.” Bialas tells us, “It has become a fundamental part of the daily life and routine at Anadarko.”
They use AxisTV to display internal news slides at 10-second intervals. Included in the playlist is a slide with the stock price, which is tied to a company bonus program. “We know people get the message from the water cooler talk about that day’s stock price, the advertised United Way campaign and so on. I have actually seen people stay in the elevator to finish reading the news and bonus program slides.”
Ele-Vision is just one method of getting Anadarko’s message out. They also use bulk emails, an intranet and large easel signs in corridors with high traffic. Bialas hopes to replace those easels with digital signs in the near future. “When you print up a large sign, there’s a hard dollar cost. When you change it out frequently – for example, we have signs that say ‘X number of days with no accidents’ – you burn through a lot of materials.”
In addition to Ele-Vision, Bialas and his team use an AxisTV media player to drive content to a 10-foot square Clarity video wall in their 27-space conference center. The system interfaces with their EMS scheduling application to update meeting information regularly.
When they retrofitted office space at Granite Tower in Denver, Colorado, they found AxisTV useful there as well. “We are tenants, not owners, in Denver,” explains Bialas, “so we cannot outfit the elevators. But we do have LCDs fed by an AxisTV media player in the elevator lobbies on our floors.” They are planning to expand AxisTV to some of their smaller offices around the US, and possibly to international offices in the future.
“AxisTV really gives us a consistent look and feel across the company. There is less opportunity for the message to get changed because it all comes from a single server,” says Bialas. “The system is easy to use. The consistency of messaging, rapid turnaround, and cost savings are huge.”