As the global reopening in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is still much uncertainty surrounding when and how public spaces will become truly safe once again.
Visitors have begun to flock back to public spaces and experiences. Places that, until recently, time spent in was familiar and routine. From the bustling walkways of an airport terminal to the simple bench seats of a packed stadium. While current precautions are largely temporary and effective, the current situation provides an opportunity to invest in more permanent solutions. The key of which lies in proper technology integration and innovation into these spaces.
Touch free technology can streamline the security and access control of buildings and stadiums and enhance the digital signage in theatres, lobbies, and libraries around the world. Audiovisual solutions and technology have a vital role to play in not only making spaces safer for visitors, but in making them more functional, more memorable and impactful into the future.
Even once the full scope of the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn to a close, technology will help visitors gain peace of mind in re-engaging with public spaces and experiences. These spaces will be permanently enhanced by the innovation driven by the pandemic and not only become familiar again, but more comfortable.
Technology Services Companies are faced with a tremendous opportunity – the public needs solutions that drive some level of confidence and safety in the spaces where we live, work and play, and technology has the power to deliver.
Over the short term, this will mean engaging in thorough technology design consulting to find solutions that provide real benefits, not merely a surface-level appearance of safety. As visitors have moved through the COVID-19 pandemic, more information has emerged about best practices for keeping ourselves safe, and they’re looking for bona fide solutions.
Those could include:
At some point, a vaccination will allow society to return to some semblance of normalcy, and it’s likely that sense of normalcy will bring along with it renewed visitor confidence in being in public spaces.
However, to bridge that gap, technological solutions will need to form a new approach to providing a sense of safety and peace of mind. It’s not about temporary solutions – it’s about forging a lasting commitment to fulfilling visitors’ need to be seen, understood, connected and protected.
By engaging in solutions that protect visitors now, we can collectively form new habits and best practices that continue to assuage our fears and mitigate anxiety, even after the worst of the pandemic’s threat has come to pass.
This use of technological solutions to form the bedrock of the future of technology integrations beyond the pandemic will not only help visitors feel safer when re-engaging with public spaces, but will encourage new, innovative and immersive strategies that will leave us all better prepared to meaningfully and safely interact for years to come.
In delivering the technological solutions that will begin helping visitors feel safer and will eventually lay the groundwork for forward-looking and lasting approaches to audiovisual and technology integration, technology design support, consulting, and services will be extremely important.
Designers and integrators are used to adapting to evolving scenarios and to working with one eye toward the future. Partnering with these industry experts will help public spaces address their own unique needs, visitor demographic makeup, existing solutions and more to come up with a holistic plan that best suits all of those individual factors.
At Electrosonic, our Technology Master Planning™ methodology is primed to do just that, helping public spaces and organizations align stakeholders and goals to achieve the optimal result and provide the peace of mind they’re looking to deliver to visitors.
The new normal is still dawning, but it’s also time to look beyond it toward a future where public spaces will need a new layer of safety and peace of mind to help encourage visitors to return to them and to enjoy their experience.
To learn more about how Electrosonic is ready to help public spaces evolve in the face of this shifting landscape, contact us today
Ryan Poe, Electrosonic’s Director of Technology Solutions, works and writes on the frontiers of advanced technology. He is a trusted adviser on leveraging technology in new ways and works within our Innovation Garage framework to evaluate new technologies and develop resources that support a portfolio of advanced services.