Tradition and Innovation come together at the Hurlingham Club

Bordering the Thames in Fulham and set in 42 acres of magnificent grounds, The Hurlingham Club is one of London’s finest, traditional, private members’ clubs. The facilities retain their quintessentially English traditions and heritage, while providing a modern environment and services for its members. Its latest addition of three fixed digital signage screens on the reception area and two mobile screens for events, are allowing the Club a better and quicker way to organise its sport and social events. The digital signage network was installed by Windsor Displays and is managed by the Club, thanks to the implementation of Signagelive SaaS.

Italo Abri, director at Windsor Displays, took care of this project from start to finish. “When we first met with the club, they had some legacy screens that had been bought to use as digital signage, but the Samsung screens were gathering dust in a corner and getting more dated by the minute. Our first thought, to sort this issue for the Club in an efficient way, was to offer them Signagelive, because it allowed us to use what they already had and bring it up to date.”

 

Abri has worked in the traditional side of signage for over 25 years and in the past two years the company has grown to include digital installations. Windsor Displays repertoire ranges from flat screen digital signage, rear and front projection applications in store windows or tailored screens, to interactive applications.

The Hurlingham Club’s Sports Executive Jenny Mitchell has always sought to keeping members informed about the Club’s activities at all times. Mitchell explains, “The Club’s main reception, fitness centre and tennis area have landscape digital signage screens. We also have two freestanding portrait screens, which can be placed wherever they are needed. This provides us with is a great opportunity to show our members that we care about them and want them fully informed on all our events and offers.  In order to do this we needed a reliable system that could be updated and tailored for when we have specific events.”

 

With this goal in mind Mitchell talked to the Club’s savvy IT manager, David Appleton, who then contacted Windsor Displays to discuss all available options.

 

The first obstacle they came across, was that the Samsung screens came integrated with Samsung Magic Info software. With more modern screens, Magic Info can be disabled easily and the system changed to use Signagelive. It’s just a matter of disabling the EWF on the Samsung screen and enabling Signagelive display software (http://signagelive.wpengine.com/index.php/2011/08/video-how-to-upgrade-samsung-magicinfo-to-Signagelive/).

 

The displays at the Club were a bit too old and the best solution was to replace some of them. “We provided the Club with three new screens and five Signagelive licences,” explains Abri.

The Hurlingham Club creates its basic content in house. Members and visitors can be certain they will get the latest news, weather and information about events as soon as they step in to the Club. Another important function of the digital signage screen is to make sure members know who is on duty in the different areas of the Club, such as the gym or the spa.

Matea Vlaskalic, who is in charge of the digital screens day to day content explains: “ I normally update the playlists which are already set up by either deleting content which is out-of-date or uploading new assets. The screens contain different information depending on which part of the club they are in. For example, in the tennis office there is information about the opening hours, dress regulations, pictures of staff members and coaches as well as current events and competitions taking place. There are also two news feeds, one with tennis news and another with BBC weather. It is easy to do with Signagelive.”

Abri says that although the company is aware of other SaaS providers, it works only with Signagelive. “We looked into what was on offer and we were satisfied with Signagelive. Not only is the software very easy to use, but also their customer services is superb,” adds Abri.

After installing the screens, Signagelive provided training for the people that use the system day in and day out and today they are using it with no problems.