- DT Research and Hilton Digital announced a Digital Menu Board (DMB) solution that eases compliance with the upcoming U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Menu Labeling Act by enabling centralized publishing of menu content and nutritional information that can be scheduled and displayed instantly at multiple locations.
The Digital Menu Board solution was showcased at Digital Signage Expo 2017, showcasing how the DT Research – Hilton Digital solution centrally updates menu items, tracks sales promotions and enhances their customers’ experience.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Menu Labeling Requirement Act set to go into effect on May 5, 2017 requires any food service operation with 20 or more locations to have calorie counts and other nutritional information included in their menus. As restaurants and other food service establishments prepare to comply with the new requirement, the DT Research - Hilton Digital DMB solution streamlines menu item changes through content management software that is integrated with the store system.
“We strive to design rugged and secure multi-output media players that continue to meet the evolving needs of quick service and fast casual restaurants” said Daw Tsai Sc.D., president of DT Research. “Our solution simplifies the processes necessary to comply with the upcoming FDA Menu Labeling requirement, while simultaneously giving businesses the ability to engage with their customers through timed specials and local promotions displayed on dynamic high-definition screens.”
The DT Research – Hilton Digital DMB solution enables restaurants, concession venues and other QSR and fast casual establishments to easily publish updated menu board items, nutritional information, images and videos consistently across all locations, while having the flexibility to display localized or seasonal promotions on a panel or zone of the multi-screen display.
“Beyond helping restaurants adhere to the new FDA requirement, our turnkey Digital Menu Boards offer a powerful way to enhance customer experience and track sales uplift through integration with store systems,” said Andy Fischer, General Manager at Hilton Digital. “We’ve seen many restaurants quickly realize a ROI, while providing their guests a vastly improved customer experience, and dramatically reducing print costs.”
The turn-key Digital Menu Board solution is comprised of rugged and compact media players provided by DT Research, commercial displays, mounts, cabling and nationwide installation. In addition, an enterprise license to the WebDT Content Manager (WCM) 6 Pro software is included, enabling intuitive menu board design, publishing and extensive device management capabilities.
DT Research MA Multi Screen Appliances enable rapid deployment of multiple screen digital menu boards. The compact, rugged design of the embedded system players have 2-7 HDMI outputs for up to seven 1080p displays and are ideal for installations in environments that require highly durable electronics such as restaurants, retail, concessions, sports and entertainment venues.
The WebDT Content Management software is browser-based with an intuitive graphical user interface that powers remote content and hardware management. Users can power remote shutdowns, reboots and wakeups for each signage appliance.
The Digital Menu Board HTML5 Editor functionality provides a simple way to connect with a database to display item information easily layered along with multimedia files. The editor supports MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and remote CSV files. The menu board also can be customized with a 3rd party Web API to leverage an existing POS (Point-of-Sale) system.
Digital Menu Board owners can run complementary advertising and promotional content provided by 3rd party vendors. Proof-of-play reports can be generated from within WebDT Content Manager and exported via CSV format for advertising accounting purposes. Restaurants can schedule promotions and advertisements that are tracked to sales at time that the advertisement played to measure impact.
Hilton Digital offers its customers free digital signage hosting as a way to offset the initial cost of transitioning to a digital system and simplify the ongoing maintenance for small and medium size businesses.
