Is Universal getting its own magic band?

[Disorbust]

http://www.local10.com/theme-parks/...l-feature-wearable-technology-volcano-coaster

Universal said guests will receive new TapuTapu wearable technology when they enter the park. The TapuTapu wristband will allow guests “to virtually wait in line while they play in other areas of the park,” Universal said. The technology will alert them when it’s time to ride.

 

[Jon81uk]

http://www.local10.com/theme-parks/...l-feature-wearable-technology-volcano-coaster

Universal said guests will receive new TapuTapu wearable technology when they enter the park. The TapuTapu wristband will allow guests “to virtually wait in line while they play in other areas of the park,” Universal said. The technology will alert them when it’s time to ride.

Its already being discussed in the Volcano Bay thread. But it looks/sounds like the Prism system from Accesso, http://accesso.com/solutions/loqueue/prism

We assume bands will need to be returned at the end of the day and a deposit or credit card will be taken.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

http://www.local10.com/theme-parks/...l-feature-wearable-technology-volcano-coaster

Universal said guests will receive new TapuTapu wearable technology when they enter the park. The TapuTapu wristband will allow guests “to virtually wait in line while they play in other areas of the park,” Universal said. The technology will alert them when it’s time to ride.

Right now, this is just for the water park.

For the theme park they are working on virtual queues through the Universal App which will be used when Fallon opens in April.

 

[PuertoRekinSam]

Seeing how about half the magic band team (the half that didn't go to Carnival) is now working for Universal, I'm not surprised.

 

[Jon81uk]

Seeing how about half the magic band team (the half that didn't go to Carnival) is now working for Universal, I'm not surprised.

Except I am 99% certain this is an implementation of the off-the-shelf product from Accesso, rather than a new idea created by in house creative.

 

[donsullivan]

Except I am 99% certain this is an implementation of the off-the-shelf product from Accesso, rather than a new idea created by in house creative.

They've been working with Accesso on this for 2 plus years now. It is based on a stock Accesso solution, but that solution has been enhanced by feature requests from Universal. It's not clear yet whether those new features are going to be available to other Accesso customers, or if they are Universal specific features.

 

[Disorbust]

I know nothing about this tech but if it existed why did Disney spend billions on magic band?

 

[Creathir]

I know nothing about this tech but if it existed why did Disney spend billions on magic band?

It did not exist until Disney came up with it.

This company is just making a knock off system.

RFID tech on its own, which both systems presumably use, has been around for a very long time.

 

[Creathir]

The RFID is straight forward inventory stuff, cheap, easy and well used. Point of sale uses, tickets etc. Disney didn't invent all that or the tech.

What I'm wondering is the Bluetooth and long range capabilities. Bluetooth is short range so I bet Universal can't cover the park that way to tell you your ready to go on a ride. Possibly use the Bluetooth connection for in cue or ride features?

That probably explains the long range transmission ability. You basically set up a small cell phone system. Same principles on a smaller scale. In fact the wrist band might only need to be a receiver not transmitting anything? It would make a huge difference in battery life.

I have no idea what Disney spent all the money on with Magic Bands? They are either morons or trying to recreate the wheel for security reasons, something like that. Maybe there is some unknown use we don't know about. I do know I can't seem to find much out about what Universal is doing here and I have pretty good tech contacts. Disney Magic Bands are a complete black out on what they do or how they work exactly. Doesn't matter I'm just interested in the nuts and bolts of the whole thing. If it works right no else will care except for a few tech people.

Given the RFID basis for magic band, it's pretty safe to assume there are portals all over the park for tracking guest positions and traffic patterns.

I cannot imagine Universal is using Bluetooth in a mesh type of network. If anything they are making use of Bluetooth beacon, placing low power emitters around the park for determining position of the band. Given that tech has a screen on the band, I'm guessing there is a small computer onboard.

My honest guess would be they are using Bluetooth beacons for positioning, and likely wifi for data connectivity.

Disney spent gobs of money building out infrastructure and development on the data systems needed to handle all of the data which they are collecting, then presumably the reporting systems to mine that data.

It would be amazing to get an inside look into what they actually built and how it operates.

 

[Jon81uk]

It did not exist until Disney came up with it.

This company is just making a knock off system.

RFID tech on its own, which both systems presumably use, has been around for a very long time.

and the Prism from Accesso is sort of a hybrid MagicBand and Q-Bot. So I think its less of a knock-off and more that the Magicband inspired a new product line based on aspects of things they already make and ideas Disney had. I would say TapuTapu at Volcano Bay is closer to a Q-Bot than it is to a MagicBand. And that's mainly because all the setting up part is done on the WDW app at Disney, but at Volcano Bay it will be done on a band.
Basically magicbands are "dumb" without a website or app they just a park ticket on your wrist. The new Prism band is a Q-Bot on your wrist with a lot of new smart features.

 

[donsullivan]

I know nothing about this tech but if it existed why did Disney spend billions on magic band?

Disney didn't spend Billions on MagicBands. People always see MagicBands as the outward facing part of the whole solution Disney developed and ask how could it possibly have cost so much. It is only a small portion of where all the investment went. They had to create a giant database system to integrate all of a guests entitlements into one profile for that guest; and integrate the profiles of multiple guests for family/group visits. They had to swap out every hotel room door lock on the entire property and integrate those touch points to the above database for room access. They had to upgrade every cash wrap station adding the touch points for payments and integrate that into the database. They had to swap out all the turnstiles at every park entrance and integrate that into the database. They had to swap out and add all the FastPass Touchpoints on the associated attractions and integrate that into the database. Not to mention the Website work and the 2 versions of the smartphone app. And countless other investments to make the total solution work. MagicBands are actually the easy part of this as all they need to do is be linked to your profile to access your entitlements, the money went to all the parts you do not wear on your wrist to enable all of it. Nobody had ever done anything like it at that scale when they started the project and they had the inevitable stumbles which increased the costs.

 

[BubbaQuest]

It did not exist until Disney came up with it.

Definitely not. As you mentioned RFID has been around for years. Anybody that's used a RFID key card reader has already used Disney's "tech".

What I'm wondering is the Bluetooth and long range capabilities. Bluetooth is short range so I bet Universal can't cover the park that way to tell you your ready to go on a ride. Possibly use the Bluetooth connection for in cue or ride features?

It looks like the Prism is using a Sub-GHz radio for two-way communication. All kinds of possible ranges on that based on power consumption. It looks like 20-50 feet is common for point-to-point communication, and up to 1 kilometer for device to hub communication. So they can probably cover the whole park with only one or two communication towers -- hello 200 foot volcano!

Based on Accesso's website, It looks like they might be using three protocols in the device. Bluetooth for the nearby interactive elements, NFC for secure payments, and Sub-GHz for ride reservations.

 

[Jon81uk]

Don't forget setting up the entire resort for wifi. That in and of itself was the best (and likely most expensive) part of the entire project.

WDWs infrastructure is absolutely incredible when you think about the scope of it all. Magic bands and FP+ gets lots of knocks but that project was impressive IMO.

I read somewhere that the data network hadn't been updated in 10-20 years so just the LAN cabling would have been a big task, let alone then adding the wifi on top.

So yes, as Don said MagicBands didn't cost billions, the upgrade of all of WDWs IT infrastructure and systems cost billions.

Volcano Bay would of course be much easier as the cabling is going in from new.

 

[Jon81uk]

That's still way to high for rewiring etc. If the whole back room operations were replaced and custom software was written etc. etc. They could run fiber optic, it still doesn't cost billions for the area Disney is covering. Adding Wifi is simple it's just a matter of having the bandwidth to handle all those wifi connections. That could have cost a bit. Not billions.

Now you have thinking about coming up with some sort of in the ball park figure for infrastructure which is what you are talking about. Probably looking at $50,000-60,000 a mile for fiber which I would assume they would use. Even a 100 miles would be roughly $5-6 million. Thinking I'll think about all this. LOL.

Plus you then also have all the things that @donsullivan listed, new NFC door locks, new turnstyles, new FP points, an app, a new website, R&D on MagicBands, designwork on boxes for magicbands, design of the tap point, testing of the system etc.

When everything adds up its quite easy to spend billions on the new system. Its just most people only think of the bands, and don't think of the BOH infrastructure, which as you say is at least another $5m just for networking.


Anyway, we are quite off topic talking about the cost of MM+, not Universals new system.