Videotel, one of the arcade booth manufacturers exhibiting at the AEE, has devised a new distribution system that spokesman Mark Schneider figures will save the average owner about $5000 per year in operation costs: Computers.
"Instead of having a big bank of video players or DVDs, we now have a streaming server," Schneider explained. "The way this works, we have a 200-disk changer, and the customer loads the DVDs into the changer, and they get ripped down to the computers, get processed, and the computer streams them out to the booths. In the booth, any customer can scroll through all 200 channels, he can fast-forward or rewind any channel he wants, and you can have 20 people on the same channel and they can each be at a different point."
"The biggest thing about this is more features for the customer, and for store owners, you're reducing your electric consumption by about a third, and you're eliminating maintenance on VCRs and DVDs. The average store is going to save about $5000 a year in electricity and maintenance costs. We can give our customer 200 channels at a much more reasonable cost than before; instead of having to buy 200 DVDs, he can now just buy a computer and have 62 more channels. It's extremely cost-effective, it's very reliable and since it's completely software-driven, it's easily upgradeable. Retrofitting existing stores is not a problem."
