NXT Capture creates digital experiences and emerging technology solutions for theme parks and attractions.
Leveraging expertise in software engineering, digital design, emerging capture technologies, audio-visual technology, point-of-sale retail solutions, and managed services, NXT Capture accelerates and transforms imaging solutions for leading attractions.
The NXT team’s unique technical agility affords the delivery of a level of technical knowledge and experience that differentiates them from the competition, and their innovative strength extends the boundaries of photo and video technology and techniques.
Brian Ramdat, president of NXT Capture talked to blooloop, outlining how NXT Capture creates technology solutions to empower its partners and staffed locations.
A love of technology
The company has won numerous awards for its technology and has often been the first to launch products such as facial recognition and it’s Selfie-Experience. This is something Ramdat attributes to the leadership team’s experience in the industry, and a strong understanding of where technology is heading. He illustrates this point by outlining his own experience:
That was his start in the industry.
“I managed photosystem installs all over the world – in Europe, Asia, and the US. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over; it’s been quite a ride. During those years, I’ve gained such a breadth of experience, working with different teams, working with different clients. I can tell a similar story for each member of our executive leadership team.
“I think this is our secret sauce. For me, I was able to apply the thing I love, which is developing software, engineering, and hardware systems, and creating various technologies.”
He comments:
“We believe that our strength comes from empowering our staff and partners with technology that helps them capture and sell guests’ memorable moments at the park or attraction. The best technology is only as good as the people who operate it. Our leadership team has over 120 years of experience combined working in the photo industry. We draw from this experience when we decide to create a new product or feature.”
The origins of NXT Capture
NXT Capture was founded in Orlando, in 2016:
“That was when we got our first client, a family-owned theme park called Funtown Splashtown in Saco, Maine. They are still our clients. I’m so grateful that they saw something in us during those early years and decided to give us a shot,” Ramdat comments:
“When you’ve been in business since 2016, have a large team, and have won all the awards, it’s not hard to go to a client and sell yourself. But when you are just starting, and all you have is your word and your reputation, it’s not as easy to sell a photosystem to a customer. They are taking a big risk.”
The company began to grow:
“When you’re growing, people are always asking, ‘Who do you have? We want to know where you’re at.’ I used to tell them, ‘I’m not going to give you a selective sheet of references. I’m just going to give you our client list: here are all our customers – feel free to call any one of them, because I’m pretty sure all of them would give me a great reference.’ And they did.
“It was easy to grow from that point. One became four, and four became eight.”
Inspiration from Apple
Ramdat says he has long been a fan of Apple and has followed the company’s technology closely throughout the years:
“When we started NXT Capture, iPads were a big hit. We wanted to create a platform that was hardware-simplistic, where the focus was driven more by software and less by hardware.
“In the theme park world, something simple is needed. On the flip side, we were also looking from the perspective of business and our partners: if we could make the system easy to maintain, simple to purchase, and cost-effective, we could be competitive. I saw the potential of the iPad as a POS product for us.”
He decided the entire ecosystem would be designed around Apple products:
“I got to bring my love of Apple and design software. Now, we’re a large partner of Apple. We use everything from iPads to iPhones, tablets, and computers. Apple drives a lot of our ecosystem.
The benefit of that is that we have a simple solution. If the iPad breaks, it’s easy, you slip it into a prepaid bubble wrap envelope, drop it in the mail, and receive another iPad simultaneously. You plop it down on your counter, and you’re good to go. You turn it on, it automatically downloads its config from the cloud, and you’re up and running. It doesn’t require an IT technician to pull out a computer, reconfigure Windows or change network settings. There’s one cable; it’s a charging cable.
“That ability allows us to maintain our systems, without having a lot of field service technicians. The net result is that we’re able to pass those savings on to our customers. While our system is advanced and has won numerous Brass Ring awards for Best New Product, we are still able to drive our costs down significantly.”
Relationships matter at NXT Capture
Relationships matter Ramdat contends, and this differentiates NXT Capture:
“We grew up in the industry, so our reputation matters greatly to us. Service, support and ensuring our clients have the best product possible drives us.”
While COVID was a formidable challenge for everyone in the industry, it was through that challenge that NXT Capture came up with its Selfie Experience product:
“We won our third Brass Ring for it in 2021. We saw an opportunity where guests were hesitant to touch surfaces that weren’t sanitized regularly like kiosks and photo booths. Our Selfie Experience was a first of its kind that allowed guests to simply text a special keyword using their mobile device. Their image, captured at one of multiple picturesque locations in the park, would be delivered straight to their phone.”
“It was the beginning of our quest to develop our self-service capabilities further where guests used their mobile phone number to capture, collect and purchase photos throughout their visit.”
When guests visit one of NXT Capture’s partner attractions, they can collect photos effortlessly throughout their visit. Ramdat explains:
“A lot of their experience will be self-driven through their mobile device. For example, a family participating in the photo program would go on a coaster, and as soon as they exit the ride their photos would be tagged to their account. They would receive a notification on their mobile device letting them know they have new photos. This sort of technology provides our partners with flexibility in terms of staffing and has proven invaluable.”
Data collection is key
Data collection is another facet of the technology:
“By using our face detection technology, for example, we can count faces on a roller coaster and in real-time know how many riders are riding a roller coaster in a park and what the slowest and busiest time of the day for that coaster is. We use heat maps to show when the busiest time of day is for our photo capture locations, and thus know which parts of the park are busiest and can move photographers accordingly.”
“Post-visit, we can follow up with guests. This might be by sending them an email reminder of their Santa photo taken last year with us and showing them some ornament selections, or it might be by providing photos to our partner’s marketing team so that when they send out Season Pass renewal reminders, they include one of the pictures from their photo album that we captured. This creates a much more personal and emotional connection.”
In-house expertise at NXT Capture
Ramdat and the NXT Capture team have all evolved a profound degree of expertise in their respective areas, so the company is characterised by in-house expertise. He says:
“For NXT, the difference is that we are the creators, the developers, and we come with decades of experience in the industry. When we have conversations about what NXT should design next or what project we want to take on, it is the people who have these decades of experience that are contributing to that conversation.”
“We all recognise that this is the special secret sauce of NXT Capture.”
For the future, plans include continuing to focus on the seamless capture and collection of photos for the guest:
“Our first Brass Ring award was for our facial recognition technology at Madame Tussauds in San Francisco, back in 2017. At the time, no other company was utilising facial recognition as the sole means for collecting photos for Merlin Entertainment. Since then, this technology has now deployed at all our locations. We’ve continued to develop other technologies that can seamlessly tag a captured photo to a guest.”
Capturing memorable moments
Capturing moments that a guest couldn’t capture on their own is NXT Capture’s speciality:
“Whether it’s capturing video of them riding a coaster, ziplining down a mountain or swimming with dolphins, we will continue to focus on developing the technology to capture the best image and video possible at the lowest cost. This will allow us to offer more content and choices, for guests and partners.”
In terms of leveraging emerging and evolving technology, he says:
“AI has become increasingly accessible, and we’ll continue to use this in the creative space. For instance, our customers no longer have to use green screens. We can now place guests in front of any object, whether it’s a blank wall or a large video wall, and easily remove the background. AI also allows us to transform captured images and use special effects/filters to further enhance the captured image and give guests something they couldn’t create on their own.
“We will also continue to build out our data collection, reporting and alerting platform to empower our staff and partners. AI has great potential in terms of helping with predictive analysis based on prior year trends and data.”
Meet the team
On the heels of its fourth best new product win, awarded by IAAPA last year for the latest version of its Picture Pass technology that allows guests to collect and purchase photos in a park in a way that was previously not possible, the firm has seen tremendous growth in 2023, expanding its footprint to over 25 locations just this year alone.
NXT Capture will be exhibiting at IAAPA Expo 2023 at booth #2804. Here, the team will be showcasing many of the company’s latest innovations.
This year, attendees can check out a few of its most recent innovations such as the latest generation of the award-winning Selfie Experience. This combines real-time live video with augmented reality effects to surround users in a truly immersive experience allowing them to leave with a memorable souvenir.
Additionally, the team will be demoing NXT Capture’s latest Studio-fx capture technology. This places users within any scene, allowing them to see themselves in the moment, without the use of green-screen technology. Attendees will be able to leave with a print and a special snow-globe souvenir where they can unlock a hidden digital surprise with their mobile device.
Stop by booth #2804 and learn how NXT Capture is using AI to create digital content without added labour or capital that can be paired with images and video captured throughout a guest’s visit, to create added value.
