Captomatic is a technology company that enables guests to relive the excitement of their visit to an attraction or amusement park. It offers printable and digital pictures, as well as video content which is the main medium on social media today.
By reinventing photo and video capturing technology from hardware to software, the firm has helped to create new business opportunities for parks and operators. This allows them to sell captured content with maximum automation. All the triggering, filming, editing, and delivery are done automatically at the same time, giving users the freedom to change at any of these stages.
For maximum flexibility, the end media can also be adjusted remotely at any time. For instance, winter snow overlays for the Christmas season or a spooky track for Halloween can be added.
Captomatic is operating globally with clients coming from the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. While still at the early start of the business journey, the list of completed installations and flexibility for business models signals exciting growth in the near future.
Martins Rancans, chief strategy officer at Captomatic, and Janeks Kalnins solutions architect, speak to blooloop about how the firm developed its revolutionary solution. They outline how the firm approached the challenge of creating reliable, personalised content. They also explain its three-step approach with a focus on content, technology, and a powerful back end.
A tech background
The Captomatic team has a strong background in the entertainment, digital marketing, and IT industries, explains Rancans. From those three sectors, team members also bring experience in marketing, IT, and e-commerce. Captomatic first began with a project for a pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, which had a vertical wind tunnel as the main attraction.
“There was a need to offer greater digital content, created by guests. We were asked to design a system for the vertical wind tunnel where the video content and photos were automatically captured, and then the moment you go back to the lockers and you take off your helmet, you have all the content from your individual flight delivered directly to your mobile phone.”
At the time, this was something completely unique for that sector.
“Other operators of vertical wind tunnels offered DVDs. These included the content from the whole session of 30 people flying and it was hard for guests to find themselves within hours of footage, and they couldn’t share it. But we made all of that easy for everybody, with the personalised and/or branded content instantly accessible, which people could share on social media and send to their friends.
“After this, we realised that this digital transformation was not just overdue for the vertical wind tunnel sector. We knew that our solution had applications across the wider entertainment industry as well, for instance for rollercoasters, haunted houses and other attractions.”
This was in 2010.
“From that time, we have been through various business models and technology prototypes before settling on our current model,” says Kalnins. “What is at our core, technology-wise, is automation. We automate as much as we can so that the cameras and the system will be as stable as possible, and we take people out of the operational chain as much as we can. At the same time, we are meeting the industry’s demand for low-intensity capital expenditure by engaging in business arrangements that work for all involved parties.”
Captomatic brings value to operators
Captomatic’s goal is to bring value to the attractions industry. From a marketing perspective, companies can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns where they build a platform that allows customers to create some kind of content together with the brand. But amusement parks have those moments at their fingertips:
“They don’t have to pay for it,” says Rancans. “They can even sell this content, just by capturing the most emotional and exciting parts of the guest experience and making it available to share. This is a low-hanging fruit for amusement parks in terms of generating revenue.”
Summarising the benefits of the Captomatic solution, Kalnins says:
“It’s easy to install, easy to operate and there’s no hassle with it. We work with our clients so that they can provide the best content possible for their visitors.
“We also don’t stop growing and iterating. The beauty of this 21st-century technology is that we can always have up-to-date solutions on our devices. So, for example, if there’s a new trend on TikTok and everybody wants a particular overlay or the video needs to be edited in a new, unique way, it takes just a couple of minutes for the camera to update. We develop it and we test it, and then we upload it to the cloud. All the cameras get the updates instantly.”
Meeting the challenges of attractions photography and video
Within the attractions industry photography is, as Rancans mentions, a straightforward process. But there are some challenges.
Firstly, previous iterations have not always been very sophisticated. It’s easy for parks to station a photographer with a DSLR camera, who can take photos of guests and then sell them. And many people are used to the experience of exiting a rollercoaster and then searching for themselves on the screen afterwards if they want to buy an image.
But neither of these options includes much scope for a personalised, hassle-free experience.
“With our onboard systems, every human being that’s riding on the coaster has their own video and when they exit the ride, they just see themselves,” says Kalnins. “You don’t have to go through a bunch of images searching for yourself. And parks don’t have to invest in things like face recognition technologies. Everything’s automated; you exit the ride, you see your content, and you decide whether to buy.”
The importance of consistency
Another key challenge is consistency. This is where the firm’s unique automated approach comes into its own.
“The greatest challenge is being consistent. No matter the weather, no matter the time of the day, the images must look good. Everyone wants a good picture of themselves! We built our onboard camera system from scratch to address the main challenges of quality, durability, uptime, and fast delivery to the customer.”
“The automation of the process is the cherry on top. Filming is split into phases for every camera. All these steps combine into a system that in the end offers the guests their videos. By having a step-by-step process, it is easier for us to add new features and scale the current ones, offering more options for our customers. As a result, Captomatic video from the onboard cameras is already showing up on the preview screens when you walk out of your ride.”
“If a human being is operating the camera, being consistent is not that hard,” says Rancans. “Human brains are very fast; they can adjust the camera settings, or they can adjust the angle. Automated cameras on the other hand can be tricky. However, in our case, everything is done through algorithms.
“We have taught the camera to operate in a certain way for every type of condition. Our cameras can work during night or day, during sunny days and cloudy days. Lighting is very important for the image quality. So, we are very careful with where we position our cameras, and then we have trained the algorithm to do the rest.”
Content is key
The success of the Captomatic solution is underpinned by three key elements. These are on-trend content, integrated technology, and a powerful, user-friendly management system.
“Content is what matters at the end of the day,” says Kalnins. “Everything else is a tool to get there. Guests at the park are demanding the best possible experience and that is what operators need to give them. In our case, we offer them memories of their experiences.
“The two experiences – the ride itself and the video at the end – should be aligned with each other. If guests were amused while on a ride at the park, then they should also be amused when they see their images at the exit.”
Essentially, the content must be unique, good looking and as engaging as the experience itself.
“One more thing that makes us unique is that our cameras can do both photos and videos at the same time. We can create high-quality images and we can create videos, and even slow-motion videos.
“Our content builder is very flexible. For example, at the same park, at the same spot, we can offer photos, or with a couple of blocks, we can create videos out of that content. That way, both us and the park can experiment with the content. For example, if something’s not working out or we want to try something new, we could look at the camera that’s taking pictures right now, a couple of clicks and then we have added onboard audio, overlays, music, etc.
“It’s very flexible and also it offers a lot of possibilities for the local creative teams at the park.”
Integrated and reliable technology
Consistency is vital if parks are to offer a quality experience to guests. It is Captomatic’s integrated technology that powers the consistency of its solution.
“We invested a lot of time into our technology so that we remain automated, fast, and reliable. This is the main thing that we want to give our clients so that they’re confident that the cameras work, that their investment is paying off and they have good partners working with them.”
Rancans adds: “The most important part is uptime. And for our OFF-ride cameras, for example, we have an uptime of around 99.6%. We have a partner that has had our cameras installed for over five years, and nothing has happened to them. All the local team has to do is clean the glass in front of the lens occasionally and that’s it.”
The cameras are remotely adjustable, so the zoom and focus can be adjusted from afar.
“The active remote monitoring means that if something happens, we know immediately. Our technicians and the operator both receive a notification with a clear message showing what has happened. Then we can go in and solve it, usually remotely. But at the end of the day, it’s heavy-duty industrial-grade technology, so it can provide this maximum possible uptime.”
Captomatic’s cameras also have an inner temperature regulation, to handle heating and cooling.
“We have clients in multiple parts of the world,” explains Kalnins. “For example, in Turkey, it tends to be hot, so we need to cool down the camera and electronics. Or in Denmark, it tends to be a bit humid. Since the camera is in an enclosure, the glass in the front may fog up if it’s humid and cold. So, we’ve invested in temperature and moisture regulation so that both problems are solved.”
Powerful and flexible administration tools
Once the cameras are installed, the system is very flexible and scalable.
“The core of our technology is its modularity. We can add and take away parts of it to bring more benefits to our partners.”
“Installation of Captomatic cameras is easier than the usual off-ride cameras because you can do all the adjustments, the zoom and focus, remotely,” adds Rancans. “We also have an optical trigger, which means you don’t need to install a physical sensor on the ride tracks.”
Because the cameras are fully automated, operators have the freedom to change their offerings.
“For instance, if there is a need to align the theme of the generated media to the park’s theming during certain seasons, this can be done with a few clicks,” says Kalnins. “The same devices are flexible content-wise. One day a single camera can generate a single video. Or, on another day, that same single camera can offer multiple videos and a photo set. This enables our customers to experiment with the content that they offer to their guests.
“As a bonus, with all this flexibility in the core of the systems architecture, it is easy to scale up the operations. A new camera can be introduced to the flow in a matter of a couple of clicks. This broadens the possibilities even more.”
Working in partnership with attraction operators
The Captomatic team comes from a technology background, rather than an attractions background. As technology natives rather than photography souvenir operations experts, the team were able to approach the challenge without any inherited legacy and any prejudice.
“It’s a blessing because we have the experience and knowledge of and access to the most cutting-edge technology. We know how things work. We know the latest code bases and everything else that’s technical, we know how it works and how to put it together. That meant that we were quickly able to iterate through the prototypes and settle in on the base model. It’s sped up our development process a lot.
“As for photography, most of us do photography as hobbyists, so we know the basics and the techniques. And usually, our partners already have photographers on site, and they know what they want. They know what kind of picture they want, and they know where they want to install it. So, we use our experience together with their experience to get the best coverage possible.”
A good ROI with Captomatic
With 87 installed cameras to date, Captomatic boasts 99.6% uptime and a capture conversion rate of up to 44%. It believes clients will see a full return on their investment within the first year of operation.
“Our onboard system generates hundreds of thousands of Euros in revenue per year, per season for one of our clients,” says Rancans. “Parks that work with onboard video or photography know how much revenue it can create. But to be able to do these onboard videos effectively, you need a reliable system. You need a camera that can take videos, that can resist the harsh environment on the ride during multiple seasons, and can send content fast. We’re talking 15 seconds after people are off the ride.”
“We’re putting that content in front of them at the moment their emotions are at their highest, in a highly personalised way.
“That selfie-style content, taken at moments that you can’t capture yourself, is the highest value content that parks can offer. It’s linked to a personal, emotional moment, and that is what is valuable for people themselves and social media. Nobody is posing. These are real people, real emotions, captured in a moment where you cannot hold your phone.
Kalnins adds: “In marketing terms, you can’t put a price on that. It is the best kind of content, and when people share it, they are targeting it for you. Friends of Your guests, that will see the shared content on their social media, most likely share the same interests. At the same time, the content will work best as a promotion for close friends of Your guests. So, the people that see the video, these are the same people that most probably will visit the park later.”
What’s next for Captomatic?
“Our focus at the moment is the onboard solution, now that we have nailed the OFF-ride capture. That is our main emphasis. We are working both towards the next installation and the next generation of devices that we will be bringing to light soon.
“We are ready to be this revenue-generating technology partner for operators and parks,” says Rancans. “The technology is there. It’s stable, with good uptime. It’s providing incredible content. So, we just want to get the word out and install them in as many places as we can, to provide significant revenue opportunities and to bring marketing value to the parks.
“The amusement park industry still isn’t harnessing the potential of this digital transformation. This is what people want. They want the stories about them, they want to be the main heroes, to share their emotions and their adventure. You might have a great roller coaster, but if you’re not providing this chance for a shareable, personal experience, you’re not meeting that ride’s full potential.”
