Have you ever been to a shopping center or a public office (post office, bank, …) and found those self-service kiosks turned off? Or blocked and not working? Or have you ever been to the bus station and just when you were looking for timetables, you realized the digital kiosk does not work, and you ended up missing the bus?
If you are a digital kiosk manufacturer, how do you think your customers react to a broken device not providing them with the information or services they were looking for?
BBS is an interactive kiosk producer. They turned to us to equip their kiosks with industrial PCs, as consumer PCs by the common brands on the market were not actually suited for this application. Indeed, they were constantly shutting down, and the fans were getting noisy over time, so they had to resort to continuous service for their kiosks installed all over Italy.
Analyzing our customer’s problem
Our customer had always used common consumer PCs to produce their digital outdoor kiosks, since they were cheaper and more readily available on the market. Outdoor kiosks, however, are particular systems: indeed, being used outdoors, they are exposed to temperature variations and weather phenomena. Therefore, they need to be running 24/7 even under adverse conditions, such as in the pouring rain or the burning summer sun.
The use of non-industrial PCs in these systems caused several problems, such as overheating and sudden shutdown. These, in turn, led to the malfunctioning and even failure of the entire kiosk, making it completely unusable for their customers.
But why are consumer PCs not suitable for this application?
- Temperatures: outdoor kiosks are exposed to temperature variations depending on the season and geographical region in which they are installed, with temperatures falling below 0°C in winter and rising to +40°C in summer. Furthermore, the temperature recorded inside the kiosks is even higher than that perceived outside. Being designed for domestic applications, consumer PCs can overheat or suffer severe failures with these temperature fluctuations, leading to intermittent shutdown or reboot of the kiosk.
- Weather: As they are located outdoors, these kiosks are exposed to all kinds of weather conditions, including rain, thunderstorms, and snowfall. The resulting humidity that may form inside the system can lead to serious damage to the PC and compromise its functionality, making the kiosk unresponsive.
- Type of hardware: in non-industrial PCs, the hardware is subject to frequent changes by the manufacturers, often without warning. Consequently, every time the hardware components change, it may be necessary to reconfigure all the PCs with the right settings. As a result, production gets a much longer and more expensive process.
The Solution
After conducting a thorough analysis of our customer’s problem, we identified the Kimera Serial RSS-7C1 as the perfect solution to meet all their needs:
- Thanks to its extended temperature range, this Kimera can tolerate temperature variations between -40°C and +85°C, ensuring full operation even under the most extreme conditions;
- It is totally fanless: there are no mechanical components in Kimera Computers (unless specifically requested by customers), so there is no risk of the fan, for example, being damaged by the weather such as frost or snowfall;
- The industrial hardware is not subject to changes like traditional consumer PCs: the components are guaranteed in the long term, thus avoiding the need to reconfigure all settings.
In addition, with its two video ports and dual LAN ports, it can be connected to two independent monitors, to the internal network, and to the internet, without the need for WiFi.
Finally, thanks to its extremely compact size, it perfectly fits into the kiosk, representing a practical and ergonomic solution.
The result is a high-performance PC, guaranteeing 24/7 operation even in harsh environments and extreme weather conditions. Your kiosk users will thus be able to use them without any problems even on a mid-August day in the city or in a mountain resort in mid-winter. In this way, you will have avoided constant complaints and never-ending technical assistance, gaining satisfied customers and decidedly more peaceful dreams.
Here is our customer’s full testimonial:
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Find out more about this Kimera by clicking on this link -> Kimera Serial RSS-7C1.
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