Wifi Revolution

White Rock, British Columbia, is one of many sparkling jewels in what the province’s tourism ministry proclaims (with only a slight stretching of the truth) as “the best place on Earth.” The city, located some 30 miles from Vancouver, is noted for a long sandy beach along the north shore of Semiahmoo Bay, which separates Canada from the United States, marked by a large glacial boulder a.k.a. ‘White Rock’ near the water’s edge.

The beach is connected to a very busy pedestrian and cycling promenade, an equally walkable shopping/restaurant strip…and now to the Internet and to wireless-delivered local content via a combination of free Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that also promotes tourism in what may be the first installation of its kind.

Area businesses including the Peace Arch News which reported the story July 16 have sponsored a $55,000 pilot using BlueZone, a blended Wi-Fi/Bluetooth solution set up by Blue Jamb Media. BlueZone in this instance provides users with local tourism information including video content as well as with access to e-mail and the web via 14 hotspots, each of which can hit up to 21 wireless devices simultaneously.

The Wi-Fi splash page offers a one-click access to a Tourism White Rock application that provides events, activities, dining and accommodation information. The Bluetooth feature asks users whether they are interested in receiving content and if they say yes pushes customized pages and video content to them. In return for sponsoring the hotspots, businesses receive banner ads on the Wi-Fi tool that links to new mobile websites set up for them.

The service went live Wednesday July 14. Some of the events it is promoting include free outdoor movies, a summer concert series and a farmers’ market.

“As far as I know, no one’s ever done [anything like] it anywhere in the world,” Michelle Herlihy, who handles sales and creative services for Blue Jamb told the newspaper. “Making sure people are aware of what’s going on in town… getting information to people while they’re here, it’s very powerful.”

The BlueZone Bluetooth network enables content that can be branded, explains Blue Jamb, and can be controlled and updated quickly and easily from a web based content management system. The system allows Blue Jamb to do remote live monitoring of the system, and to change and upload content quickly and easily from a central control point at any time.

The BlueZone application also has handset recognition technology, in which content is sent out with the correct screen size and file format to suite the particular devices, thereby ensuring an optimal viewing experience for the use. Blue Jamb can recognize if a particular handset has already received a particular piece of content, and if it has, the system can be configured to send a different piece of content to that device, or not to send anything at all.

Here’s how it works: when a consumer enters a location and comes within 20 meters (50 feet) of a Blue Jamb Media server, its system automatically detects them and they momentarily receive an opt-in pop up message on their phone asking if they want to receive content. If the user agrees, that response triggers a download which is sent and saved into their phones’ inbox; they can watch content immediately and again at a later time if they choose. For a piece of high quality 30 second video content, transfer speed will average 25 seconds.

Local tourism officials are quite pleased with the BlueZone system and are looking forward to working with it going forward. Tourism White Rock executive director Betina Albornoz, reports the Peace Arch News “described the network as a “fantastic service to the community, to bring that content to people who may otherwise have not seen it.”