Digitalization and connected elevators are top of mind for many elevator service companies and manufactures. Service expectations for passengers travelling in an elevator not only include features such as seeing the outside weather forecast. Todays people expect immersive digital experiences in almost any context. By adding real-time voice and video communication to elevators, you can improve the passengers’ sense of security in emergency situations and the overall user experience. This blog post explores possibilities to bring real-time video communication to any elevator at a low cost, using the iotcomms.io platform.
The challenge
Bringing high-quality communication at a low cost to installed base of elevators
There are millions of elevators around the world today and the majority were installed a long time ago. The first installations of commercial elevators goes back as far as 100-150 years. Moreover, the installed base of elevators will probably remain in service for yet a long period of time.They are expensive to replace and old shafts are often not prepared for new elevator cars.
Modern elevators comes with pre-installed media screens for digital services during emergencies and other situations. Older elevators on the other hand rely on the alarm button for emergency processes. They are often connected to the analogue telephony network and have no built-in capacity to communicate digitally. For this reason, elevator companies must find new ways to incorporate digital services in their installed base of elevators.
Future requirements from authorities will most likely force elevator manufacturers to video enable their elevator cars. Likewise, customers will demand modernized elevators with improved security features and a better overall passenger experience.
The solution
Adding real-time capabilities to any elevator using the passenger’s personal mobile phone
With the iotocomms.io platform, it’s easy to put together a solution that brings voice and video communication capabilities to any existing elevator – using the passenger’s personal mobile phone as communication tool. Such a solution will help passengers to get easy access to service agents during emergency situations and facilitate the work for people working at the alarm or contact center.
The proposed solution brings high-quality communication at a low cost. Equally important, it increases the alarm and contact center efficiency by giving agents eyes and ears into elevator situations.
Enabling connected elevators fast and easy with standard components
In the proposed solution, a QR code sticker is placed inside each elevator. When a passenger scans the code with his mobile phone, the web browser in the phone is launched and a video connection is established with the alarm or contact center via the iotcomms.io platform.
A great feature for QR codes is that they can hold a lot of information. As a result, service agents can provide more accurate support depending on the situation and the passenger itself.
The solution is based on the WebRTC gateway functionalities in the iotcomms.io communications platform, in addition with standard components available in the market today, making it fast and easy to implement!
QR codes with metadata helps you personalize your customer service
The QR code can be loaded with metadata upon customer choice. For instance it can include installation address, elevator type, service representative or similar. In addition, analytics data such as recognition of age can be included to prioritize incoming video calls from children. All this data can be displayed to the contact or alarm center agent who receives the call. Consequently the agent can respond faster and provide adequate help in each situation.
The call queue function in our mediaservice API can provide functionality to hold a session until a person is available to handle the call. An optional scenario is to transfer the video call to a service representative that is responsible for the building.
A cloud based solution for endless scalability and cost-effective operations
Considering there are relative low number of elevators in each building, it’s desirable to avoid costly installations of hardware as well as software maintenance. Our cloud-native communications platform keeps you secure, agile and fully compliant. You don’t have to worry about hardware, software, bandwidth or monitoring.
Summary
By using standard components available in the market today you can video enable your installed base of elevators quick and easy, and at a low cost. There are several benefits for you and the passengers, such as:
- Alarm and contact center agents are given eyes and ears into elevator situations
- Improved efficiency for alarm agents in emergency situations
- Fast and easy to deploy solution based on standard components
- Easy access to service agents enhances the user experience and security
- Metadata from elevators helps agents to respond fast and provide more accurate help
Do you want to enable SIP-based voice and video communication from your elevator panels instead?
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