glennborthwick

For some it is, but I would say only a small proportion would choose to go line up on other rides. As a parent when I use a qbot I want to sit in the shade, see the shops, get a drink, get some food. Its a fantastic product. It was so good that I decided to buy shares in the company who made it.

thanks for the fedback lotl. did u get to speak to anybody from Lo-q.

I don see a problem with them going on rides which are virtually walk ons. Either way I really hope this goes hand in hand with in park improvements. Certainly the last two years at Six flags can show how a higher standard demanded by managers can effect improvements in load times, all done hand in hand with technology improvements. I am very interested in users feedback of the system etc.

q4u - webpage updated. $10 plus $5 per extra person. Typical 4 person rent works out at $7.50 each. Full explanation - no excuses for not knowing what you are buying

ao we are saying 130 units x 4 people so say 5% of a good solid day. Thats not going to impact anyone else negatively. Even if every single qbot gets 2 more rides (cant see it) we are talking 1000 more rides across 8 high profile rides or 125 rides per ride. I think youre missing the typical demographic buyer which is a more affluent family, which may put 4 people on it but realistically mum and dad only ride a couple of rides whlst the kids ride say 6. I still reckon the average over all will be lower than you think . Season ticket holders, teenage regular enthusiaists just arent the target market. I reckon an average will be 20 rides per qbot per day i.e 3 people riding 6 rides as an average - sometimes 2 people riding 6 rides then 4 people riding a couple of rides. At 18 rides per qbot even on days when its sold out we are only taking 18 x 130 = 2340 rides of which probably only 500 rides are extra squeezed in whilst people are waiting. Share this across your main 8 rides its about 60 extra riders over a whole day. It wont affect anyone else at all.

there are loads of wristband systems although lo-qs will include several unique aspects. They are working on it with an us/indian company bartronics. Points below edited from interviw with ceo first is an RFID wristband. We are the only company in the world that makes a secure RFID wristband; and that has some strategic advantages for the market. One is we want to link people’s credit and cash to a wristband, as well as their access privileges. The wristband itself is just an ID device and can't do anything on its own without our software system solutions. It integrates into RFID point of sale (POS) devices and even the electronic cash register. If they already have a normal POS platforms, it is a simple matter of adding an RFID reader, a little bit of software and they are off and running with access to the system. There is then Smart Tender, a system so venues who don’t have IT departments can simply have an internet connection to the server. They get web based management. They can completely look at all their revenues in real time; manage all that activity; and get authorizations for the credit cards. They have a patent that basically extends the antenna of the RFID device all the way around the wristband. The whole wristband becomes a flexible circuit that is an antenna in itself. If it is cut anywhere or ripped, the wristband permanently disables. If somebody rips your wristband off, they are not going to get your money. The hosted solution allows users web based access to their business from anywhere in the world: their home, their office, on the beach. We have the ability to set up owners of businesses who may have multiple venues and multiple E&L centers. They can configure employees. They can manage the patrons. For example, in one of the early uses at International Speedway, NASCAR saw that one guy spent $4 a minute for every minute he was there. Wouldn’t you like to invite him back?! With MasterCard Pay Pass, for example, all the information goes to MasterCard. We enable the venue to do customer relationship management by understanding where they are every time they do a transaction; how much they are spending; what kind of beer they like to drink. Do they like hot dogs? You can collect all that stuff. Do you see customers using the wristbands taking advantage of purchasing trend information? CARNEY: In every pilot we have seen a per-cap increase of 10% to 60% of park venues, which is absolutely phenomenal. We call this impulse spending. I will use this example: you go to a park and bring cash. When you want to buy something, you pull out your wallet and you have $50. You say, "You know what, I'm going to spend $25 now, and save $25 in case the kids want to stop and get a drink on the way home. So you don’t spend all your cash. The credit card industry has found if you use your credit card, you will spend 10-15% more than cash. We believe we've found a real psychological phenomenon that if you move that further from the wallet, scan your wristband and somebody hands you something, you feel, "Wow, that is free. Give me another one." So we see impulse spending increases. We also eliminate cash. Now they don’t need a cash counting department. It is all handled up front.

Text q tends to work best at one line attractions. It has worked extremely well at madame tussauds london dungeon. It tends to cost about £1.50 a text of which half might well go to a phone company. There are several reasons in my opinion why qbots are better for theme parks. Not everyone has a phone, and there may well be several blank spot at a theme parks. Secondly time delays in receiving texts could cause chaos. Also overseas visitors tend to be charged a fortune due to roaming fees. Also lo-q are about to announce a waterpark solution. Basically not only access to rides, if there is a wait but also a wristband that can beloaded up with cash via credit card on entry which comes with locker access where you can store your valuable for the day yet use the wristband at the bars, burger joints restaurants.

i take on board your points although differ on opinion on some. Your figures are suggesting everybody who buys a qbot wants to go on every ride. That simply isnt the case. From experience some six flags might have 8 headline rides but the family market dont expect to go on them all in a day, probably only 3 or 4 headline rides , and legoland is no different really and it hasnt affected sales or customer feedback which has been great . Possibly lo-q will sell it with a 4 ride maximum but for less money. They talked about that model at the agm. All you are paying for is to not stand in the line. If you want the full quota of rides a gold version would be needed and from what you say it probably isnt ready for it until operations are improved.

1) Limiting numbers is a crucial component to either system. Not necessarily. Lo-q's product can handle a much larger proportion of people and they are working on a product for every member in the park. It's more down to whether the walkways, shops, other areas could handle people not ina queue. Also lo-q's software is far more accurate than a cruder fastpass version. IT is being combined with accurate queue measuring froma compny called irisys. This means it can more accurately schedule times and increase load factors. 2) Is that really a setback? How does a ride failing not screw over Lo-Q users too, just the same as it does normal guests. A ridiculous looking buzzing thing around your neck isn't going to make a breakdown any more enjoyable. Sometimes rides fail for ten minutes, sometimes for an hour, sometimes fr the rest of the day. A qbot can inform you immediately where-ever you are in the park, and reschedule you accurately. Fast pass version, you might not find out and it leads to huge bottlenecks. 3) We are talking about parks here that move vastly huge amounts of people. Dreamworld cannot be directly compared to parks like Legoland because of the seaonal differences. Yes Dreamworld 1.5 million vs. Legoland 1.7 million but that's with half the length of season. For an effective comparison it's more like Dreamworld 750,000 vs. Legoland 1.7 million. Qbots basically earn 80% of their income in two months. My guess is that anywhere in the world there are peak times, presumably school holidays and weekends. Sometimes pure attendance numbers are just one of the factors. Otherss are the geography of the park, number of headline rides. In six flags some of the parks with 750k attendances have longer lines than those with 2 million due to this. 4) Yeah see now that's a sales pitch from Lo-Q. I guarantee you that with the 100 million plus that Disney parks around the world see through their gates each year, they could care less about. Not quite sure what youre getting at. To be honest disney could do what they want their pockets are so big. From lo-q's point of view its generally good. Disney dont share their technology with other parks, but the industry does want a solution to the biggest moan on all customer surveys - waiting in lines. Customers have two commodities , money and time. If dw price point it correctly for the market people who value time will take up on it, and anecdotally from Sf and dollywood parks the usersfeedback in virtually univerally positive. Im sure this is just a small part in maqueries plan to raise per capitas spending, but it is virtually pure profit. Normally there is a one off cost, probably around $70 000 aus dollars for installation. This is falling all the time as the wireless architecture is much cheaper. Looking at your figures a typical target is 10% of attendees on the busiest 60 days and 3% of attendees on the next 60 busiest days. Lets say its priced at just $10 a person similar to legoland- that is 10% x 10 000 x $10 x 60 days plus 3% x 6000 x $10 x 60 days = a total revenue of around 700 000. Staffing/ cost of sales would equate for around 50% of this. If the profit after that is split 50/50 the park would make an extra 175 000 dollars, without capital expense, not including any extra the patrons would spend because they werent in a queue. Wow they do need to improve dispatch times, however you would go on the same amount of rides regardless. Thats a separate issue. Qbots dont make you go on any more rides save possibly making it slightly more efficient. There should be no difference to going with or without a qbot in terms of expectations. If i went and was prepared to wait in queues to go on every ride I still wouldnt hit your target of 8 rides regardless. Bad operations is bad operations. You are not buying more rides, just not having to stand in the queue for them. Perhaps lo-q can help thm with managing the queues more effectivel as well as they are working on th with SF. If the rumours are true and its a per ride cost that is interesting and could be explained by your analysis of load times. Lets say they say a one off $10 plus $2 a ride you could choose how much you want to spend. Im very interested in whether this is the model. Its also doesnt negatively affect other wait times as you can only book one ride at a time. You wouldnt need to allocate any more capacity than normal and certainly nowhere near 50%. The standard line will look proportionally shorter with qbot holders merging (normally from a separate entrance). thanks for the intelligent debtae glenn Firstly, let's assume Dreamworld's goal from this is a $2 increase in per capita spending which I would say is in line with the typical goals of Macquarie Leisure, the park's owners. On a day with 10,000 guests, that's $20,000 increase in revenue. At a modest $20 a piece that means they want to sell 1,000 a day. Now, here's probably where your comparisons to parks like Legoland fall flat. There is not a single ride at Dreamworld which operates at more than about 400 people per hour. I suspect I'm being generous with the below estimates; Dreamworld is known for its somewhat unique lack of operational efficiency: Cyclone: 200pph (one dispatch every 7 minutes) The Claw: 400pph (one cycle every 5 minutes) Mick Doohan's Motocoaster: 300pph (one dispatch every 3 minutes) Tower of Terror: 200pph (one dispatch every 4 minutes) Giant Drop: 200pph (both sides cycling every 5 minutes) Wipeout: 300pph (one cycle every 8 minutes) Reptar: 200pph (one dispatch every 5 minutes) Total hourly capacity of rides with Lo-Q: 1,800. I'll even be generous and say 2,000 as I'm sure a water ride (or two) would be thrown in. For this to be remotely good value and a positive experience for buyers, we can expect that every visitor would want to get on each Lo-Q ride once during their day. We'll say 8 rides. Over the course of a 8 hour day at the park (summer extended hours), that means they need to be doing one ride each hour. OK, we now have exactly half the hourly capacity of each major ride in the park being dedicated to Lo-Q holders. Any less and people will leave unsatisfied and the product is essentially a ripoff. So we have rides like Motocoaster absorbing around 150 people every hour because the other 150 are those who've paid a bit extra. Here's the fun part. Motocoaster can now only absorb around 13% of the total "normal" guests, compared with 24% before Lo-Q is introduced. If anyone can explain conclusively how this isn't negatively impacting "normal" park-goers -- WHO HAVE ALREADY PAID $70-odd TO ENTER THE PARK!! -- then I'll gladly shout them and their family/friends Lo-Q for the day. Anyone that honestly can't see this being an almight disaster is kidding themselves. These things work at parks with twice the annual attendance and half the operating season because these parks have the depth in their attraction lineup to be able to absorb many times the amount of guests Dreamworld possibly can. Hell, if this were Movie World we were talking about I'd probably be singing a different tune because at least they have a good number of high capacity attractions that are consistently operated in an efficient manner throughout the peak season (oh, and because I'm biased, hate Dreamworld blah blah blah) that could absorb a decent number of Lo-Q buyers without significantly impacting normal guests. I'm all for things like FlowRider and the V8 Playstation simulator thingy because these upcharges are for those who want to spend the extra money for the added experience. I myself aren't impartial to spending a bit extra every now and again on something a bit different. But these things don't subtract from a normal day at the park. At the end of the day, within the context of a park like Dreamworld, there is simply no realistic way in which the Lo-Q system can be effectively integrated. It won't affect me given it's been about five years since I spent a day at Dreamworld and I'm in no hurry to get back. But that doesn't mean it's not an utterly ridiculous idea.

thanks richard - great post - let me read it few times to digest the issues and get back to you

My view is objective from a family perspective. I have a miserrable time at a park due to the queues. I went to alton towers and waited nearly 2 hours with my 8 yr old. I can only go in school holidays at peak times. People choose how they spend their money. Would I buy an overpriced tshirt, no. Would i pay so I can wait drinking a coffee, or having a picnic - yes. Reminding people are poor is absolute emotional nonsense. Pricing will of course be key and hopefully it will be affordable. Six flags use it as a huge cash cow, which is a debate - for example $200 dollars for a gold experience, however the same solution at dollywood is $10 plus $5 per person (US dollars - not sure how that equates to AUS) Disney did actually try to copy the patent for lo-q's technology but the lawyers stopped them - one of the few times in history. They are actually doing something very similar with Verizon via mobile phones for next season so its coming throughout the industry. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disn...1,7925212.story (link to disney story) fast pass at disney does have significant drawbacks both from an operational and user point of view. 1) Numbers are limited - they often sell out by 11 oclock on main days. 2) They are not dynamic or interactive. If a ride breaks down it can't inform you, and everything gets stacked up 3) Its heavily labour intensive to the park. 4) Ebay forgeries have caused big problems of course one great benefit is that they are free (although there is obviously a cost perspective built into the entrance price) If qbots were free and built into the entrance price I doubt there would be much debate that they are a step forward. Im very interested to see how they price it at DW. If they are doing the per ride thing that will be interesting as its the frst time. People can then choose how much they want to spend on the qbot.

wow, some people are defensive here. Though this was a discussion forum and id share what i know about lo-q. Clearly im coming from a personal angle- ive already stated Im a shareholder with a vested interest. I compare dreamworld with legoland similar peak times, a very tight school holiday period where queus are long. L0-q products work well at any park above 500 000. I believe DW gets about 750k so its spot on. 80% of the annnual usage of qbots is concentrated in 50 rental days when frankly most parks cant handle the huge spike to attendance. Obviously holidays and peak weekends. A qbot does markedly improve park experience at these times. Who on earth chooses to stand in a queue when for small fee they dont have to. Especially for families. I have two small kids. Do I want to stand in a queue for an hour for a 2 minute ride. No way. I will still be waiting the same time as anyone else but can do other things, visit the shops, buy lunch, and enjoy the park. Heres a similar post From Edward Jones Posted September 20, 2006 at 10:26 AM I went to the opening of the Bluegrass with my mother aged 82. We heard about the Q2Q device on our Dollywood newsletter so decided to get it. We had to queue for 35 mins to get it but it was well worth it. A really nice english man showed us how it worked and we pre-booked Ricky Skaggs. It was superb !. The queue for Ricky was over 1.5 hours long but we did not have to stand in it, that was great considering the age of my mom. When it was time for the show the Q2Q beeped alot and let us know it was time for the show. We then were let into the exit for the show and had priority seating before anyone else. This was so great and really made our day, well worth the $16 charge. We went back on the saturday to get another but Q2Q had already sold out completely by 10:15am so we had to get in line for that day. So $16 not to stand in a line for hours and get great seating is well worth it. Dollywood should have done this a long time ago. For people like me with elderly parents who can't stand for long it was a god send. Mr E. Jones. Implementation always follow the same path. For example this is a link to the dollywood discussion 2 years ago - http://www.themeparkinsider.com/news/response.cfm?ID=3084 Exactly the same comments and process as this thread - People um and arr about the idea. Some negativity. Enthusiasts say, its not fair , its not needed. Over the seasons more and more people use it, enjoy it, and come back for more. People gradually realise it's the way to go. Two years down the line now and its viewed a normal part of operations. They can only book one ride at a time, they wait the same amount of time. If people choose to spend $10 dollars to improve the experience thats personal choice. Nov 9 2008, 07:41 PM Post #18 random post froma dollywood thread last week Group: Members Posts: 13,547 Joined: 26-November 04 From: ~ Member No.: 1,227 Dollywood's version of Q-Bot is very, very economical, and works for both shows and rides...I highly recommend it....

People soon realise that people are actually waiting exactly the same time , they just have freedom to wait somewhere else doing something else. Legoland UK went absolutely fine this summer and UK attitudes to queue jumping are as strong as anywhere

The disney though is troublesome. It doesnt allow for breakdowns, and causes awful bottlenecks and add to line times. This system is dynamic and can reschedule immediately there are any delays. You can also book any ride from anywhere in the park. They keep emphasising fair to all. In the states they seem to be more ablke to accept that people with money can buy there way tot he front of the queue, but Iguess UK and AUs attitudes are different. Lo-q are working towards a day when the park is queue free. I.e everybody gets a qbot and plans there day on it, however most parks infrastructure cant handle busy days with nobody in a line.

thanks . if they do it per ride thats a new development. Normally its say 20 dollars for one plus 5 per extra person added on, for the whole day if you hear anymore or see them installing it and can have a chat with them onsite, can you keep me informed. cheers