Today in the Hold Room Laura and Carrie talk with Director of Transit at Dimensional Innovations Paul Martin. Dimensional Innovations specializes in creating immersive experiences and tackling facility specific problems. Laura and Carrie dive deep on the simulation flight Dimensional Innovations provides for MCI – Kansas City International Airport to accommodate first time passengers and those who have a fear of flying. Please join us to learn more about simulations and experiences that provide “Positive Distractions” for passengers. TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the Passenger Experience series hosted by ACC’s Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series, we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics (such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multi-cultural), new technologies, labor, and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room! [Intro Music End] Carrie: Thanks for joining us back again in The Hold Room. We're really excited to have with us today Paul Martin. Paul is with Dimensional Innovations, and, Paul, we would really like for you to just start off this interview by introducing yourself. Paul: Thanks for having me. We're really excited to take part in this broader discussion. We're [Dimensional Innovations (or DI)] a 30-year-old firm, very well established in many other markets. Aviation is actually something of a recent focus for us [DI]. My name is Paul Martin and I am the Director of Transit. The Transit Practice within Dimensional Innovations. Traditionally, that has meant more like bus shelters, kind of a land-based transit. DI as a company, our mission, as we say, it's to liberate people from mediocre experiences. Our main focus has been professional sports, but everything’s about an experience, right? So, if you're going to an arena or stadium, you know, maybe we've [DI] done the Hall of Fame or the fan experience. For corporations, it might be a welcome center, where we're telling your [the corporation’s] story. We [DI] do a lot of work in the cultural space. When we look at the aviation space, it's very much a natural fit. We [DI] have been making a concerted effort over the last year. It really helps that here in Kansas City we have a brand-new terminal, single terminal, that is just absolutely fantastic. So, we have quite a bit of work in that and that was kind of a springboard to get us [DI] interested in this [aviation] as a market. Laura: Let's dive a little bit deeper into something. Can you discuss a challenge or solution relating to aviation related topics or passenger experience? Paul: Sure, and for us [DI], it is all about that experience, and MCI (Kansas City International Airport) is the perfect example. Personally, I'm sure some of your listeners had to go through Kansas City or may be based here. You know, we went through Kansas City you've got this new airport that SOM designed, just brilliant, and DI was really fortunate to play a pretty significant role in this passenger experience, and it takes a lot of different forms. Right from the start, you enter into the single terminal. At the ticket counter, it's very standard, you've got the big LED wall behind you, that [the LED wall] was one of our [DI’s] scopes. And you know, in the background, what's happening in terms of managing the graphics, the content we have developed, our [DI’s] own content management system that was really developed working directly with the airport. I was touring it [MCI Airport] with Justin Myers Deputy Director out there. At one point he just pulled it [graphic controls] up on his phone and said, “Hey, watch this!” – and he could change the background, the content, because we [DI] had built that application up for him including working with the various airlines on the content itself. Really, it's all about future capabilities, flexibility, you know, we've got about 300 feet of screen back there, and we [DI] built in the capability to do a complete takeover, do animations, anything they may want to do in the future, making sure that the back end can handle that. That's [interactive graphic displays] largely invisible to the customer. It just looks nice. Working with the architect and the design team. If you're going between concourses, worked with The City [Kansas City] and the Airport Authority on some storytelling. They [the Airport Authority] knew when they created this new facility that they wanted to retain some history, tell the story of aviation in Kansas City. Built out a series of kiosks that have information boards and then also embedded video, you know, so the whole experience is about “Through the Ages,” what aviation has meant to Kansas City. There was a big push to bring out local flavor. Sot, just these little hidden gems kind of sprinkled throughout that give a better experience to the customers. Laura: Oh, that's neat. I remember going through Kansas City, but I have a vague recollection of leaving security to go meet with somebody and then having to go back to security to get in. Is it like a long, elongated terminal, I think, right? Paul: Well, the old one, yeah, it was a horseshoe. There were three different terminals, and it was designed in the in the early 70s. There was circle parking. The whole idea was you could drive your car and park and in 5 minutes be at your gate. And it [the old design] did work that way Pre-9/11, but once you throw security into it, it's completely dispersed. So, you have so many gates there's no central location where you can handle that [security]. Physically, as a facility, it could not accommodate that. Laura: So how did you accommodate them? It sounds like a big challenge as part of the project. How were you working through that? Paul: We built a completely new terminal, so we demolished it. Laura: Nice. Paul: It was the only solution, honestly. So, from an architecture perspective, the old terminal was completely unworkable. There was a renovation, probably 12, maybe 15 years ago, doing work in the concourses, upgrading some facilities a bit with some better finishes in a way. In fact, some of the terrazzo floor that was put into the old terminal during the renovation was salvaged and used into the new one [new terminal]. It was a really nice touch. Laura: That's awesome. So as part of this project, I'm sure one of our [ACC, The Hold Room] key initiatives is talking more about diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), and so, I was curious how that played into the design of the new terminal and what kind of things that you implemented or thought of and incorporated as part of this? Paul: Absolutely central, there was a mandate established by the city [Kansas City] that said we will be the most inclusive airport in the country, if not the world. So, right from the start, this was established before there was a design. So, everything on the design side was meant to cater to that. In terms of our [DI’s] involvement, we [DI] were really fortunate there was a thought about, “OK, how do you accommodate passengers that have anxiety about flying, first time flyers, maybe, people with dementia, or on the spectrum, anybody that, you know, has this anxiety or fear [of flying]. The thought was to create a simulation room, you know, really simulate the entire experience. And that [simulation experience] starts with getting a ticket, boarding a plane, going through a simulated flight. So, this [simulation project] is a really exciting opportunity for us [DI], because that's very much what we do and we can infuse technology and it is truly about the experience. This is super fun working directly with the Airport Authority. You know, there are a lot of constraints obviously, just physically, what does this mean, in terms of what are you physically putting into the space. So, this is, if on the secure side of the terminal, it's something [the simulation experience] that you have to reserve just as a general public passenger. You can't just walk into this [the simulation]. It's very targeted to specific audiences. There's specific outreach for that. The way that we went about it is that “OK, we want to literally be having, you know, have the have the most literal experience you can.” That meant actually purchasing a chunk of a Fuselage Airbus A321. So, in our [DI’s] shop, we have that chunk of the plane, proceeded to do the entire build out. As an experience, you would make a reservation [for the simulation]. Somebody from the airport will greet you in the security line, walk you through security, go into this specific simulation room. We took an actual ticket kiosk. You punch in your code, and it- [the kiosk] spits out physical ticket. You then go to a scanner on the wall, scan your ticket, it shows your name, and get a green light and the door opens and you walk through. In reality, it's [simulation jet bridge] just a hallway, but with graphics, we have simulated that passage through the jet bridge to where you are boarding on the jet. Something that we identified, and I will say this, you know, there's a lot of research that goes into this, not just working with Airport Authority, but with healthcare professionals. As well in terms of thinking about what are things that can assist a situation like this. So, something was that was identified, was typically when you're taking that step onto the plane itself from the jet bridge, there's a little gap. You know, everybody sees it [the gap between the jet bride and plane], and most people don't think anything about it, but for some people, that's very problematic. So, we actually did simulate that gap. So, yo
