MONEY

Music City Center app guides visitors

Jamie McGee
jmcgee@tennessean.com

At 1.2 million square feet, the Music City Center is enormous. So big it can be difficult to quickly navigate the halls and floors and staircases and escalators, in spite of the many signs decorating its corners.

Which is why for the past year, Mayor Karl Dean and Music City Center officials have been working with local technology companies to create a navigational app that visitors can use to better find their way around the facility through beacon technology. According to Dean, the Music City Center is the largest building in the U.S. using this technology for indoor navigation.

As someone who has often scurried into the center seconds ahead of a meeting without knowing where the relevant conference room is located, I can attest to the need for such guidance. The app has the potential to make visits more seamless for hundreds of thousands of people coming through the center annually, which boosts the city's ability to book more conventions and also shines a spotlight on the Nashville companies behind the technology.

"This app will change the way visitors experience the building," Dean said. "The wayfinding app highlights Nashville's emergence as a tech city where new technology is created locally that can help other cities as well."

Visitors who have downloaded the app on an iPhone or Android device will receive photo-illustrated instructions based on their location. Using Bluetooth wireless technology, it can guide them to meeting halls, restrooms, nearby restaurants, exits and parking garages, even Dunkin' Donuts.

Jules White, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt and owner of software firm Ziiio, created the app, which works in conjunction with more than 60 beacon devices, made by Nashville-based BKON, that are installed in the center's walls. With BKON donating its devices and White creating the app as part of his research, the technology does not cost taxpayers. Now that the technology is licensed, that could mean commercial opportunities for White elsewhere — in other cities and in other sectors.

"I would love to see it in hospitals," White said.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.

Navigational app's features

• After opening the app, users choose among events taking place at the center. The app can then guide them through the halls with step-by-step, photo-illustrated instructions. If a visitor wants to find the nearest bathroom, restaurant or exit, the app guides them accordingly.

• For those who do not want to install the app or do not have an iPhone or Android device, they can text the desired location and receive photo-based directions.

• While English is the only language offered now, the Music City Center plans to offer directions in multiple languages.

• After using the app, visitors can provide a thumbs up or thumbs down and further feedback to help developers improve it.

To find the app, search for "Music City Center" on an iPhone or Android.