FHOSS Hospitality Smart Field - Intelligent signage and people movement to maintain social distancing

Hospitality - -restaurants, pubs and hotels -- is set to suffer a 31% contraction in economic activity this year, due to the Covid19 pandemic. 90% of businesses were forced to close. Since re-opening, many have used outdoor space to effect social distancing. However, with cooler weather and darker nights on the way they must now use indoor space as safely and efficiently as possible.

Businesses need to manage the paths that customers and staff take through their premises and highlight the importance of maintaining distance between individuals. Many are using adhesive signage to do so. However, they cannot easily adjust this once placed.

Operators cannot change their premises' layouts to accommodate different groups of customers. Some may need extra space due to poor mobility or for pushchairs and highchairs. Many signs rapidly wear and look shabby, leading would-be customers to go elsewhere.

When operators do replace or remove signs, they are faced with extra staff costs to clean residues left behind. There is also environmental impact from harsh chemicals used and in repainting costs. In extreme cases, flooring must be replaced, further adding to the 600,000t of commercial flooring waste produced in the UK each year.

Our vision is to adapt projected lighting technology, developed for use in construction and warehousing, to hospitality. We will combine this with Bluetooth beacon technology to produce exclusion zones around groups of customers to enable social distancing. In this project, we will produce a proof-of-concept demonstrator. Following a further three months of development and integration, we will be ready to launch a product offering the following advantages to hospitality businesses:

\*Easily adjustable signage; no need for staff to move adhesive signs \*Aesthetically pleasing, presenting a welcoming ambience to customers \*Integration with smartphone apps for staff and customers to manage social distancing

Several trends, many related to the Covid emergency, have created our market opportunity. Mid-priced restaurants are losing ground to food halls and night markets, where multiple traders in the same venue use common apps to display menus. Many consumers thus accept mobile apps as a modern way to view menus, order food and pay in restaurants.

Hard-copy menus and non-contactless payments present a means for Covid19 transmission. This has provided further impetus for consumers to adopt restaurant app technology. Our current route to market is thus to integrate with a restaurant app provider and hospitality suppliers.

Our project partner, Regency, supplies to \>3000 hospitality businesses (including hotel groups and restaurant/pub chains). Within five years, we predict an extra £1M EBITDA from selling to 10,000 hospitality businesses.