MovieQ Automated Entertainment Rental Stores Use UPM Raflatac RFID Tags to Streamline Key Processes

MovieQ, an automated movie and game rental chain, is using UPM Raflatac RFID tags and a proprietary, RFID-enabled robotic solution to transform entertainment selection and rental processes for California consumers. A wholly owned subsidiary of national post-production company Point.360, MovieQ currently operates two self-service stores in Orange County, CA, but is slated to expand nationally, opening 50 additional stores by the end of 2011.

MovieQ’s self-service stores are uniquely designed to address the challenges facing traditional movie rental chains, including high real estate and staffing costs, shrinkage and theft and consumer price-sensitivity. MovieQ stores operate in a small footprint – typically 1,200 to 1,600 square feet – and are fully automated; during peak hours, a single employee is on hand to sell auxiliary food products. The stores each feature nine customer interaction centers (CICs): RFID-enabled, state-of-the-art automated DVD dispensing machines that display movie trailers and provide access to the store’s vast library of entertainment DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Eight CICs are placed inside a MovieQ store, while a ninth machine provides customers with 24-hour entertainment rental service outside the store entrance.

With its 10,000-item selection and ability to customize inventory to meet local tastes, MovieQ stores offer compelling advantages over movie kiosks, which stock only 600 to 1,000 DVDs, while matching their ability to pass low costs on to consumers. Customers can use a credit card or preload a MovieQ cash card to check out rental merchandise, which can be returned to any store location.

“MovieQ’s operational model strips cost and inefficiency out of the entertainment rental business, while providing today’s technologically savvy and budget-conscious consumers with choice, autonomy and value,” said Rashmikant Patel, vice president, automation technologies, Point.360.

Movies and games are tagged with UPM Raflatac BullsEye HF RFID tags, each of which is encoded with item information and a unique identifying number. Once a consumer selects and pays for a rental at a store CIC, MovieQ’s proprietary robotic technology uses an RFID reader to select, verify and dispense the RFID-tagged item. Similarly, the RFID-enabled robotic system reads and authenticates each return, regardless of its placement in the rental box, streamlining item return and eliminating the possibility of merchandise theft due to barcode counterfeiting.

With its ability to dispense large volumes of products efficiently and accurately, MovieQ’s RFID solution has tremendous applicability to other industries such as retail and hospital pharmacy operations and libraries. “MovieQ’s RFID-enabled pick-and-place robotic solution could be used by any organization seeking to transform labor-intensive product dispensing operations, while protecting and authenticating high value goods,” said Jan Svoboda, sales and marketing director, Americas, RFID, UPM Raflatac.