Guiding millions of visitors through a shopping mall spanning more than 62,500 m² while keeping them informed about real-time promotions—this was the challenge presented by Parque Arauco, one of Latin America’s largest shopping mall operators. The answer was a hybrid installation combining interactive wayfinding and digital signage, now considered a benchmark project in Colombia.
The Challenge: Guiding Visitors and Communicating in the Same Space
Parque Arauco is Chile’s third-largest shopping mall company and a market leader in Peru and Colombia. In 2016, it opened Parque La Colina in Bogotá, one of the largest shopping malls in the Colombian capital, serving a metropolitan area of more than 7 million people.
The mall is much more than a retail destination. It features a vibrant dining and entertainment area with live music on weekends, a 13,263 m² outdoor green park for families, and a Cinemark multiplex with 3D theaters. Given its size and diverse offering, traditional static signage was no longer enough. Parque Arauco needed a solution that could guide visitors while simultaneously delivering dynamic promotions and commercial information.
The Solution: Integrated Interactive Wayfinding + Digital Signage
Parque Arauco selected ViaDirect to design and deploy a digital solution capable of meeting both objectives. The result was a network of double-sided kiosks combining interactive wayfinding on one side and commercial digital signage on the other. For the digital signage component, ViaDirect partnered with Telelogos and its Media4Display platform.
“Media4Display is a professional solution that enables remote content management through a platform that can be customized for different user profiles. We can also monitor our customers’ displays and proactively detect potential issues using the device management tool. Media4Display and ViaDirect’s wayfinding solution are fully integrated, and together they provide the perfect digital solution.”
Etienne, Sales Manager, ViaDirect
Installation at a Glance
- 17 vertical kiosks, each equipped with two 65-inch displays
- 34 screens in total
- One side features ViaDirect’s interactive touchscreen wayfinding software
- The opposite side displays promotional video content managed through Media4Display
- 2 of the 17 kiosks feature dual touchscreens (front and back), doubling visitor access points to the wayfinding software
What Visitors Can Do at Each Kiosk
The custom wayfinding software developed for Parque La Colina includes:
- Interactive 3D map of all four shopping mall levels
- QR code transfer of the selected route to the visitor’s smartphone
- Accessible interface for people with reduced mobility (PRM), including step-free routes
- General search using an on-screen QWERTY keyboard
- Store search by category or alphabetical order
- Restaurant search, from fast food to fine dining
- Service locator including parking, public transportation, first aid, nursing room, and ATMs
- Real-time Cinemark movie schedules
- Live promotions and event information
- Tourist information
- Visitor satisfaction survey
- Interface available in both Spanish and English
A Project Delivered by Three Specialized Partners
The installation was the result of close collaboration between several technology partners. Gable, a specialist in digital signage hardware and kiosk manufacturing, supplied the physical kiosks. ViaDirect managed the on-site deployment, developed the custom wayfinding software tailored to Parque La Colina, and continues to maintain both the software and hardware.
Results: A Visitor Experience That Guides, Informs, and Engages
The final installation combines navigation and commercial communication into a single digital touchpoint, delivering measurable operational benefits:
- Improved visitor experience by integrating digital signage and interactive wayfinding within the same kiosk
- Faster content updates through Media4Display’s remote content management platform
- Distributed content management with customizable user access permissions
- Increased advertising ROI through centralized Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) management
- Remote monitoring of all 34 displays using Telelogos’ device management platform
Four years after its first deployment in a Colombian shopping mall, the Parque La Colina project established ViaDirect as a trusted technology partner for major retail operators across the country, demonstrating that wayfinding and digital signage work best when delivered as one integrated solution.
