Challenge
Hollywood Burbank Airport’s new 355,000-square-foot, 14-gate passenger terminal created an opportunity to rethink how passengers access information and engage with the airport throughout their journey.
While early plans called for a conventional flight information display system (FIDS), the BUR team and Burns Engineering recognized an opportunity to build something better than a traditional FIDS implementation. They realized their signage could deliver more useful passenger communications, support passengers, and serve the airport’s operational needs.
However, the decision to pursue an alternative signage strategy took place when the original design was approximately 90% complete, and the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) was set. The challenge then was to change their approach to identify, build, and implement an airport-wide communication experience, all without disrupting the established scope, schedule, or budget.
BUR and Burns Engineering engaged Synect, working together to evaluate alternatives to traditional digital FIDS while considering the passenger journey as a whole. What information would travelers need? Where would they need it? And how could a different approach support both passengers and airport operations while elevating the overall experience?
Approach
As BUR Executive Director John Hatanaka said:
“We wanted to enhance convenience, enhance the customer experience, but keep that warmth, that human touch that people think of when they think of Burbank.”
BUR and Burns evaluated Synect's content-first approach against the project’s established operational requirements. Rather than treating FIDS as a standalone system, the team reframed it as one type of content within a broader passenger communication ecosystem.
With this new understanding, they began to envision how each display could support and guide passengers at specific decision points in their journey.
The team aligned on passenger needs, operational workflows, content and creative requirements, and infrastructure before finalizing the technology at each location.
At check-in, displays would help travelers find the correct airline and counter. At security, they would prepare passengers for screening. After security, content would help travelers orient themselves within an entirely new terminal. Gate displays would deliver timely boarding information, while baggage claim signage would help arriving passengers complete their journey.
The content-first, connected approach called for a DCMS that could bring together flight data and creative content, connect with airport systems, and manage changing information across multiple touchpoints from one platform. BUR and Burns selected Synect’s Passenger360® Digital Content Management System to provide that foundation.
Anyone Collective developed the content designs based on the newly defined content strategy, and Synect’s Orlando studio brought them to life through motion graphics and integration with dynamic content sources, like FIDS, GIDS, BIDs, and more.
Power in Numbers
Solution
Together, BUR, Burns, and Synect created a connected passenger experience suited for the entertainment capital of the world. The content strategy created for BUR combines operational information, dynamic data, localized creative, wayfinding, and creates a distinctive sense of place. Every display works together to create a cohesive experience across the terminal.
At check-in, two LED video walls, one 15,680 × 720 pixels and the other 17,920 × 720-pixels, combine airline branding and counter information. The system supports changing airline assignments and branding, creating a more flexible and cohesive ticketing environment.
At security, four LCD displays feature Synect's TSA-vetted Better, Faster Security Checkpoints content, as well as other TSA required messaging. Clear visual instructions help passengers understand what to do, what to expect, and how to prepare before reaching screening.
The centerpiece of that passenger experience comes just after security: the BUR Boards. Delivered on a large-format 3,840 × 1,088-pixel LED display, the passenger dashboard serves as a landmark orientation point. It brings flight information, directional guidance, amenities, weather, and other useful content together in one highly visible location to help passengers orient themselves and plan their time in the terminal.
The BUR Boards also build the terminal’s personality. Weather updates, local imagery, animated aircraft, and Hollywood-inspired searchlights move alongside practical passenger information, creating an elevated experience that celebrates Burbank’s connection to the entertainment industry. Equal parts functional and memorable, the BUR Boards proactively address passengers’ most common questions. Where do I need to go? What will I find along the way? What is there to do while I wait?
Five additional post-security flight information boards, each comprised of two synchronized LCD displays, provide coordinated flight updates throughout the terminal.
At each of the fourteen gates, a 5,120 × 2,160 display delivers flight and boarding information where passengers need it most.
The connected experience continues through arrival. Three double-sided baggage claim signs, one at each carousel, help passengers identify where to collect their luggage while maintaining a consistent visual language across the airport.
Across each of these touchpoints, Passenger360 provides a shared content management foundation. Every display has a different job. Together, they create one coordinated passenger experience.
Results
BUR’s content-first approach to digital signage revealed a more efficient approach to the original scope, beating the original signage budget by 70%. Using those savings, BUR reinvested in additional post-security signage, introducing new opportunities for engagement and creating a richer passenger experience within the new terminal.
By treating FIDS, security messaging, gate information, baggage claim, and large-format displays as types of content rather than separate systems, BUR was able to create a singular, connected communication strategy that supports passengers throughout the airport.
The end result is a significant expansion of the original vision. Rather than a traditional FIDS implementation, BUR built an airport-wide communication experience that’s practical, flexible, visually distinctive, and designed to grow with their new terminal.
Passenger360 provides the common DCMS foundation, allowing BUR to manage every type of content through one platform. It also gives the airport flexibility to update and scale communications as operations and passenger needs evolve.
Early reception to the terminal has been highly positive. During a pre-opening trial in September, 1,500 volunteers tested the overall terminal experience, and their feedback was 98% positive. As Ian Birnbaum, Project Manager of Burns Engineering said in a recent video, “the entire environment of the terminal is world-class.”
Writing for Condé Nast Traveler, Annita Katee praised the new terminal’s silver screen-inspired design details, thoughtful amenities, and “continued simplicity that now comes with a much-needed dose of design and character.”
BUR captured the change well in its own description of the new terminal:
“When you walk through our new passenger terminal ... you’ll notice a dynamic difference in the way you see the information you need for your flight and beyond.”
BUR has proven that digital signage can do far more than display flights and other airport information. With the right content strategy, creative, and tools, every screen can play a pivotal role in creating a clearer, more connected passenger journey.
Expand the Vision
Go Beyond Traditional FIDS
Project Goals
Connect the Journey
Unite Communication Across Touchpoints
Maximize Project Value
Deliver More On Time & On Budget
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