Screens Give Tower to the People 

Sunday Star-Times 
22 June 2003

By Lesley Springall

After 18 months of development, Auckland's Sky Tower unveiled its touchscreen "Eye in the Sky Tower" technology screens last week, claiming to be the first tower to offer the interactive hi-tech viewing platforms. 

Using the touchscreens, visitors can select an area in Auckland, covered by the tower's three 120deg surveillance cameras, home-in, then use a joystick to pan around while listening to historical commentary. 

This year Sky City will show the technology to the world when New Zealand hosts the World Federation of Great Towers conference, a who's who of international towers in which the Sky Tower ranks eighth tallest at 328m. Though not including the Eiffel Tower, the federation does boast the CN Tower in Toronto (553.4m), Moscow's Ostankino Tower (540m), Shanghai's Oriental Pearl (468m), the John Hancock Centre in Chicago (444m), the Empire State Building in New York (443m), Berlin's Fernehturm (368m) and the Tokyo Tower (333m). 

As well as real views, the dual-screen technology also shows historical pictures of the place selected - in Rangitoto's case, this includes images of the volcano born from the sea. 

The idea for the screens came from Sky City's property services division - the team which maintains the panoramic viewing floor in the sky. Several local companies were involved in their development, including touchscreen technology firm NextWindow. 

One of the biggest hurdles was the development of the large-scale touchscreens, said NextWindow chief executive Al Monro. Since establishing itself in 2000, Monro's company has spent more than two years developing the unique, large-scale touchscreen technology. The Sky City deal was its first, though its screens can now be seen at Vodafone outlets around the country. 

The "Eye in the Sky Tower" touchscreens are part of a $3 million redevelopment plan for the tower, which also includes a retail area, a theatrette at the base and new entries and exits. 

"We're always looking for new things for the tower. It's so much more than a view," said Sky City's general manager Jan Hunt. 

With Aucklanders accounting for more than 50% of Sky City's 700,000 visitors a year, "if you don't offer them something new, they won't keep coming back and taking rellies up there", she said. 

Both Hunt and Monro said they hoped to market the concept to the other 21 international towers which, in the main, still relied on printed graphics stuck to fixed pedestals and old-fashioned, coin-fed telescopes.