Hoyts Group’s digital journey began in 2016 and continues to evolve, with all operations now supported by Optus’ quad-redundant SD-WAN solution in action across 59 cinemas in Australia and New Zealand, with 497 screens and more than 59,000 seats.

The Hoyts Group relies on a network to deliver streamlined customer experiences from tickets sales, in-cinema ordering of food and beverage, and flexible payment options in addition to supporting critical back-office functions such as the scheduling of the movies, trailers, and pre-show content.

“Hoyts is a perfect example of a traditional business that has evolved and future-proofed their operations by taking a digitally-led approach and backed it with the resilience of SD-WAN,” says Optus vice president of enterprise and mid-market Ben Vella.

A network solution is needed more than ever as Hoyts’ self-service channels now account for three out of four transactions with customers preferring to purchase tickets online and through digital kiosks.

“Optus is at the core of every dollar we make at Hoyts. In today’s digital world, there is not a single interaction that Hoyts has—with staff or customers—that doesn’t rely on Optus infrastructure,” says Hoyts Group IT director Adam Wrightson.

In addition to SD-WAN connectivity, Optus led the domiciling of data centres and a complete re-architecture of the existing network to include dual fibre and 4G redundancy.

In addition to the cinematic offering, the Hoyts Group’s advertising arm, Val Morgan, relies on 2,500 Optus SIMs to manage and schedule content across its 10,000 plus screen digital out-of-home network (VMO).

The Optus network provides the communications infrastructure upon which VMO’s digital out-of-home network operates.

All aspects of the network including content delivery, network management, and connectivity for its audience measurement devices (AMDs), which provide real-time telemetry data about audience demographics and volumes to deliver programmatic real-time advertising content depend on the reliable, performant, and secure network, which Optus provides.

Using Optus’ IoTFlex, offering, VMO benefits from the security capabilities IoTFlex provides in protecting against outside parties from compromising its digital signs.