Atom Is Born!

AMI Entertainment Debuts New Compact Jukebox

Welcome, Atom. That’s the latest jukebox from AMI Entertainment, the company’s first newie in around five years, when they released the Curve.

AMI’s vice president of sales Chris Owens touts the product as “high value and cost-effective,” with a small size that will allow operators to place it in locations where bigger and more expensive jukeboxes may not have made sense.

Officially launched at this year’s IAAPA Expo and available now, the product’s development started about 18 months ago with conversations AMI was having with operators. The goal was to “come up with a product that layers nicely into our other offerings,” Owens said.

“The Atom is a cost-effective jukebox – very economical and high value with our full suite of features,” he explained. “We think that there are some opportunities out there for operators to upgrade some legacy product and update locations. It’s a smaller, lighter weight unit, so it’s easily transportable and easy to ship. And it’s an easy installation.”

AMI’s Co-Pilot app is also the navigator of Atom and controls the full suite of operator features like the video content ad manager, revenue checker, venue controls and more. The product is also powered by the KLS core, which Owens said will be the “new engine” for future products as well.

Following valuable feedback from the field, AMI said the engineering team delved into discussions about the concept and goals for a new jukebox. The jukebox’s industrial design was brought to life by senior digital artist Brian Kubala, and the realization of the product was a collaborative effort led by Jeff Kalis (director of engineering) and Steve Jarema (VP of operations and hardware engineering).

Owens reiterated that the Atom is perfect for getting operators new locations. “It gives us the opportunity to get new types of locations where maybe they were reluctant to put a jukebox in because they think it takes up a lot of space,” he said. “The economics of this box will open up locations where larger, more expensive jukeboxes didn’t make sense.”

Another highlight for operators will be the machine’s easy serviceability, they say. “There are fewer components on the inside because the computer core is all-inclusive, so the serviceability of it is extremely simple,” Owens added. “You’ve got the bill acceptor, the monitor and the core.”

The modular “guts” of the jukebox makes it so operators can have additional components on hand to easily replace. At 33 pounds, the product is also lightweight enough to pop off the wall for repairs.

“I’m excited to have this come to the operator base,” Owens said. “With a little smaller package, it’ll allow you to get into locations where maybe they didn’t want to give up the real estate before. Our goal is to increase the operator’s share of the pie, but also to increase the size of the pie.”

If you were unable to see it in person at IAAPA, head over to www.amientertainment.com/atom-jukebox to learn more.