{"id":25127,"date":"2018-12-19T10:41:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=25127"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:41:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:41:38","slug":"usps-blue-box-gets-musical-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2018\/12\/19\/usps-blue-box-gets-musical-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Blue Box Gets Musical Makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-thumbnail link-fullfeature\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-twentyfourteen-full-width wp-post-image alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/HolidayBoxes_large-story.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/HolidayBoxes_large-story.jpg 900w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/HolidayBoxes_large-story-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/HolidayBoxes_large-story-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/link.usps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/HolidayBoxes_large-story-120x80.jpg 120w\" alt=\"Holiday boxes\" width=\"701\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"link-caption\"><em>Holiday cards are placed inside the musical blue collection box outside USPS headquarters in Washington, DC.<\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<p>USPS News Link &#8211; 12\/19\/18 &#8211; Customers depositing mail inside one blue collection box this month are receiving some holiday cheer in return.<\/p>\n<p>The box, which sits outside USPS headquarters in Washington, DC, plays clips from popular holiday tunes when customers open the door.<\/p>\n<p>Engineering Systems designed the technology and is testing it through the holidays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really fun to use technology in ways you\u2019d never think of,\u201d said Delivery Technology Programs Manager Will Tartal. \u201cWho would think a collection box could play music?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To create the sound effect, engineers placed a battery-operated module inside the box that does not use traditional speakers. Instead, audio transducers are mounted directly to the walls of the box.<\/p>\n<p>When the door is opened, it activates one of several instrumental recordings, including \u201cJingle Bells\u201d and \u201cWe Wish You a Merry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe collection box is actually the speaker,\u201d he said. \u201cHow cool is that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The module and audio technology don\u2019t interfere with mail deposits or collection. A decal on the box tells customers about the test so they won\u2019t be alarmed when hearing the music.<\/p>\n<p>A man who used the box this week to mail a Christmas card heard \u201cUp On the Rooftop\u201d and offered a smile to a woman who was waiting to deposit a stack of greeting cards.<\/p>\n<p>Said Tartal: \u201cWe have collection boxes just about everywhere. Technology like this offers a lot of possibilities for the Postal Service from marketing initiatives to even security monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holiday cards are placed inside the musical blue collection box outside USPS headquarters in Washington, DC. USPS News Link &#8211; 12\/19\/18 &#8211; Customers depositing mail inside one blue collection box this month are receiving some holiday cheer in return. The box, which sits outside USPS headquarters in Washington, DC, plays clips from popular holiday tunes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25128,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25127\/revisions\/25128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}