NAB will launch a new concept branch in January borrowing from leading retailers such as Apple, Macy's and McDonalds. Visitors to the branch - believed to be in NAB's Melbourne Docklands head office precinct - can expect digital signage displaying both bank marketing and community notices, as well as free internet access, kids' play areas and Wi-Fi.Helena Athans, digital retailing manager for NAB Retail, said, on Friday, that NAB had used its BNZ subsidiary as a "guinea pig". In a presentation to the FST Media Technology and Innovation conference in Sydney, she showed video footage of a New Zealand branch located in a shopping centre. The branch was almost entirely open plan, with a "shopping centre", where people could collect information about different banking products; meeting booths, and access to a virtual team of small business experts connected by a video-conferencing link.To boost the security of the open-plan branch, where cash is stored in time-lock safes in the main body of the branch, the BNZ has implemented "DNA Hydra spray" at the entrance to the branch. The system can be activated to spray robbers with a fine mist as they run from the branch. This could be used to identify them later.Athans said that NAB's concept would not be a carbon copy of the BNZ concept store. But, she said, NAB's intent in its 800 branches - which she referred to as "stores" rather than branches - was to "wow them with the customer experience".Digital signage is likely to be a particular feature in NAB branches in the future, with Athans claiming that research indicated people were seven times more likely to look at a screen than a poster when in a branch. She said the bank had been working with Cisco and Telstra on developing a system which would allow streaming content to be made available to digital signs in NAB branches. She believed digital signage would be ubiquitous in bank branches within five years.