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Arsenal Media Dazzles InfoComm Attendees With Boundary-pushing “Fountain of Content”

Arsenal MediaFor InfoComm 2012, Arsenal Media launched a unique display concept dubbed the “Fountain of Content.” The concept explores the relationship between five types of display technology (LED, LCD, Christie MicroTiles, projection mapping and an iPad), with content streaming from one display technology to another. All five types of technology were connected and integrated into one structure developed by the Arsenal team, and wowed attendees at last year’s InfoComm.

Background

Arsenal Media developed a hybrid structure combining LCDs, LEDs, Christie MicroTiles, projection mapping and iPad technology that was inspired by the architectural elements of transformation, effervescence and marvel.

The project also involved live content creation, and live video jockeying (VJing) and disc jockeying (DJing), an iPad app and an interactive camera that was used to create live visual effects.

The Fountain of Content was developed to explore the relationship between form, content and technology, and also to make a strong statement about Arsenal’s ability to create unique, interactive and experiential destinations. The main objective was to inspire end users as well as integrators, architects, industry consultants and designers on how to use technology in a purely experiential approach.

Arsenal MediaIn addition to its debut at InfoComm 2012, the Fountain of Content was recently showcased at Arsenal’s DSE 2013 booth.

Challenges

The main challenge Arsenal experienced with this project was establishing optimal technical specifications, both from an equipment and structural perspective, to ensure feasibility, efficient cost management and creative flexibility. More specifically, establishing the content flow through the various types of displays, as well as creating the creative guidelines, were major obstacles.

Another challenge Arsenal encountered was from a structural perspective: Designing a concept that was iconic and also integrated the various display technologies in a smart way proved difficult.

Last, from an operational perspective, Arsenal faced the challenge of forming an efficient workflow between the live content creation, iPad control, VJing, music and interactive cameras without creating too much chaos for the operator.

Arsenal MediaThe main objective of the project, over and above Arsenal’s own digital exploration purposes, was to inspire end-users, integrators, architects, industry consultants and designers in how to approach the creation of experiential destinations.

The Fountain of Content installation featured a variety of custom built elements within the structure, including a custom Power PC and a VJ App based on the technology.

Solutions

Though Arsenal faced several obstacles with this project, the company was able to overcome them by:

  • Dedicating an in-house team to lab exploration for a period of five weeks to develop the concept;
  • Designing a signal flow matrix based on form, function and the technical specifications of each display type. Arsenal also designed a custom Power PC to playback the high-resolution content and manage the on-site, real-time interactive process;
  • Using the signal flow to create an architectural shape that could be seen from a distance, leveraging verticality to showcase the notion of content continuity and positioning the displays to symbolize the notion of uniqueness of form in the structural concept;
  • Arsenal MediaIntegrating a work station within the installation and establishing direct content feeds to better coordinate/monitor the content creation and playback process; and
  • Assigning the iPad to one specific role: It was used as a content viewer and interactive VJing tool accessible to booth visitors.

Results

Arsenal Media welcomed the results of its hard work on the Fountain of Content at InfoComm 2012. The company’s booth and display structure generated much buzz at the show, and were consistently surrounded by a fascinated audience.

In addition, Arsenal’s booth produced about 70 percent more leads than it had at the last trade show where it had exhibited. Last, the Fountain of Content enriched InfoComm attendees’ brand perception of Arsenal, as observed by an on-site survey.

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