Located at GE Digital Energy’s new Canadian Headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Canada, the Customer Experience Center (CEC) is a facility promoting GE’s energy grid solutions. The CEC features a 175-tile, 60-foot curved Prysm LPD video wall, Extron Quantum Elite Processor, control by the presenter’s iPad/wall-mounted Crestron, powerful multi-zoned audio system and touch panels.

Background

GE envisioned an Experience Center within its new Canadian headquarters that would mirror the company’s passion for energy, technology and efficiency. The CEC is an interactive environment that educates GE’s customers on the company’s solutions.

The space, which required a wow-factor, features a large immersive digital display with no visible seams. The display needed to consume minimal power (as an organization focused on energy) and great viewing-angles (due to size). Advanced integrated a low-power digital signage system from Prysm using Laser-Phosphor-Display (LPD). The 60-foot curved LPD video wall is the first of its kind in the world.

When entering the CEC, interactive-kiosks explain the digital energy story. The video wall is also interactive and driven by the presenter’s iPad. A multi-zoned audio system was added to bring the content to life. Upon exiting the CEC, guests — using their ID passes — can instantly upload contact information to a touchscreen for follow-up.

Challenges

Advanced faced five distinct challenges during the course of the project:

• Customer experience — Customers needed to go on a journey as GE told its energy story, covering some complex concepts and solutions. The company had to create a modern museum-like experience that was interactive, intuitive, and had a beginning, middle and end.
• Tight space and visual display requirements — As it was a new build project, CEC could be designed with ultimate flexibility. However the challenge was to create a curved display with maximum visual real-estate in a tight space. The display had to be low-power and have wide viewing-angles with no seam gaps.
• Unprecedented installation — This was the first time in the world an integrator had ever installed a large curved Prysm LPD video wall.
• Content design — Creating beautiful and on-message content was imperative for GE to achieve its goals. Designing the content for a whole new display platform (LPD) was a challenge.
• Delivering the system on time — GE had a grand opening for its new headquarters, and Advanced had to work around other trades to achieve completion.

Solutions

To meet all the problems and challenges listed above, Advanced employed the following solutions:

• 3D Renderings were created to finalize the ‘storyline’/customer flow. A series of meetings from a variety of stakeholders occurred to ensure the design achieved GE’s goals.
• The Prysm displays have a small depth of only 13.5 inches, which allowed for more displays to be used in a tight curved array. The displays are low power and have 0.25mm seams and 178-degree viewing angles.
• Advanced engineers traveled to Prysm’s headquarters in San Jose to undergo extensive training and practiced assembly locally.
• Advanced created a ‘Test Lab,’ which had a section of the actual Prysm video wall, on GE’s premises. It was built more than six months before the actual installation, allowing GE to test its content in a live environment.
• On-time delivery was achieved by project management best practices, working in partnership with the client and general contractor, flexible working hours and being innovative.

Results

GE is incredibly happy with its customer response to the digital signage system and CEC and is considering rolling out the CEC environment to additional worldwide centers. The customer feedback touchscreens, at the end of the tour, allows GE to establish ROI and continuous improvement for its content and the experience center.

This case study was reprinted with permission from the Digital Signage Connection and originally appeared here.