Installation | Audio | Video | Content creation | Control systems
Background
When FIX8Group were approached to create a unique, immersive, sensory experience within a lift car, it got us rather excited as we love a good challenge! NUVEEN the investor of St James Quarter along with appointed construction and property consultants Gardiner & Theobald were well underway with the construction of the new Edinburgh St James shopping centre. The decision had been made to fit-out a number of lifts within the centre providing customers a unique experience as they travelled between floors – Something which would rival any other similar project seen around the world.
FIX8Group’s broad range of expertise meant we were an ideal fit to execute the project from initial concepts through to launch; producing engineering drawings; designing the automated control systems; physically installing the technology; and creating spectacular content, all whilst working safely within the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The challenge
The team at FIX8Group needed to design and deliver a solution that would meet the high standard of a contemporary, high-end, shopping destination within the parameters and regulations of a brand-new building. Added to this was the requirement of creating an experience which could run automatically and continuously in a public space without any input from the team.
Being unsupervised in a public place, the installation had to be robust enough to deal with a high traffic area but a safe environment for any conceivable user of the lifts.
The solution
This was a project with no margin for error. The team set about building a full-scale replica of the lift car within our own facility in Manchester. The developed solution included five screens installed around the walls of the mock-up lift, creating a visual canvas 11,000 pixels wide which would host the content designed by our own in-house studio team. Very early into the development we realised that to create an immersive environment which could really stimulate the passenger, we could not achieve the pixel density from an LED module-based product. 98” UHD displays were the order of the day and were perfect for the height required within the lift car.
So that’s the display, but what about the control system?Integrating with a lift control system is not something we had done before and with all the necessary health, safety and rigging compliance needed, it was a very steep learning curve. Months of testing within our facility certainly made it possible for us to develop our own, bespoke, logic processing unit. These units sit in the top of each lift shaft allowing us to register, log and translate messages from the lifts internal control system and recast into data that was useable for the video and audio playback systems. From the doors being open to direction of travel and even the speed of each lift car, this can be used as automation data for the vast array of content.
The physical installation was another hurdle to overcome. Time was spent creating custom 98” wall mounted plates, which were laser cut for accuracy, allowing the screens to be supported and crucially help pass the all-important “drop test” required by building regulations, for final lift installation sign off. Getting the screens into the lift car, past the doors and in the correct orientation with just 10 mm to spare needed a bespoke dolly to be made, that could hold the weight of the screens and give the manoeuvrability required to install the screens in the tight space.
When it comes to delivering creative and outside the box content, our in-house studio team of 3D artists and graphic designers don’t need asking twice. For the SJQ project they created an eclectic mix of visual experiences from virtual time travel and space walks to calming, animated landscapes and weird and wonderful abstract pieces. The sheer size of the canvas itself brought its own demands in terms of how fast-moving content was, whether the content could induce motion sickness and of course the time needed to render these massive landscapes. Thankfully having built a prototype lift car, we were able to test this within our facility, collaborating with the client using 3D spatial software, CAVRNUS
This entire project took many months to deliver, dovetailing into the overall construction programme of a truly amazing shopping centre.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duist nulla pariatur xcepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident.
Ben Hyman, Senior Project Manager
Conclusion
This was a highly challenging and complicated project that drew on so many different areas of expertise. Ultimately, the experience and knowledge of our very talented and dedicated team combined with incredible levels of planning and forethought meant the installation could be executed safely and efficiently within the parameters of a global pandemic. The final product exceeded client expectations and will continue to impress thousands of people for a long time to come.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duist nulla pariatur xcepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident.
