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Medialon Manager is at the heart
of a general modernization of the headquarters of
Arcandor AG (formerly KarstadtQuelle AG) in Essen,
Germany. Arcandor AG, renamed July 1, 2007, focuses on
three core areas of business: tourism, department stores
and mail-order services. The Karstadt department stores
and Thomas Cook Group are among the company’s branded
units.
Triad
Berlin Projektgesellschaft GmbH developed a fixed
multimedia communication concept spanning four floors of
the main HQ building. The prize-winning Triad Berlin,
one of Germany’s most innovative agencies for
communication design and architecture, was in charge of
the concept, design, architecture and realization of the
complete setup.
Medialon Manager V3 Pro was used
as a centralized control system for various
installations in the HQ the most complex of which is an
interactive, kinetic picture wall. The user interface
is a scroll wheel, which allows the visitor to select
four different presentations which will then be shown on
three seamless plasma screens moving across the wall and
various moving-picture boxes. Medialon controls a
Dataton WATCHOUT cluster, some custom microprocessor
boxes for lighting and kinetic control and the audio
system.
The same show-control computer also controls the rest of
the interactive multimedia installations on the other
three floors using IP network-based protocols.
On the first floor, a Medialon MIP (under control of
Medialon Manager) is used to playback films on a large
screen while at the other end of the floor space, an
“outdoor” kinetic advertising system displays large
slides depending on the time of the day.
The second floor houses two information walls consisting
of graphic information with three large, integrated TFT
screens. When a visitor is perceived by a motion
detector, the pause loop is interrupted, the lighting
changes and a Dataton WATCHOUT cluster plays back a
presentation spanning the three screens.
On the third floor, Medialon Manager controls the power
for several stand-alone exhibits.
The most complex part of the project was programming the
kinetic wall’s interactive menu in WATCHOUT and
connecting with the scroll wheel through Medialon
Manager. Another challenge was that, besides the
already-existing LAN cabling, it was not possible to
bring in any additional cabling from the main
show-control computer to the various installations; this
required Medialon to strictly rely on network-based
hardware.
Medialon Manager detects all motion sensors and controls
all exhibits through a user-friendly interface
accessible through a VNC program running on various
computers in the building.
Arcandor employees can remotely monitor the status of
all exhibits and have full control over features and
contents of the installations. In the standard
situation, all installations start automatically at a
given time in the morning; the schedule can be set and
stored for each day.
Medialon integrator and programmer Rainer Beddig, of
Mediaservice Rainer Beddig in Berlin, can also remotely
service the whole installation through VNC software.
Mediaservice programs show-control systems for the
high-end presentation sector; it was one of the very
first German companies to bring Medialon Manager
show-control software to the German market. |
