Christie helps create the largest integrated multimedia experience in a shopping center

A project has been carried out in Dubai's City Walk that has more than 30 Led installations, nearly 30 projectors and a show showing a fountain of water screens. In total, more than 100 millions of pixels that occupy a space as large as twelve football fields.

In Meraa is a Dubai-based holding company that owns large real estate assets, commercial, hotel and leisure. One of their projects is City Walk, a commercial area of 85.700 square meters that evokes a small European-style town with shops, beauty salons, leisure and entertainment venues, High-quality restaurants and public art on a giant pedestrian promenade.

This 'small city' also has a digital component whose design was commissioned by the company Float4, studio that designs and produces interactive multimedia installations. The project has been growing little by little until it has become an outdoor digital experience integrated by more than 30 Led installations, nearly 30 projectors and a show showing a fountain of water screens. In total, more than 100 millions of pixels that occupy a space as large as twelve football fields.

“Meraas' goal was to differentiate itself, and one of the differentiating factors was to make possible a comfortable space for the pedestrian, something radically innovative in Dubai. “They wanted to transform the great into the best”, says Alexandre Simionescu, co-founder of Float4.

Float4 got to work with XYZ Cultural Technology, partner the Christie, to design a system with sufficient power to synchronize and control the 100 million pixels.

XYZ experts were in charge of designing and developing a control and dissemination system for multimedia shows that are transmitted through 34 projectors, 300 lamps, 4 water screens with motor and 30 Led screens 21 different formats, on a surface equivalent to 12 American football fields.

All elements communicate in an automated and continuous manner in an arid outdoor environment. In total, 33 servers that transmit more than 100 millions of pixels, 7.000 meters of fiber optics and 33.000 meters of video cable have been necessary to bring the digital experience of Dubai City Walk to life.

As Eric Cyr explains, partner and co-founder of XYZ, Christie Pandoras Box playback and management solutions and Widget Designer were used to globally manage the digital experience “since Pandoras Box includes technologies powerful enough to achieve a synchronized and immersive space of these proportions.”. It is a server with strong acquisition capabilities, capable of keeping all playbacks synchronized and with an equally defined logic to create the programs we needed”.

Christie Pandoras Box made it easier for XYZ to manage scheduled content (environments, advertising and show content) problem-free on various surfaces, as well as playback tests that allow global synchronization of content.

“We have content day and night, of environments, advertising… We ensured that everyone had a synchronizable system. The advantage of the Christie Pandoras Box is that each system always has the same content as the others. Just change the matrix and the IP address and in two minutes you have an extra player”, añade Eric Cyr.

The immense diffusion and projection surfaces, The different dimensions and formats specific to each medium contributed to the complexity of the project.. “One of the challenges was to produce versatile content that could be used for advertising purposes.”, environmental or recreational in very different display elements, and make everything work harmoniously. I talk about the challenge of making a wall of 85 metros, with a projection on the ground 100 meters long or with the water source. In each case the aspect ratios are different, What are the technologies used?. Here we combine a wide variety of technologies in one place”, Simionescu pointed out.

“City Walk has managed to rise as a destination above the others. The combination of water source, projection and Led screens, without forgetting the magnitude of the installation, It is an incomparable spectacle”, explica Mahesh Singh, Regional Sales Director for the Middle East.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/201915916[/vimeo]