Cannes Lions: 3000 lbs of Hardware in the South of France

The Story

Partnering with the Cannes Lions festival organizers, Schematic designed and built a 12' by 5' multi-user, multi-touch wall to serve as the information and connection hub for the 2009 festival. The touchwall allowed festival delegates to explore 3D maps of Cannes and an expandable map of the festival hall. People could also send themselves emails about restaurants and bars in the surrounding area as well as directions from the venue. Along the top of the screen there was a visualization of the entire week's schedule. Each event was expandable into a unique event widget and sharable via email. Additionally, a real-time indicator communicated which events were currently taking place.

The touchwall also gave users the ability to connect with one another. People could search for other attendees by name, and then send an email request to exchange information. Or, if they were standing side-by-side, they could exchange contact details on the spot.

Perhaps the most striking and innovative element of the touchwall was the use of RFID technology. By embedding RFID tags in the delegate badges, the wall was able to identify and authenticate users as they approached and offer them a personalized and unique experience alongside others.

The Solution

Details Coming Soon...

Stats and Figures

Role: Solutions Architect, Hardware Architect
Client: Cannes Lions
Year: 2009

• 32-bit graphics workstation w/ 4GB nVidia QuadroFX card
• 32-bit application server
• 64-bit workstation for camera stitching and input server
• 6 x 16:10 short-throw projectors
• 3840x1600 resolution across 12' x 5'
• Alien RFID reader with 4 antennas
• Bar code scanners
• 3 IR cameras
• Laser array (pew! pew!)
• Bose 5.1 sSurround Sound
• FlourineFX for Flash Remoting and Remote Shared Objects
• Custom .NET RFID Middleware
• Mail Manager
• Gmail integation
• Cannes Lions registration database SQL Server replication
• Flex 4 (Gumbo Beta)