The Crystal — AV installations / interactives
Siemens
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The Crystal is Siemens’ new global centre for sustainability; exploring the future of cities. Based at the Royal Victoria Docks in London, it is home to the world’s largest exhibition focused on urban sustainability and Smart Cities. The exhibition encourages us to change the way we all think about our cities, now and for future generations.
ISO were lead media designers on the project and worked on installation, films, animations and devised the content management system that publishes the RFID-triggered interactives that are distributed throughout the experience. Visitors can explore a range of issues including city trends, OPEN data, urban planning, smart buildings, safety and security, energy, water, healthy life, environment and mobility.
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The Future Life theatre installation incorporates a 5k wide screen.
Future City Cinema
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Future Life
The ‘Future Life’ theatre is the culmination of the Crystal tour and presents a future vision of smart city living in 2050.
Presented on a curved cylorama screen the superwidescreen film was shot in New York, London and Copenhagen before we added CGI modelled buildings and live action composited sequences. The film shows a day in the life of a Future City and features a wide array of technological innovations conceived by the Siemens Future Vision team.
We worked with award-winning NORD Architects on the city designs and developed holographic visualisations of City Cockpits, the data management systems envisaged for city management. -
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We created over 30 touch screen interactives, all triggered via RFID and a specially designed CMS.
Interactives
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RFID
Using RFID cards and embedded readers, visitors trigger exhibits and collect ‘crystals’ on their tour. These digital rewards provide an element of fun for school and family groups whilst also allowing us to collect information on users' interests and flow around the spaces. This information is anonymous and allows the operators to spot potential bottlenecks or areas of particular interest. The RFID cards also allow users to bookmark content which can be accessed post-tour for further information or follow up communications.
All the exhibits, RFID integration and data capture is managed through a bespoke Content Management System (CMS) we developed for the Crystal. This allows for the central management and all content and the ability to publish to any terminal in the building. Updates can also be easily undertaken by Crystal staff using a series of exhibit templates.
The CMS presentation system also delivers the avatar guide, a live 3D map showing user progress and a series of real world case studies for more detailed investigation around themes. -
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Resilient City
Visitors can investigate what risks and disasters are facing cities around the world and how these risks can be mitigated. Climate change, the vulnerability of coastal areas and different disaster types can be explored on the interface. -
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Healthy Healthcare
The focus of this interactive is on efficiencies and workflows in healthcare – using the example of stroke treatment. Visitors can investigate workflows and a patient journey through different stages of their treatment. -
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Reduce Your Water Footprint
Using live data calculators, this interactive takes the user through a series of questions to work out the amount of water they use on a daily basis and offers tips on how this can be reduced. -
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Harvest the Rain
In this interactive display visitors can follow the process of harvesting rainwater through an animated diagram followed by a series of best practise case studies. -
Bike, Bus, Train or Tram?
Transport requirements for individual cities can be explored in this touch screen interactive. Users can choose from a menu of infrastructure investment options and learn more about the types of transport available. -
How Did You Get Here Today?
Live data calculators were developed for this touch screen interactive which measures a visitor's travel emissions caused by their journey to the building. -
Why Electric Cars?
This exhibit demonstrates that the future of transportation in cities is electric cars. Users can see the required infrastructure and key components that make the e-car work. -
Energy Near and Far, Big Power, Small Power
An interactive detailing the energy system; its generation, centralised and decentralised energy types and the differences in scale of generation. Case studies are provided and the software was developed to be flexible so that different energy sources can be inserted in the future. -
Banking Power
Visitors can explore the role of storage devices in managing the mismatch of energy supply and demand. Users can find out how storage devices work and explore a series of best practice case studies showing where they are used around the world. -
Meet the CO2 Challenge
This exhibit takes London as an example, clear showing what will make a real difference to the city’s environmental footprint.
