Digital signage is an integrated system of analog and digital elements (LED walls and digital screens) introduced to ensure optimal usage of available space for both advertisement and orientation purposes. To fill the solution with life, the respective software must be introduced. The project unites very different dimensions and levels of detail, which will make the heart of every change manager skip a bit. In the first step, there is an integrated “master solution” to be created: it must be slick, recognizable, replicable, and visually appealing. As we are talking about physical production and construction, the solution must be sustainable in the very literal sense: the building must be able to carry it. Moreover, to satisfy the aesthetic requirements, the digital concept must be in sync with the analog one. Once implemented, which is the second step, this solution will alter the appearance of the expo center and will change the modus operandi of several departments. All in all, for the expo center this project means a paradigm shift in how things are done. Finally, in the last step, the solution will be scaled.

Recently our project has reached a significant milestone: the first wave of rollout has been successfully realized, and slightly ahead of schedule at that. While preparing for the next rollout phase, we are using the time to do a recap and go through feedback loops. We are aiming at distilling what worked out just fine and what we should do differently next time. Trust me, the later list is quite numerous, and I shall share it at some point (“not walking under the ladder” and “not letting black cats run around the construction site during a full moon” are definitely in there).

We also had a fair portion of smart ideas, neat solutions, and shortcuts – which, to the surprise of the great Murphy, did not prove to be the longest distance between two points. At the same time, to this day there is one single idea leading the camp of all the insights as it has indeed been the game-changer. Before our construction partner embarked on a full-scale production, we spent a good deal of time creating and evaluating a prototype. What we were prototyping was a custom-tailored metal frame that would combine areas for analog and digital content. The initial natural inclination was to optimize the same equation (i.e., model) for numerous parameters (i.e., wishes and desires of different workstreams), and architectural peculiarities of the building on top of that. After a few discussion rounds, we realized the deficiency of the approach: inevitably, we were running into the necessity of creating several models for different purposes. Hence, we derived the least common denominator, one that combined only the most relevant requirements and was irresistible in its replicability.

The vision and the imagination invested by the project team would have sufficed to build a whole city from scratch. A couple of strikes of a hammer and twists of various screwdrivers later – and a few shakes of a tail of those black cats, – and there it was: our shiny prototype. And now comes the funny part. No matter how much scrutiny our local Leonardo Da Vinci had put into creating the perfect model based on the vision provided and no matter how much life our Pygmalion had blown into its oh-so-impeccable metal shapes, there were about a gazillion changes, minute and major, we identified immediately on the spot and over the following weeks. A lot of these imperfections were not even remotely obvious once on the screen – no matter whether 2 or 3-D. But once the prototype was hanging there – well, there you couldn’t help seeing it and of course, you couldn’t unsee it either. So, what was the magic of the prototype and how exactly did it work? This will be exactly what we look at in our next entry, in just two shakes of black cats’ tails.