Dataton WATCHOUT Deployed At The Shard, London

Event Communications and systems integrator DJ Willrich has recently deployed the features of Dataton WATCHOUT™multi-image display and presentation software at London’s The View from The Shard.
At a height of 1,016ft (310m), Renzo Piano’s Shard is the tallest building in Western Europe.
The 'View from The Shard' visitor attraction – the first part of the building to open - enables Londoners and tourists to enjoy the 360-degree vistas from the highest public levels 69 and 72 which, at up to 800ft (244m), are almost twice the height of any other viewing platform in the capital.
The design of the visitor experience was carried out by Event Communications, working in collaboration with Renzo Piano; architect for The Shard.
Mr Piano explains: "London is a city of inspiration and imagination. We wanted to create a public space where people could visit the building to experience London in a different way and also feel that they have discovered the spirit of the building. On top of the city, but also within it."
On arrival at Level 00 and 01, visitors are drawn into the tapestry of London with glimpses of the city laid out before them. Travelling skyward in two ‘kaleidoscopic’ lifts, they then reach Level 68, from where Guest Ambassadors guide them to Level 69; an enclosed 360 degree viewing gallery, and Level 72, a semi-open space that surrounds visitors in the sights and sound of the city with shards of glass forming the top of the skyscraper.
The spaces on Level 00 and 01 utilise Dataton WATCHOUT to integrate multiple HD video images into a single whole image, along with synchronised multimedia content playout.
The foyer and pre-show area feature a 5 wide by 3 high flat-panel videowall showing filmic content designed to put The Shard into a historical and geographical context, while a four-by-one videowall, with the screens arranged to form a single portrait-mode column, provides up-to-date information for visitors regarding the schedule of their trip.
"This is the one place from which you can see the whole of London, so in many ways The View from The Shard can be positioned as the first stop on any visitor’s itinerary," says Kevin Murphy, development director of Event Communications.
"It is all about taking visitors on a journey, and the ground-floor galleries offer a witty approach to that journey, giving visitors filmic and graphic images of London and famous Londoners – some of whom you might not associate with the city at all."
Between Levels 68 and 72, a series of a dozen ‘Tell:scopes’ act as digital telescopes, identifying places of interest in the user’s sight line and offering information on 200 London landmarks in a choice of 10 different languages.
Explaining the role played by visual technology in the visitor-experience concept, Kevin Murphy says: "What we have here is a combination of a show system with digital signage. We were very restricted in terms of space, and we knew the system had to be flexible because with signage, you never know what the customer is going to do with it once the operation has started.
"Using WATCHOUT allows the content to be dynamic and updated as necessary. We can even insert 4K video files without any loss of quality or flexibility. Content is king, and with WATCHOUT, we’re delighted with the quality of that content."
David Willrich of DJW is similarly effusive in his praise for WATCHOUT, which offers the ability to blend and merge images from any source and then synchronise their playback along with audio, lighting control and other show data, according to a pre-programmed schedule.
Dataton’s UK Premium Partner Mirage Associates supplied the WATCHOUT software to The View from The Shard project.
Image - © The View from The Shard
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(IT/CD)