Founded in Pill, Austria, in 1969, Eglo is now one of the world’s largest lighting retailers, with its own production facilities in Hungary and China and 70 branches in 50 countries. In 2023, Eglo Lichtwelten opened at the company’s headquarters in Pill. In the futuristic building, private and business customers can find inspiration and buy everything that lights up, from light bulbs to chandeliers, to their heart’s content. Part of Europe’s largest lamp store, covering 7,500 square meters, are two large-format LED walls, each around six and seven meters wide and two meters high, realized with FutureLED from Munich-based VAD Concept International.
“Experiential marketing” with two giant LED walls
One of these LED walls welcomes visitors in the entrance area with an AI-controlled, interactive installation modeled on the well-known Pixar lamp. Upon entering the rooms, visitors are assigned a “buddy lamp.” This lamp is a virtual replica of a real product that can be purchased in the store. It moves across the screen with the person, makes funny movements, and can be “stroked.” A camera captures the positions of the visitors. A machine learning algorithm links these movements to actions of the assigned lights in the virtual environment.
The aim of this installation is to engage visitors with an entertaining approach while creating a connection to Eglo products – what is known as “experiential marketing.” “We wanted to create a positive atmosphere and establish a connection between visitors and the Eglo brand. We quickly came up with the idea of playing with the Pixar lamp motif, not least because almost everyone is familiar with this little lamp,” says Axel Dietrich, founder and CEO of vrisch, referring to the animated table lamp that is a distinctive symbol of the US animation film studio. The agency and production studio is a technology company based in Vienna that specializes in immersive media and was commissioned by Eglo to implement the entire project. vrisch implemented the playful lamp integration in the entrance area as well as a “tower defense game” for children on a second LED wall, including the software.
The second LED installation is located inside the Eglo store. The interactive game entertains children while their parents can shop or drink coffee in peace. The children interact playfully with the Eglo products through gestures and movements. “It was clear to us that families also shop in the Eglo flagship store. So we wanted to have something for the children too. As in the entrance area, we wanted them to engage with the products,” recalls Axel Dietrich. The expert in immersive marketing technologies explains: “We thought about what children aged three and up are most afraid of and came up with the theme of darkness. At the same time, we knew that children need to move around and want to run around. With this game, we want to empower children and show them that they can defend themselves against monsters with the power of light.”
The game installation consists of the LED wall, an interactive floor projection, and a touchscreen for high scores. Here, too, an AI-controlled algorithm calculates the output content. The playing area also serves as a stage for events.
Brilliant images on a durable surface
The two LED walls used at Eglo consist of a total of 142 FutureLED Eco modules with a pixel pitch of 1.9 millimeters, which were supplied by Concept International. The FutureLED Eco series boasts comparatively low energy consumption and, thanks to its COB (chip-on-board) design, high mechanical durability. The LED chips are cast directly into the display surface, making it particularly impact and scratch resistant: you could even kick a soccer ball at the panels or drive a shopping cart into them without causing any damage. Further advantages of this technology include higher light output, better heat dissipation, and thus longer durability. Video walls with COB are also antistatic, dustproof, moisture-resistant, and easy to clean—an important feature when the surface is touched by many hands, as in the Eglo flagship store.
The FutureLED Eco modules automatically adjust the brightness via sensors up to 4,000 candelas per square meter (cd/m²). This guarantees bright images even in glaring light conditions, such as those that are quite possible in the entrance area of the Eglo flagship store. “We initially considered using projection. However, this would not always have worked well in the entrance area, where the sun sometimes shines in. In the Concept International showroom in Munich, we were able to see for ourselves that LED technology is exactly right for this application. We were also able to experience the individual pixel pitches and resolutions live and ultimately trust that our content would be displayed sharply even from very close up, as is the case in the entrance area,” explains Axel Dietrich from vrisch.
The LED wall with “Buddy Lamp” in the entrance area consists of 12 x 6 cabinets. It is just under 7.30 meters wide, a good 2.05 meters high, and displays content with a 4K resolution in 32:9 format.
The indoor LED wall, on which the tower defense game runs, consists of 10 x 7 modules and thus measures 6.08 meters wide and just over 2.39 meters high. The resolution is 3200 x 1260 pixels.
The individual LED modules in the FutureLED series video walls are connected without cables using a snap-in function. This not only makes installation easier and faster, but also allows individual cabinets to be replaced in seconds during operation in the event of a fault.
Expertise, support, and logistics from Germany were decisive
“The technology and quality of LED modules is very similar across all manufacturers. However, the price differences are very large. You have to compare carefully,“ comments Christoph Mangold, managing director of the Vienna-based system integrator ((schwingung)), which was commissioned to implement the entire media technology for this project. Mangold adds: ”The devil is in the details. For the vast majority of LED manufacturers, the assembly instructions are very rudimentary and often incorrect or incomplete. In addition, with most LED module manufacturers, you have to communicate directly with China. Support is provided via email or WhatsApp, in broken English and with a time delay. Logistics are also handled from China. This makes projects extremely tedious – during the installation phase, but especially when something doesn’t work or breaks down.”
This is exactly where Concept International’s LED portfolio came in handy for Christoph Margold. Christoph Mangold sums it up as follows: “For the Eglo project, I got tailor-made, state-of-the-art LED technology from Concept at a good price-performance ratio. But what really made the difference was the logistics and support provided by Concept from Germany, which was very convenient for us as it was based in nearby Munich. I can reach a German-speaking technician by phone in my time zone. Concept’s support was extremely valuable at all times. Their competence and expertise are very high. Because the LED modules came from the warehouse in Munich, they were not only available quickly and reliably, but the costs were also calculable.”
Cooperative, trusting collaboration on equal terms
Christoph Mangold describes the collaboration with Concept International as “friendly and cooperative.” Axel Dietrich from vrisch adds: “With such demanding projects, you have to find a partner you can trust. We found that partner in Concept.”
Susanne Martini, Business Development Manager at Concept International, accompanied the project at Eglo. The LED expert recalls: “We have an intensive partnership with ((schwingung)). We bring each other into our projects.” Martini appreciates that Christoph Mangold is a tinkerer and that a solution can be found for every requirement. ((schwingung)) built a sophisticated aluminum substructure for the two huge LED walls, each weighing over 500 kilograms. Every single substructure is custom-made. It looks as if each LED wall is floating between two metal rods. “We could have used substructures from the manufacturer,” recalls Christoph Mangold. “But as with the assembly instructions for the LED modules, the mounting plans for the brackets usually do not meet local requirements. Also, information such as exact material strength specifications is not always available. So I prefer to play it safe here,” says Mangold.
Experience-based marketing: a trend in digital signage
Concept also intends to collaborate even more closely with the software specialists at vrisch in the future. “Experiential marketing, i.e., marketing products through experiences, is a huge trend that is being driven forward in the digital signage sector by AI-supported technologies such as those developed by vrisch,” explains Mike Finckh, founder and CEO of Concept International. Axel Dietrich from vrisch adds: “Installations such as those at Eglo are still flagship projects, but they are not far from becoming mainstream.” This is due to vrisch’s modular software development, which makes it relatively easy to change content with comparatively little effort. For example, the various characters of the Buddy lamps at Eglo can be replaced by other objects. This makes it possible to achieve time and cost savings that make immersive content projects affordable for companies, for example in the retail sector. Alex Dietrich adds: “For example, we used a very similar installation with robots at a technology event, where it brought smiles to many faces.”
Each of the two LED walls at Eglo weighs around 500 kilograms. Image source: ((schwingung))
Visitors interact with lights available for purchase in the Eglo flagship store on a seven-meter-wide LED wall in the entrance area. Image source: vrisch, Markus Oberndorfer, https://markusoberndorfer.com
Assembly instructions for LED modules are often very rudimentary and sometimes incorrect. This is where the technical expertise and logistics know-how of local distributors come into play. Image source: ((schwingung))
Customer & partner information
EGLO Online GmbH
www.eglo.com
((schwingung)) multimedia solutions gmbh
https://schwingung.at/
vrisch
VR, AR, Mixed Reality & Spatial Computing Agentur + Produktion