Turns Out Panasonic’s Profoundly Underwhelming Mist Projection System Is Also Profoundly Impractical For Pro AV Uses
September 24, 2024 by Dave Haynes
One of the things I wanted to see when walking the floor at InfoComm back in June was an eye candy thing that Panasonic was touting at its stand – a super-fine water spray system that created a mist that had enough volume to it to show projected visuals.
I walked in to the stand, watched for about 30 seconds, and walked away thinking that Panasonic’s “Silky Fine Mist” was profoundly underwhelming.
Turns out, it is also profoundly impractical … because of its footprint and (almost certainly) capital and operating costs.
That narrow ribbon of fine mist that was pumping out of a booth wall was created by an adapted air conditioning unit that is three feet wide, three feet tall and weighs nearly 420 pounds, and guzzles kilowatts of power. The output from the unit is a combination of pressurized water and compressed air to spray a mist of droplets that are each only six to 10 microns in size.
Here’s a front view of the unit, which is, understandably, hidden behind a wall, with just a vertical slot opening in it used to pump out a tall band of mist.
This is how it works:
The long-running tech blog The Verge reports the system is a variation on the misters you might have come across in bars and even in backyard patios of homes in the U.S. southwest – pumping out a cooling mist so fine it doesn’t really get people wet. The Panasonic system was designed not for happy hours, but to offer some respite from heat and humidity for people out in the elements in the summer. The system was introduced in 2019 and used at train stations and public facilities around Japan.
So … projecting on a mist is interesting and has some Wow Factor to it, butl ike a lot of Wow Factor stuff, the visual excitement is short-lived.
I’m not suggesting there are no viable use-cases for these things, and like most sane people I would welcome a spot at an outdoor patio that was using these things when it was 110F and sunny. But the numbers of end-users who would be OK with the capital and operating costs of these units, as well as the noise and physical footprint, is probably very finite. Maybe one of those many-million dollars nightclubs in Las Vegas or Ibiza hat could cool people down while also showing some ambient visuals and pushing drink brands???
This is not a new concept. Companies such as Fogscreen and Displair had water vapor-based displays on the market a decade ago. Finland’s Fogscreen is still active, but the company website put me in rapid eye-blink mode, with information that is mostly about air purification? Another example of technical people thinking marketing is easy, and being bad at it.
Eye candy at trade show stands often has no real business plan around it, so Panasonic gets a pass on having this at its stand. I just wonder if some pro AV folks stopped and asked questions like “How does it work?” and “How much does it cost?” … and then said, “Oh. Never mind.”
Seems like this should be marketed as an add-on for orgs already buying misters. Even so, the ability to place ones hand in the mist and block parts of the ad could result in photos of brand messaging altered in ways brands may not find appealing, but everyone else finds hilarious.