Experiential media at InfoComm

June 22, 2007 by Dave Haynes

I ran into Shaun and Vita from Vancouver’s 2C Visual Communications as my stint at InfoComm was winding down. The couple has been in the digital signage space for several years, making a go of it in a market that still seems fairly sleepy compared to the rest of the continent.

They were demo’ing a new version of their diVA responsive media platform, a clever technology intermediary that can orchestrate various experiential media within a retail environment.

For their booth demo, people straying close enough to a screen triggered a guy on a beach to start yakking at them. From there, booth visitors were at various points smelling sunscreen lotion from scent-air canisters, feeling the wind, and sun, and getting blasted by the Phhht of a soda can opening.

It’s wasn’t so much to suggest that a retailer would do all this at one station as it was to show the sorts of things that could be done. 2C has an installation happening in Australia with a wireless retailer that links the phones on display with a screen.

I like this sort of thing because it moves this media beyond the predictable. You could see how the whole thing could easily get silly, but with some careful consideration the idea of choreographing various elements to enrich the experience is a sound one.